Syndicate Was a "Lost Battle From the Get-Go"

[irishda]

Like the CEO said:

If we didn't do an exact copy of the game, they'd hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they'd say we didn't innovate

Although he got the second part wrong. Gamers love having the exact copy. Skyrim essentially just put dragons into the game and everyone shit themselves. Madden fans have bought the same game since 2003. And everyone's excited for Assassin's Creed 1.10.

If fans don't get the same game, they ***** and moan. Look at D3 (besides the complaints about servers and being online). One of the bigger complaints is: "it's been dumb down" aka "it's not like D2."

 

[grigjd3]

The game was mediocre and gamers don't have enough money to spend $60 on a mediocre game these days. Let's do some simple math and realize when someone is just using fanatical fans for an excuse.

 

[irishda]

Technikally, EA is runnin' on willpower. If you check da finanshul reports, dey've been losin' monies fer years now. Dat's proof EA has real orky bizness sense. Any uvver bizness would 'ave closed down by now, on account of bein' skint. Da fact dat EA is still open fer bizness, despite losin' so much wonga, shows just how tuff and orky dey are. Dat's da ork way. Even if you lose, make sure yer still around ter give 'em anuvver wallopin'! Any uvver bizness would've legged it by now.

As fer why EA couldn't get dat franchise of da ground... I already said, din' I? Dey didn't paint da game orky red. If dey painted da game red, it would 'ave sold faster. Bloody humies, tell 'em once, dey never remember, tell 'em five times, dey still forget, tell 'em more times, dey forget why you're tellin' em in da first place...

Or praps dey've been listenin' too much to da grots. Dem snotlings always sayin' dey got better akkountin' skillz dan regular boyz. Bloody lies! Everyone knows you can only count ter five. Anyfing bigger is just a made-up number. Maybe EA's been listenin' too to many grots and too many fiktunal numbers... would explain why dey tryin' ter get Dead Space Free to sell lots of milliuns of games more dan before.

Maybe dey've just been drinkin' too much brew. We've all been dere. You down a few brews, you fink you can start doin' more dan wot you can. We've all had to duff a lad or two who fink dey Nobby Nobz all of a sudden. Maybe EA finks dey now da Nobbiest of da Nobz? Maybe EA's gunna wake up wiv one muvver of a hang-over tomorrah, after one fungus ale too many...

Oi! EA's da biggest, so deyz da boss 'ere! You go mouthin' off loik dat again, and I'll wallupz yaz roight good 'n propa!

Besoides, da real problem 'ere is dey gotz too much choppa an' not enuff dakka! More dakka always fixes up da humies!

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I get the feeling this guy doesn't know what 'innovate' means.

It was a generic modern shooter with a fun-at-first type of gimmick. That's why it did poorly.

And the reason the FPS crowd (or CoD crowd, or casual gaming crowd) or whatever didn't like the game was the same reason they don't like every other shooter EA shovels out, it's trying too hard to be realistic, and the pace of it is too slow.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

If EA say they'll fund you to make a game based off of an existing franchise, its a trap.

Get a new IP, get it published, then go elsewhere with your new credit. That's a smaller risk than trying to make it work.

Though saying that, where did Bungie go after leaving Microsoft Game Studios?

At least they had the sense to partner with ActiBlizz rather than become their whipping boys.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Well, no, it wasn't.

There was an easy way to win there, just make more out of the co-op, and use the structure of the original Syndicate as your story. None of this "oh the corporations are totally evil but you're not" business, the player should be the budding Corporate Overlord ruthlessly eliminating the competition with remote controlled meat puppets like in proper Syndicate.

You can still make it an FPS (though keeping the squad based gameplay in singleplayer would have been a major step in the right direction), just make it one that was more like, y'know, Syndicate.

 

[irishda]

Oi! EA's da biggest, so deyz da boss 'ere! You go mouthin' off loik dat again, and I'll wallupz yaz roight good 'n propa!

You fink? Me and some of da lads, well we've 'eard dat EA ain't da biggest nob in da clan no more. Some of us fink dat Aktivizhun's got more monies and more wallop dan EA could ever 'ope fer. Activizhun makes a game filled wiv dakka, and dey make sure dat it sells more dan anyone else. When Activizhun makes a Kall Of Dakka game, dey makes sure to fill it wiv WAAAAAAAAGH! Ain't no-one managed to beat Kall Of Dakka! Gork and Mork 'ave seen to it.

Remember da last time EA tried to 'av a WAAAAAAGH! wiv Activizhun? Dey got all moufy and full of swagga, an' wot happened? Activishun beat 'em wivout even sayin' anyfing. Now dat's a boss I can get behind! I wants a boss wot knows how to WAAAAGH! Not some moufy snotling wot forgets to paint dere games red...

Games ain't s'posed ta be red, ya bleedin' grot. Dey's s'posed ta be yella so's dey blow up bigga!

I do likes a good fight behind Aktiviblizzun, cuz we'z alwayz getz da shiny bitz wid dem. But da humies luv der sporty stuff. I don't unnastan' it though. If a gretch ain't bein' chased by a pack o' squigs dan it ain't all dat fun.

 

[Woodsey]

Anyone old enough to remember it would be pissed off, anyone not old enough would most likely be entirely apathetic towards yet another 6-hour average-em-up they had no connection to.

Your fault, no one else's.

And you can fucking do better - before Arkham it was Butcher Bay that was the king of licensed games, and not just because it was the best of a bad bunch, but because it was bloody good.

 

[Denamic]

First off, said group wasn't 'small and vocal'.
It was the entire fanbase which you hoped to exploit.
Secondly, the game wasn't even good.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Oi! EA's da biggest, so deyz da boss 'ere! You go mouthin' off loik dat again, and I'll wallupz yaz roight good 'n propa!

You fink? Me and some of da lads, well we've 'eard dat EA ain't da biggest nob in da clan no more. Some of us fink dat Aktivizhun's got more monies and more wallop dan EA could ever 'ope fer. Activizhun makes a game filled wiv dakka, and dey make sure dat it sells more dan anyone else. When Activizhun makes a Kall Of Dakka game, dey makes sure to fill it wiv WAAAAAAAAGH! Ain't no-one managed to beat Kall Of Dakka! Gork and Mork 'ave seen to it.

Remember da last time EA tried to 'av a WAAAAAAGH! wiv Activizhun? Dey got all moufy and full of swagga, an' wot happened? Activishun beat 'em wivout even sayin' anyfing. Now dat's a boss I can get behind! I wants a boss wot knows how to WAAAAGH! Not some moufy snotling wot forgets to paint dere games red...

Games ain't s'posed ta be red, ya bleedin' grot. Dey's s'posed ta be yella so's dey blow up bigga!

I do likes a good fight behind Aktiviblizzun, cuz we'z alwayz getz da shiny bitz wid dem. But da humies luv der sporty stuff. I don't unnastan' it though. If a gretch ain't bein' chased by a pack o' squigs dan it ain't all dat fun.

More! More!

We've totally off track (and I don't care) and it's amusing as Hell to see back-asswards criticisms leveled at EA in the form of Orky praise.

Things could seriously be worse. I don't want to know how a game dev partially financed by a corporate subsidiary of the Imperium would play out.

Probably like Kall of Dakka, but with a lot less swagga and a lot more "PURGE THE XENOS!".

More to the point, why hasn't Games Workshop pushed for some sort of Ork-centric property? That'd be awesome. We get it, the Ultramarines are badass and the Blood Ravens are some of the Imperium's poster boys, but a shift in perspective would be good for the sake of comedic timing.

Which is something the series badly needs. I can only take so much Grimdark in one day.

 

[Karnesdorff]

Eh, Deus Ex:Human Revolution had a harder job and did much better.

Yes, very much this.

I was willing to give this game a chance, but frankly it disappointed on many levels by being an aggressively average FPS with graphics that may or may not have been good, because I couldn't tell because there was so much bloom added it was impossible to see the walls in some places. Good soundtrack though.

Also, don't get me started on the 'Here is a woman who you know is a traitor, that has caused every single problem you have had in this game and 10 minutes ago held a gun to your head before frying your brain with a killswitch. Because we have just shown you a 2 minute cutscene, you will be her ally now even though you have no reason to help her'; it even would have been an excellent point for a branching end game, help her or kill her and take Eurocorp for yourself. I like to think that after she 'frees' my character at the end he puts a bullet in her.

A shame since, as Yahtzee mentioned in his review, if you read the database entries, the author did a good job of world building and writing up the world that existed around you, you just never really get to see that since it's obscured by generic shooter plot#178963.

K.

 

[Weaver]

I didn't play it because it was basically "HEY YOU LIKE COD COME PLAY THIS!" and I don't like CoD. Then it was like "HEY WE HAVE SKRILLEX YOU LOVE BANDWAGONY SHITTY MUSIC RIGHT?" but I don't.

The whole thing just stunk of super pop flash and style with absolutely no substance.

 

[Lymond]

Excuses. Deus Ex: Human Revolution got earth-shaking praise despite being a revival of a 10 year old game that a lot of people were skeptical about. The difference is in the quality of the game and the effort to make it fit in.

 

[Thoric485]

"We knew from the get-go that there was going to be a small but very vocal [group] of gamers and journalists that was going to hate us whatever route we took," he told Edge. "If we didn't do an exact copy of the game, they'd hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they'd say we didn't innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go."

Oh, boo-hoo. Getting to work on a cult classic is a privilege, not a hinderance (well, it can with EA running the whole thing, but can't bite the hand, now can we?). Look at all the cash people are dropping on Kickstarter to see their favorite series revived. If you made something that emulated the core of the original game, they'd come, they'd generate publicity for you. Not their fault you botched it.

Firaxis made it clear they understand what made X-COM's gameplay compelling and unique, they understand the mix of humor and horror, you can see it in the trailers and interviews and so people are excited about the reboot. How was the new Syndicate presented to the world? A 2 minute trailer of dubstep and mindless shooting. You were waving a middle finger to fans of the original from the get-go and the game's failure is entirely yours and EA's fault.

 

[lapan]

If you are making a game that's purely based on nostalgia, then don't change the entire genre so it's only the same thing in name anymore. This should be common sense. This way, younger gamers won't know about the IP and aren't likely to buy it and those who played the originals aren't gonna like the change into an FPS.

 

[The Genius]

Industry says things like turn based and isometric view are dead but when was the last time a 'AAA' title like that was made? I think a redone XCom in the old style would do very well. I admit I could be wrong but surely FPS is getting old for today's gamers.

It's been mentioned a couple times before, but I haven't seen directed at you so sorry if yo uare already aware, but here:
Your wish is Firaxsis's command [http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/info.php]

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. Here's hoping its closer to XCom than that Aftershock game played awhile back.