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 Digg.com Facebook Google Bookmarks N4G Gamerblips del.icio.us Reddit Slashdot.org StumbleUpon POOSLICE! As long as this doesn't go the way of Speedball 2 - Tournament (ie - another classic game from my youth that was re-made and turned to shite) then I'll be happy.
Used to love Syndicate. Never played Syndicate 1, but was obsessed with Syndicate wars. Nuclear grenades, anyone?
Go the feeling that this is going to be very 7 out of 10, just like the new Deus Ex will be. Can't they get good developers to remake these games if they have to be remade? I never played the original, but I've heard from others it was good. I also like the "kill everything" idea, that usually works and I can't see Starbreeze screwing that up. They make killing fun :) Whether it be with demon heads and black holes in The Darkness or Ulaks in the Riddick games Starbreeze will deliver a decent game experience. Saying that, if it's not them developing it... Well it's to be expected when the original staff aren't involved. Games tend to turn out completely different then, which begs the question, why bother if the sequel is going to be nothing like the original? Well, the name alone is a guaranteed selling point.
I would love for this to be good - in a perfect world MS would get the exclusivity and then get Lionhead on the case (Molyneux has said that he'd love to do another Syndicate), EA could then be the publisher....everyone wins.
Still, it'll be interesting to see what they do....hated the sound of the pitch explained in the article though.
:) Syndicate was my favourite game back in my Amiga days, so I would hate to see EA make a mess of it. To bring it up to date I think they would have to turn it into a squad based FPS like GRAW, but set in a cyberpunk setting. The levels would have to be quite large and sandbox as well to add an element of strategy to them. All in all I think it could be a very tall order to pull this off, but if they do it could be spectacularly good. Please don't **** this up Starbreeze! You aint lived til you've fired a graviton gun and a plasma lance. Satellite rain was sick aswell. Please dont ruin the remake. Agreed with above. It would probably have to be squad based. It would be amazing to see what it would look like once you have used your persuadeatron on about 100 civilians and all of them are armed to the teeth, all simultaneously opening fire on the police or church of the new epoch members. If done correctly, this could be nothing short of amazing but alas, I doubt the developers will do that good a job. I didn't like The Darkness and I didn't really like the most recent Riddick game. Both of them lacked a certain 'magic' and the animation in Darkness wasn't that good. I'm not a fan of Starbreeze games.
Syndicate needs to have RTS setup, otherwise it'll not be Syndicate.
I hope this doesn't become another Shadowrun (a FPS, i mean, WTF) as the developers for that game ****ed it up.
Also people on here suggesting Syndicate needs to be a squad based FPS need their head examined! Period. I liked the original (which I played on the SNES) and Syndicate Wars (on PC) years ago. It was good fun, and surprisingly deep.
That said, Fallout 3's shift to first-person perspective went pretty well. I think if it used a control system like GRAW it could work pretty well, as long as the rest of the depth was in there too, and the between-mission planning.
However... if one company knows EXACTLY what it's like to be an evil global conglomerate corporation which controls the population by underhanded and sometimes legally dubious means, it's EA :) I'd love to see them do it close-up 3rd person, like Full Spectrum Warrior - I think that would work well :) Yeah that would work as well. I never played FSW but I did play Conflict: Desert Storm which is supposed to be a similar game. The transision from isometric RTS to this kind of squad based play would work well IMO. This games was one of my fondest memories on my old Amiga.
Hopefully this remake will do it justice. But IMO they have to keep the original isometric perspective. Firstly, PLEASE MAKE THIS GAME!!!
Secondly, PLEASE DON'T MESS IT UP, please please please please!!
Sydicate was such a deep game, hard too! I don't think it will really work as first or third person shooter game, it just won't be true to the original and will,in effect, make it into a 'different' game. I fear there will be pressure to make it into all out shooter with super blinged out graphics but they must stick too their guns and not succumb to the eye candy factor and focus on what made the game a true great! ^ this
You can't turn Syndicate into an FPS of any kind. Surely that's missing the point even more than the new developers! I am not advocating that they turn it into a FPS by the way, I myself would prefer that they keep the old formula. I dont think they will do that though, and a Confict: Desert style squad game is one way to keep the strategy element of the game intact. Well, once again in gaming media, we get support for the industry against any that supports gamers - and I quote:
"Regardless, we're still confident Starbreeze can do a decent job of this. We'll bring you more when we have it."
With what knowledge do CVG say this? Or is it just to please their EA masters? The latter, I think.
I own both Syndicate and it's add-on as well as Syndicate Wars,and I am in agreement with the creator of this game.
With the multiformat market we are now in, and with no doubt this new Syndicate being developed first for console and only secondarily for PC, I too am confident this will end up a big guns and killing everybody game.
Since the market went multiformat how many sophisticated games do we get any more? Bioware, pre multiformat, deep sophisticated RPG's like Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate, after multiformat, where games are developed for the console market the same company gives us Jade Empire and Mass Effect. And while not saying these are bad games, they are only about 5% as deep and stat driven and open world, and all the things that used to make RPG's of their earlier pre-multiformat titles.
So I go with the creator of Syndicate, and basically any designer/programmer who created PC game hits pre 2000, versus the publisher today who use third party engines so they can produce simultaneously on multiple machines, and end up with games so bland and shallow that MMO's are now seen as sophisticated when their far from it, and now we have a generation that thinks Mass Effect is a proper full on RPG! I think they say 'hopefully Starbreeze i'll do a good job'. Because Starbreeze are a bloody good dev.
The original creator said the essence of the game was killing people and being unstoppable.
Go play the Darkness and tell me there aren't times where you just march over everything in a wave of ultraviolent destruction. Just like the highlights of syndicate.
I agree with CVG. The thing is, if you want stat-driven non-skill-based games you can play pretty much any MMO. Single-player games these days aren't stat-driven because people want to be in control of their own character, not having the system tell them they're not good enough.
Games that are too heavy on stats (these days anyway) always end up requiring a grind until you get the numbers up to where you want them, and I for one can't stand grinding the same thing over and over just to progress.
There's no reason to immediately write this off just because it's been handed to a new developer. The Darkness was a pretty decent game. Flawed, but good. I'll be keeping an eye on this at least. My favourite part of the original Syndicate game was going around 'recruiting' scores of civilians using the Persuadatron, then taking them all into battle against a rival syndicate where they all attempted to swarm the enemy but inevitably ended up being nothing more than meat shields for your hard ass cyborgs! Brilliant! :) Any new sequel that goes for a new view point will miss the point of Syndicate. It's about a lethal squad of ruthless killing machines ruthlessly killing everyone with no regard for collateral damage. Anything other than an overhead viewpoint will ruin the squad system.
What I'd much rather see is the original and Syndicate Wars remade for the iPhone with a touch screen interface. | 
