icemann on 2/10/2011 at 16:06
I fail to see how a game that was set in sprawling cities with the players team traveling through it taking on hordes of enemy agents + police and military, switched over to levels set within singular buildings could retain the same feel or immersion.
Syndicate Wars for example could have easily done the switch to being a FPS as the hype with FPS games was in full swing by then, but they didn't and instead focused on more difficult gameplay and greater immersion (in my opinion) and was all the better for it. It certainly wasn't a perfect game by any sense of the word, but it was a fitting sequel worthy of the Syndicate name as it felt like a Syndicate game through and through.
Tomi on 2/10/2011 at 17:06
It's funny that you mention Syndicate Wars - I can't even remember why, but I never really got into that game and gave up only after a few missions. It just didn't feel as good as the original Syndicate to me.
But you make a good point about the open city environment, causing mass destruction in the middle of the city was perhaps the best part about Syndicate. :p So I hope that the new Syndicate will have some open city levels as well, instead of just ones set within some corporate buildings and skyscrapers.
Ostriig on 2/10/2011 at 17:41
Well, it looks like I gotta add a Riddick game on my backlog, see when I can get to it.
Anyway, on the upside, if the release date is set to just a few months away we're probably not going to have to wait long to see more of the game. Though the thing I'd probably want to see before anything else is a dramatic change to that awful looking website of theirs.
icemann on 2/10/2011 at 17:44
Well as I said it wasn't a perfect game. It was a hell of alot more linear than Syndicate 1 and the final few levels were identical no matter which side you picked which was a major negative for me. The difficulty on the last 2 levels was a bit too insane for my liking also. I'm not for a minute saying that it was better than Syndicate 1. Just that it was a fitting sequel.
Koki on 13/10/2011 at 18:45
They're actually making it? Fuck.
henke on 13/10/2011 at 19:11
Looks like it'll be a fun shooter.
AltF4 on 14/10/2011 at 02:55
sigh - I'm with Icemann on this one. It looks like it could be okay, but its not really a syndicate game. It has some gameplay elements that roughly translate from the original, set in a narrative that approximates the syndicate world, but its primarily a single player 'corridoor' shooter with some cyberpunkish/tech skill usage aka Deus Ex Lite. I wouldn't mind so much, except they shouldn't be using the syndicate brand on the game - just like Prince of Persia 2008, which I thought was a brilliant game, it didn't need the POP branding.
This is my 'admittedly early' impressions, but I have seen all the video footage, including the latest 10 minute one narrated by the EA guy.
If they include all the original Syndicate Games (syndicate, american revolt, and Synd Wars) as bonus items, playable on PC and Xbox360, THEN I'd buy the damn game...
icemann on 14/10/2011 at 15:40
Thoughts after watching the 10 minute video:
2:20 - Hacking into a persons head and making them go bonkers sequence looks awesome. Just like the take down move in Deus Ex: HR I don't see that move getting old.
Why is there no music? Syndicate 1 & Syndicate Wars had nice little background tracks going on that would ramp up when combat would commence (Deus Ex 1 had this also).
4:19 - "As well as the core shooting experience, there's always an element of navigation and puzzle solving to Syndicate". When in the fuck was puzzle solving part of Syndicate. If I wanted to solve puzzles I'd go play Portal. Grrr.
5:21 - Shoving gadgets into peoples heads to harvest upgrades. Cool. Though that's more suited to a game like Bioshock than Syndicate. In the games prior you researched fields of study (ala Firearms, Bionic upgrades etc) as well as through collected technologies. They've done away with that entirely. Hmm ok.
6:24 - Hacking turrets to attack enemies. That's more Bioshock / Deus Ex again.
7:00 - You only get adrenaline through using special abilities, rather than it accumulating over time from the gun battles you take part in - huh? Being able to move, shoot and reload faster while adrenaline is high - ok that bits from the earlier ones. Being more resistant to damage whilst adrenaline is high - that wasn't from memory.
7:14 - They stole the take down move from HR & Metal Gear Solid (more likely to have been from HR). LOL. Just no experience points to be gained.
7:49 - "Acquired the Gauss gun". From what I can recall the Gauss Gun in the earlier guns was a missile launcher, and now you've turned it into a machine gun. Huh? That's not the Gauss gun. That's a really bad fuck up on their part.
8:18 - Adrenaline is gained through combat as well? Ah ok my bad.
9:21 - "In addition to suicide I now have the ability to persuade an enemy to fight by my side" - So you do it by hacking into someones head and NOT through using a Persuadertron? Gah :mad:. How in the fuck is this Syndicate. Your not even doing the gameplay right. Grrr.
10:03 - "Many enemies in the game have shields which need to be breached before they can be taken out" - When the fuck was that in the other games. Gah. Their just making this up as they go along. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't even played the other games.
10:54 - You tease the awesome combat music from the first game at the very end of the video, when your game has no music at all. /facepalm
The combat throughout the video looks and feels like modern warfare and the rest feels like a mix of Bioshock and Deus Ex: HR. What it doesn't feel like 1 bit is Syndicate. I'm 10 times more disappointed with this game after watching the video :(.
How is this at all a Syndicate game, besides the name on top?
Note that if this was called "Deus Ex - insert game title here" I'd have no problem with this game at all. But it has the name and so I'm judging it as such.
As I've said before it's 100% in doors or within enemy compounds, there's no city scape traveling. Extremely disappointing.
That video really pissed me off.
henke on 14/10/2011 at 16:08
Out of interest icemann (and the rest of you who are disappointed with the direction Starbreeze is taking this game), what would you wish the new Syndicate game was like?
