Syndicate Remake Revealed as a Shooter - UPDATED

[Andy Chalk]

Syndicate Remake Revealed as a Shooter - UPDATED

EA confirms that the long-rumored Syndicate reboot will be a "visceral FPS experience."

Here's proof that EA's much-maligned Origin platform is good for something: thanks to an entry for a game that was posted on the system, presumably unintentionally, and then taken down, the world now knows that the for years [http://www.amazon.com/Syndicate-pc/dp/B000CE8EUC/ref=sr_1_7?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1315796474&sr=1-7] is the real deal. Sort of.

According to the description, which was posted on NeoGAF [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=444322&page=10] along with a half-dozen screenshots, the new Syndicate will be "a unique action shooter set in a not too distant future, where Business is War." No more top-down rampaging through crowded city streets with squads of drugged-up cyborgs packing miniguns and trench coats; instead, players will take on the role of Miles Kilo, the latest bio-engineered, chip-augmented Agent for Eurocorp, who embarks upon a "brutal action-adventure of corruption and revenge."

MK's "chip enhancements" allow him to slow down time and see through walls, and if that, not to mention the presence of the word "augmented," strikes you as oddly familiar, there's a good reason. The entire premise of the game - huge, powerful corporations using enhanced agents to battle for control of a dystopian future - sounds very Deus Ex [http://www.amazon.com/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Pc/dp/B002I0HKRQ/ref=sr_1_4?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1315796794&sr=1-4] and the screenshots posted on Origin could have been taken by Adam Jensen himself.
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The new Syndicate will boast upgradable weapons, armor and gear for a "visceral FPS experience" set in a story written by award-winning novelist Richard Morgan, who according to interview [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Morgan_%28author%29], which sure makes him sound like the right man for the job to me.

And it sounds like it might be pretty cool, but does it really sound like Syndicate? Syndicate was ridiculously violent but it was also a strategy game, forcing players to think, act and react to evolving situations. Sometimes it was fun to just let the boys off the leash but in most cases, shooting without thinking would lead straight into disaster. No matter how good it is - and as far as that goes, the inevitable comparisons with the excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution are likely to weigh heavily on it - is this new game really going to do anything for long-suffering Syndicate fans?

The new Syndicate will reportedly support four-player online co-op play with nine missions "reimagined" from the original game, although bear in mind that EA has yet to make this officially official, so at this point it's all still technically an unconfirmed rumor. As such, there's no word on launch date or platforms, although more information is expected to be revealed in the upcoming issue of the Swedish magazine Gamereactor.

UPDATE: And now it's official, as EA and Starbreeze have confirmed the "reinvention" of Syndicate. "Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today's gamers as well as fans of the original," said EA Partners Executive Producer Jeff Gamon. "Fans of the franchise will recognize many weapons and environments in the game, but in a whole new way."

Set in a world in which mega-corporations have supplanted national governments, the new Syndicate will in fact offer a separate four-player co-op mode as well as the standard single-player option, with "chip breach gameplay" based around the biochip technology implanted in Miles Kilo's brain will allow players to use a variety of "upgradeable hacking mechanics" to take down their enemies.

A website at www.syndicate.ea.com [http://www.syndicate.ea.com] wasn't actually available at the time of this update but should be live soon, so you might want to keep an eye on that. Syndicate is scheduled for launch in early 2012 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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[kalt_13]

its disapionting they aren't making a syndicate game. Why call it syndicate? just make it a new IP. First X-com now this

 

[Mariena]

Seems to be a trend.. taking squad based tactics games and turn them into generic first person shooters.

At least it will have something to do with the original series, rather than something completely different but still keeping the same name. Coughxcomcough.

 

[mattaui]

I guess the general consensus is your average gamer is just too stupid and impatient to handle squad based games these days? Though that doesn't even hold water when you consider that many RTS games are de facto real time squad based games, given the smaller unit counts. Why is it that we can't get XCOM and Syndicate the way they used to be? Or heck, it would be a lot closer to the original look and feel if they made both games into RTSes.

I suppose it's really just about the license and name recognition, and the studios could give fuck all about the original premise of the game. So make way for the next Deus Ex ripoff.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I guess the general consensus is your average gamer is just too stupid and impatient to handle squad based games these days?

Or at least console gamer's, since Deus Ex, although rather good, was fairly simple compared to the original. (Please see ZP episode regarding Deus ex HR)

 

[Mr Thin]

Thank potato for that. All those strategy games make my head hurt, and besides, the lack of FPS games was beginning to grate on me. Now I can just shoot things through a cross-hair!

 

[Stall]

Ah, so when can one expect the massive quantities of cheese and whine that inevitable occur whenever some old strategy franchise is "rebooted" as an FPS?

 

[octafish]

I could have handled it if it had been like (the proper) Ghost Recon or (the proper) Rainbow Six games. You know, you have a squad of expendables, death is permanent and you can just re-hire. You issue tactical commands on the fly (I think the Ghost Recon approach is more palatable and importantly more flexible than the Rainbow Six approach) and you can assume control of any of the characters in your squad at any time. The quad can be broken up into individual fire teams over large open maps. Most importantly, there is no individual protagonist, so if you get wiped out on a mission there is the chance to pick up the pieces and continue on with the game.

Fuck Xcom FPS (They can't even spell X-Com) and fuck Syndicate FPS.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I perfectly understand people being upset about this one because of the genre change.... but the majority of escapists here are console gamers. Why don't you guys understand that Consoles WON'T have over-the-top squad based strategy games. It's just NOT going to happen. Just get the fuck over it.

Alternatively if this was a PC exclusive: (which no big developer will make nowaydays anyway) A)it would undersell like dogshit. B)The majority of people here will whine about not being able to play it! It's a lose-lose situation.

Hence it's either THIS Syndicate or NO Syndicate. Choose.

 

[Andy Chalk]

"No Syndicate," thanks.

 

[cgentero]

This gaming generation, you gave me Uncharted and Assassins Creed, is this the price I must pay?

 

[redeemer09]

I guess the general consensus is your average gamer is just too stupid and impatient to handle squad based games these days?

Or at least console gamer's, since Deus Ex, although rather good, was fairly simple compared to the original. (Please see ZP episode regarding Deus ex HR)

console gamers are also caused global warming(sarcasm

 

[imperialus]

oh yay... another game that I get to look down iron sights in.

But wait it is innovative. I can slow down time! I can have x-ray vision! I can upgrade weapons!

 

[Somebloke]

There's EYE. While I have not played it and while it too seems to be an FPS (although with a multiplayer focus), judging by what screenshots and background info I have seen of that game and of this, EYE does appears to hit closer to the atmosphere of the original than this namesake of the classic.

 

[AngryMongoose]

News just in, a remake of The Prince is in the work. Instead of being a work of political philosophy/satire, it will be a first person shooter. Instead of looking at the political and military history of Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, it will follow the life of Jack "The Prince" Jackson, a Californian Texas boy from Iowa, Kansas as he fights with guns, boot, fist and guns to protect the earth from a band of evil invading mercenaries and republicans, so that the United States of Earth can live in peace during the glorious 150th century BD.

Good to see these classic works getting the recognition they deserve.

 

[Irridium]

There's EYE. While I have not played it and while it too seems to be an FPS (although with a multiplayer focus), judging by what screenshots and background info I have seen of that game and of this, EYE does appears to hit closer to the atmosphere of the original than this namesake of the classic.

You talking about EYE Divine Cybermancy?

Because that game is essentially what Deus Ex would be if the devs did acid and drank red-bull for the entire development process. It's utterly insane, ambitious, ridiculous, and turns every FPS and RPG standard on their heads.

And that is what makes it so great.

As for Syndicate, well I haven't played the games(or game, I guess. Were there sequels?). So... what is the original(s) like, exactly? Like X-Com?

I guess the general consensus is your average gamer is just too stupid and impatient to handle squad based games these days?

Or at least console gamer's, since Deus Ex, although rather good, was fairly simple compared to the original. (Please see ZP episode regarding Deus ex HR)

He said the reason for HR's lack of depth compared to the original was because modern graphics simply cannot allow it. Would simply be too expensive to make ANY game as deep as Deus Ex 1 with today's graphical quality. And... aren't PC's the ones that push super-duper graphics the most? The same super-graphics that would cause production costs to rise resulting in less depth? Well... no, since EVERYONE seems to want "epic graphix" these days. But still, something to think about.

But hey, at least Human Revolution wasn't as bad as Invisible War.

 

[Somebloke]

Parcheesi, the FPS.

It's kind of sad when big names of the past are repurposed for me-too titles -- kind of like when Asimov's good name was abused to promote some studio's Matrix/Terminator ripoff ambitions.