28 replies to this topic

[Chyros]

So basically ever since 1996 I've been praying to every god ever thought of to make a sequel to Syndicate Wars, itself a sequel to the classic game Syndicate. The source of my Book of Cataclysm quotes and an incredibly immersive, highly atmospheric (though sometimes bugged) game, Syndicate Wars is definitely one of my favourite games of all time (with one of the best intro movies ever as well). Suffice to say this old isometric, Commandos-style third-person real-time tactical game with its signature 4-man cyborg teams set in an extremely appealing 1984-esque futuristic cyberpunk world where everybody is controlled by the Eurocorp Syndicate via chip implants, is close to my heart.

And then they announced a sequel recently, called Syndicate.

I was in heaven.

For five seconds.

Then I found out it was going to be a first-person shooter instead of a third-person tactical. And that all pictures of it featured seemingly bland weapons you'd find in armies TODAY; mainly bullet weapons. None of the crazy stuff you could find in Syndicate Wars (e.g. the very first weapon you would acquire in Syndicate Wars was a minigun no less, everything after that was pretty much completely insane). To a big fan, even slight deviations are complete heresy of course, so I didn't hold out much hope for this at all. I was ready to give up on it completely, seeming like just another FPS fix to squeeze money out of players.

But MW3 was boring, so now I have no FPS games anymore. And now, there's some videos. And they appear to be quite interesting.





And it will feature 4-player co-op:





Now it is based on the Frostbite 2 engine which is why the looks are so below-par (and it makes it sound like it will feature projectile bullets D:!) and why it has such annoying battlefield sounds everywhere all the time but to my delight you're still in service of Eurocorp, with 4 agents with the trademark long leather jackets they yoinked from Syndicate Wars and put in The Matrix, and it still features a few classic bonkers weapons such as the Pulse Laser, Electron Mace and even some kind of weapon that fires target-seeking bullets like the ZF-1 Replay titanium recharger from the Fifth Element. So PERHAPS... there is still hope after all . It features secondary firing modes, too.

What do you guys think?

Edited by Chyros, 19 January 2012 - 22:02.

[Liten]

I hope they stick to these crazy ideas about killing people, such as making them commit suicide or having their weapons explode in their faces instead of turning into something like Singularity, where they promised that you could use your T.M.D for all kind of crazy killing mechanics, but it ended up being nothing but a sub-par shooter, with the T.M.D reduced to a plot device and puzzel solver.

Personaly I think it looks great, probably going to pick it up if they don't drastically change how it looks. Co-op is nothing but a +, since I'm and avid Co-Op fan and almost only play Co-Op centric games. Sadly the co-op demo will only be available on the PS3 and Xbox, seems the developers are continuing their hate for PC's. Lets just hope we don't get a console port then

[Chyros]

Liten, on 19 January 2012 - 21:48, said:

Sadly the co-op demo will only be available on the PS3 and Xbox, seems the developers are continuing their hate for PC's. Lets just hope we don't get a console port then

Yes, this (and the fact it will be on Origin) is a worry for me as well. I think though, for the love I bear the series, I might just give it a chance now I've had a small look into it .

[Dr. Strangelove]

Looks pretty bland to me. I'd rather play Syndicate Wars in DOSBOX.

[Chyros]

Dr. Strangelove, on 19 January 2012 - 22:15, said:

Looks pretty bland to me. I'd rather play Syndicate Wars in DOSBOX.

Nothing could ever stop me from doing that in the first place . But still, perhaps this might harbour some charms.

[Wizard]

Woefully uninspiring. Considering it's heritage it just looks rather naff.....

[CJ]

I think I'll just add this to my ignore list of 2012, before every fan starts bashing it when it's out and turns out to be a disappointment D:

[Chyros]

Though I'm glad they conserved at least SOME of the good old classic small arms, I just played the original Syndicate Wars again. Just a small look back in time in what it seems we'll be missing in this next installment; weapons like the for-itself-speakingly powerful nuclear hand grenade and the bizarrely destructive Satellite Rain orbital bombardment weapon, for example:

Edited by Chyros, 24 January 2012 - 20:49.

[TheDR]

I thought the video looked boring before seeing the original game (I didn't even though it was based on an original game D: ). The original game blows the pants off the new game in more ways than one, ridiculous!

[Dr. Strangelove]

TheDR, on 24 January 2012 - 20:58, said:

I thought the video looked boring before seeing the original game (I didn't even though it was based on an original game D: ). The original game blows the pants off the new game in more ways than one, ridiculous!

GET IT NOW!

[Wanderer]

I tested the syndicate coop-demo on ps3.Now I haven't played the original one, but I do have been playing alot of FPS. The shooting feels fun and the guns have power in them so you don't have to be spraying half a clip to kill someone. I like the breaching-mechanics and I'd like to see how things are after you've ranked up abit. For example. To upgrade your weapons, you need to first rip out enough chips from enemies that you've incapacitated. The biggest problem I had with the demo was that after the first minute I was wanting to play it on PC with keyboard and mouse. Too bad there's no PC-demo

Fun fact: You can turn autoaim off in the demo

Edited by Wanderer, 02 February 2012 - 13:24.

[Chyros]

Whole shitload of co-op vids on Gametrailers now.

I have to say I really want to like this game but it looks so much like battlefield that it's really putting me off.

@ Teemu: so how many hits roughly does it take to down someone? And is there stuff like bullet drop and projectile bullets?

[Camille]

i say a ton of videos where the guys just literally emptied magazine after magazine on ONE enemy... it looked very stale TBH i hope not all gameplay is like this...

[Wanderer]

Most of the enemies die from a few hits, there's a bunch of tougher enemies that are abit of a bullet sponge, but usually you are also rewarded with chip to be ripped from their heads

Using the breaching-powers also helps at killing the guys faster.

Edited by Wanderer, 03 February 2012 - 08:25.

[SquigPie]

Chyros, on 02 February 2012 - 16:20, said:

I have to say I really want to like this game but it looks so much like battlefield that it's really putting me off.

If it had been like CoD you would've creamed yourself....

[Wanderer]

The game feels more like CoD than BF, but it's not a copy of either one

[deltaepsilon]

From what I've seen, the game looks far too colourful to resemble Battlefield (or more specifically, BF3). There's actually COLOUR.

[Wanderer]

I don't think chyros is talking about the looks. It's more about the feel of the game, how the mechanics of it work.

[Chyros]

SquigPie, on 03 February 2012 - 09:05, said:

Chyros, on 02 February 2012 - 16:20, said:

I have to say I really want to like this game but it looks so much like battlefield that it's really putting me off.

If it had been like CoD you would've creamed yourself....

Yes, because then I knew it was at least partly based on game mechanics I know and like .

deltaepsilon, on 03 February 2012 - 09:49, said:

From what I've seen, the game looks far too colourful to resemble Battlefield (or more specifically, BF3). There's actually COLOUR.

Wanderer, on 03 February 2012 - 09:54, said:

I don't think chyros is talking about the looks. It's more about the feel of the game, how the mechanics of it work.

Actually the looks themselves I also don't like. I found it was very colourless like BF3 with the only colour deriving from the DART overlay. That DE mentions it is too colourful to resemble BF3 kind of shows just how bleak BF3 looks . I also dislike the sound system which is like that in BF3 namely just sound everywhere all the time like in a warzone, not something I like OR associate with special forces deployment or Syndicate feel.

The game mechanics ultimately are more important to me than looks though. I could live with playing in a monochrome concrete box if the gameplay was outstanding .

[deltaepsilon]

And didn't have DVK AMIRITE

[Chyros]

I have kind of given up hope on this - I suspect all games from this point on will be realism-fag enough to feature DVK .

Edited by Chyros, 03 February 2012 - 20:42.

[SquigPie]

Chyros, on 03 February 2012 - 20:42, said:

realism-fag

There's that word again.

[Alias]

Chyros, on 03 February 2012 - 20:42, said:

I have kind of given up hope on this - I suspect all games from this point on will be realism-fag enough to feature DVK .

*coughcough*Tribes Ascend*coughcough*

[Wanderer]

I don't think there's DVK in syndicate. Though from what I've understood, there's no pvp-multiplayer only co-op.

[Camille]

SquigPie, on 04 February 2012 - 13:00, said:

Chyros, on 03 February 2012 - 20:42, said:

realism-fag

There's that word again.

well, he is right though. dvk is pure nonsense and adds absolutely nothing but a shallow feeling of realism and minor "balance" (though that's debatable). in the end it makes the game less fun, and that can never be right