Starbreeze Explains Shootery Syndicate

[Andy Chalk]

Starbreeze Explains Shootery Syndicate

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Starbreeze says the new Syndicate game was always intended to be an FPS because "time has moved on" and left the old game behind.

So how does everyone feel about the news that the Chronicles of Riddick [http://www.ea.com/syndicate] guys, remember - but because I was actually looking forward to a new, well, Syndicate: a top-down look at corporate greed taken to its ultimate end in a grimy, brown, post-industrial future.

But that was never going to happen, according to Game Director Neil McEwan. "It was always going to be an FPS," he told OXM [http://www.oxm.co.uk/33611/why-the-syndicate-remake-is-a-first-person-shooter-starbreeze-talks-changing-history/]. "The original nub of the idea was to take that viewpoint from the original game and zoom into the Agent's head, and play that part. A closer experience - to become one of those Agents."

"We're big fans of the original Syndicate, and we're definitely paying as much homage to it as we can - bringing across the essence of the world, the core essence of what it is to be an Agent," he continued. "That sounds wanky but it's true - we're taking the Persuadatron and evolving it in different ways, the weapons and brutality. On both facets of the game, the co-op and the single player, it's very key to stay true to it."

Sounds great but if you'll allow me a bit of pedantry, the agents at work in the original Syndicate weren't heroic J.C. Denton types; they were effectively mindless machines under the direct control of an "eye in the sky" overseer who fine-tuned their performance by injecting [or withholding] copious amounts of drugs. Based on the classic opening cinematic, they didn't exactly enter the profession voluntarily, either.

Maybe Miles Kilo is some sort of special super-agent or maybe Starbreeze is taking a few liberties with the fiction of the original game. Whatever the case, designer Rickard Johnson made it clear that, like it or not, Starbreeze believes the sun has set on the Syndicate of old. "Hopefully [the] co-op [mode] is a great nod towards the old gang," he said. "I don't want people to stop playing the old games, but time has moved on."

Syndicate is set for launch in early 2012 on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.


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[Mumorpuger]

That attitude towards the game has just made me really sad.

 

[Yuri 'Arara']

I read that as 'making FPS is cheaper since we already have the engine'.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Developers and publishers do realize that the FPS market is over saturated to the point of bursting because of this kind of attitude? There are only so many shooter fans to go around. You know what would sell? An old school game that stuck to its roots.

 

[Zhukov]

Translation into non-PR speak: "FPSs sell better."

I can understand why they'd do this, but somehow I get the feeling that that comment is not going to go down well.

Y'know, just a hunch.

 

[Strixvaliano]

I will give it a fair chance. I loved Riddick and I loved Syndicate so I'm going to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I don't really think it is an issue of time has moved on from styles of the older games as it is that most developers don't know how to make something that isn't an FPS anymore. I would love an older style game like Syndicate but in HD with a more intuitive GUI, it would be an amazing experience and not just another potentially bland FPS setting sail into a sea of bland FPS games.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

But that was never going to happen, according to Game Director Neil McEwan. "It was always going to be an FPS,"

Oh, we knew that. We just hoped differently.

"The original nub of the idea was to take that viewpoint from the original game and zoom into the Agent's head, and play that part. A closer experience - to become one of those Agents."

The ones that were pure meat/metal shields? The Agents that were so non-descript that they were only distinguished by numbers? The ones that had chest based micro-nukes? The one's that HAD TRENCHCOATS?

"We're big fans of the original Syndicate, and we're definitely paying as much homage to it as we can - bringing across the essence of the world, the core essence of what it is to be an Agent," he continued. "That sounds wanky

You have NO idea.

but it's true - we're taking the Persuadatron and evolving it in different ways, the weapons and brutality. On both facets of the game, the co-op and the single player, it's very key to stay true to it."

Oh, you know of the one item that everyone quotes. You do know that half the fun of the original was gathering large groups of crowds and using them as tactical steamrollering...if you weren't setting them alight.

Weapons and Brutality? Not large parts of that. It was usually Minigun the fleshy parts, Rocket the building then Flamethrower the remains.

Can't really do that in a FPS, can you?

Whatever the case, designer Rickard Johnson made it clear that, like it or not, Starbreeze believes the sun has set on the Syndicate of old. "Hopefully [the] co-op [mode] is a great nod towards the old gang," he said. "I don't want people to stop playing the old games, but time has moved on."

Fuck you fans, we're doing it our way. And keeping the title. Because we didn't understand the original. Even when it was staring us in the face.

Oh, and co-op? Ruined every single single-player game it's touched. Because people don't co-operate in competitions.

 

[Jake Martinez]

This is a marketing move pure and simple on all counts.

Generic FPS - Check
On trails of another SCI-FI property that did well - Check
Use old license name on property that has nothing to do with it - Check

Starbreeze is a fucking sell out anyway once the original team left. They're just a corporate shell for EA, which as we all know, hasn't met a chest high wall based FPS that it didn't like.

Fucking eat a bag of dicks EA.

 

[Yuri 'Arara']

Clerk: "So, here is this game that just arrived, it's called Syndicate"
Consumer: "Ooh. I guess it's about running crime syndicates, like the mob? But wait, judging from this cover, it looks very cyberpunk... So, future crime syndicates with hi-tech equipments set on a dystopian universe?"
Clerk: "Ehh, not really. You shoot people and robots. With guns. I guess."

 

[Machocruz]

Already missed the mark. Who gives a shit about ONE agent when you can play 4 agents? over a decade later, a step back. Games are evolving!

Time moves on more when you hurry it on.

 

[evilneko]

I'd say this was a case of Nice Job Breaking It Hero [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceJobBreakingItHero], but that'd be implying EA was some sort of hero. So I'll go with They Changed It Now It Sucks [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheyChangedItNowItSucks], complete with a big, bold INVOKED tag. No YMMV here.

 

[ph0b0s123]

IP fail. If you want to make a cyberpunk fps, good luck to you. But don't use a much loved IP that has nothing to do with it, just because don't think it will be succesful without the good feeling towards that IP...

 

[Lawyer105]

Hate to say this.... but I blame the gamers.

If idiots didn't continue to lap up every excretion like this one, then it wouldn't be profitable and they wouldn't do it. But they do. So THEY do.

And don't yell about boycotts.... we all know that the shouters are going to be first in the purchase line with their tongues hanging out.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Translation: "Um... EA told us to make an FPS based off of Syndicate. Sorry everybody, we know you wanted better, but well... They are paying us money and we have toe eat. We promise that we will at least make the FPS good, how 'bout that?"

Yeah, I don't like this trend of remaking old strategy games into action games. It seems like a bad move and makes no one happy.

 

[Andronicus]

On both facets of the game, the co-op and the single player

Called it.

"I don't want people to stop playing the old games, but time has moved on."

Basically, top down games were just there to appease gamers until real games, like FPS's, came along. Anyone who still enjoys playing those over FPS's are quite obviously simply braindead.

 

[Saulkar]

Clearly a generic brown cover FPS with the asthetics of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the gameplay of Call Of Duty with a well established and fun IP that has nothing to do with or resemble the game in question stamped on. Nothing new, ignoring this one and moving on.

 

[Blind Sight]

Oh God, I'm getting XCOM flashbacks from them talking about how they're 'fans of the original' yet they instantly start to talk about how it isn't relevant anymore.

 

[Continuity]

Fuck you fans, we're doing it our way. And keeping the title. Because we didn't understand the original. Even when it was staring us in the face.

I think its more likely that they couldn't sell the idea of a faithful remake to the publisher, given that that would probably be a new or heavily modified engine with unproven mechanics (they would have to evolve the original gameplay, as good as it was it was fairly basic). Add to that that it would be pretty hard to market to the larger audience which only really recognises the big genre and you have a recipe for financial suicide.

The sad truth is that there simply isnt the viability for anything non-standard in the AAA market anymore. Some of the lesser "A" titles can get away with it but then they very rarely have the budget they need to pull it off, and so usually flop, which isn't helping the situation.

 

[Yal]

If nothing else, at least they have the best ever in-universe explanation for cut scenes. You just lost control because your handler fried your consciousness and stepped in directly.