Reply With QuoteBest part of the RPS thread :
Originally Posted by poop IV
Is it just me, or do the screenshots/blurb look/sound like a hasty cash-grab for the success of Deus Ex Human Revolution?
Best part of the RPS thread :
Oh please, Starbreeze have been working on it since at least 2008/2009.
And as we all know, studios on a long project stick with 3 year old designs and refuse to even look at new games.
DX was in development for a long time, but the inspiration from Mass Effect 2, to me at least, is blazingly obvious.
Outside of the way dialogue options/trees are handled, off-hand I can't think of any. Please name some of DX:HR's inspiration taken from Mass Effect 2, whilst remaining spoiler free.
Last edited by EvaUnit02; 12th Sep 2011 at 07:01.
Don't bother, Eva.
THEY BOTH HAVE A COVER SYSTEM
Out of all the classics to re-imagine as an FPS, Syndicate, which was always a very action heavy strategy game, is the one that makes the most sense. Retain the upgrading/researching/outfitting of your private mindless, cyborg army between missions and during the FPS stuff let you take direct control of one of said cyborgs in the squad (with the ability to swap around at will and upon death) as well as issue commands (nothing overly elaborate; maybe something Republic Commando style?) to the rest of the squad. Keep the dark, amoral tone and that would still feel like Syndicate to me.
Of course, this is not the kind of game Starbreeze is making. Instead it's going to be just another FPS (admittedly, being Starbreeze, still a reasonably dark, fun and very well made FPS that I'll probably enjoy regardless) rather than the reinvention it could have been.
Last edited by Angel Dust; 12th Sep 2011 at 07:16.
Agreed on all counts. What really makes Syndicate is the treatment of violence and domination, for assholes against assholes, in a totalitarian and corrupted dystopia as nothing more than a daily job.
As long as the game is written without useless morality, without the usual manichean view and without sentimental diarrhea at every cutscene, it should carry proudly the Syndicate name. I'd be very surprised if it happens, though. In exchange we're probably going to get a "complex overarching story of truths, lies and revenge against the system", or something similar.
The music and cutscenes. To name 2.
Back to topic. I don't mind a change in perspective, but why'd they have to go with FPS view, which straight away limits the game to a singular agent to control? I fail to see what would have been so hard in going with a GTA style 3rd person view point with the player controlling 4 agents, and either controlling 1 agent at a time (the other 3 go on auto mode when not in direct control), or indirectly telling them where to go with them acting on their own based on what settings you've set them to.
Syndicate would have kicked ass in GTA style.
In FPS it introduces alot of things and heavily discourages alot of what made Syndicate so good. For example, in Syndicate 1 & 2 if a cop noticed one of your agents with weapons drawn they'd attack and your troops would auto attack back. In FPS in that situation you'd be killing those cops yourself, which in todays games industry would be a big no no (though you can do that in Deus Ex 3 I know).
And it completely changes the focus of the game. Previously you were the head of the Syndicate ordering your troops from afar. Now your one of those troops. Huge reduction of scope. Don't be surprised if they take a few pages from Mass Effect 2 and the upcoming XCOM reboot game in basic level troop tactical ordering.
And those screenshots look very Deus Ex-ish. Where's the damn trench coats gone? The game appearance wise has absolutely nothing to do with Syndicate bar its name and a few familiar megacorp names.
As I said back when the new XCOM game was announced as a FPS, both of these games would have been ALOT better if they'd not put the name XCOM or Syndicate on them, and just named them something new. Far too many FPS games these days, and not enough of everything else. Hence why I play alot more retro games than newer ones these days.
Ah yup, all electronic symphonic score sound quite similar!!!!!111 OH and both games have some FMV cutscenes!!!!111 ...Jesus Christ, talk about grasping at straws.
If anything both games' scores are clearly influenced by Vangelis. (Sci-fi music inspired by Blade Runner? Whoda thunk it?!!!111111) I honestly don't hear any similarity in tone between Michael McCann's and Jack Wall's works, or anything close to similar arrangements, etc.)
Last edited by EvaUnit02; 12th Sep 2011 at 13:37.
I'd have said Hans Zimmer over Vangellis. And as iceman said, cutscenes and how those were scored is very similar to ME2.
You don't have to agree, but there's no need to start foaming at the mouth.
Here I was thinking that someone was going to weigh in with something genuinely tangible, like game design or implementation of game mechanics. Cutscenes? Again fucking Christ.
Last edited by EvaUnit02; 12th Sep 2011 at 14:02.
Pretty interesting article on Starbreeze here.
Isn't that the same article that Digi linked to earlier in the thread?
If so, it is fucking ACE. I was glued to the monitor reading through it.
To be fair though, syndicate was a bit more shooter than it was tactical, it was like a slightly deeper cannonfodder.
I was going to be all sad that they're potentially raping a memory, but yeah, as I actually thought about it, Syndicate wasn't really much of a tactical strategy game despite using the traditional tactical strategy camera and HUD. I can't really think of much gameplay that would change other than that you wouldn't have control over 3 other agents simultaneously.
I'm hoping it plays off more of the corporate angle and the potential business management / upgrade part of the Syndicate franchise, but that snippet gives me the impression it'll be a shooter with experience points you spend in upgrades akin to Deus Ex and Mass Effect. Which we can say is totally a ripoff of those games, as if they didn't get their inspiration from games like Syndicate in the first place.
who the hell mentioned game design? Fucking moan
OT: Are isometric shooters viable these days in a AAA game? I know there have been a couple of reasonable succesful indie/xbl games but for a major production it seems to be 1st, 3rd person or nothing.
Ah, balls, it is.
At least it's linked to on page 2 of this thread as well now, so no need to waste precious time clicking back to page 1 just for the link!
Relevant nonsense?
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news...icate-xcom.php
The irony will be that people will complain that the new syndicate will not be as much of a shooter as it should be.I was going to be all sad that they're potentially raping a memory, but yeah, as I actually thought about it, Syndicate wasn't really much of a tactical strategy game despite using the traditional tactical strategy camera and HUD. I can't really think of much gameplay that would change other than that you wouldn't have control over 3 other agents simultaneously.
I'm hoping it plays off more of the corporate angle and the potential business management / upgrade part of the Syndicate franchise, but that snippet gives me the impression it'll be a shooter with experience points you spend in upgrades akin to Deus Ex and Mass Effect. Which we can say is totally a ripoff of those games, as if they didn't get their inspiration from games like Syndicate in the first place.
Since often in the original you would mow down entire crowds with miniguns. Starbreeze as a game company and their own tech has never been around those kind of enemy-amounts.
What made Syndicate for me was the original art direction, but most prominently the fusion of isometric viewpoint and instant action. What made Syndicate great was how using tactics became a much fast-paced deal. Sure, you had to try some levels a plenty of time before finishing, but that was part of the fun. Each try eched you an inch towards your goal.
This new Syndicate might turn out to be a good game on it's own and I'm definitely going to give it a go, but it's just completely different to the original, which is a shame, since I think there's so much potential still left there.
What made Syndicate for me was the way your dudes would run in a straight line to whatever target you pointed them at, and if a building got in the way they would start running along it's wall and into the building and then take forever running through all the rooms while you swore and clicked frenetically all over the place trying to get your guys to come back out of the house.
And also you could run people over with the hovercars.
Meeeemorieeees...
The sound effects were what made Syndicate for me. From the 'puchmm. Ka-chick' of the shotgun to the 'phihshshshsh' of the Persuadertron and the weird 'peow' of the laser, I can still recall most of them today.
For me it was having my fully upgraded 4 man team standing at a 4 way intersection, mini-guns equipped, left and right clicking simultaneously to put the team on max adrenaline and then sitting back and watching them mow down 50 or more enemy agents rushing in from all sides with that awesome music that would play when enemies were nearby.
That's Syndicate for me.
Just thinking about that makes me want to go play it.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbB1GfboTo - 39 seconds in onwards
Last edited by icemann; 13th Sep 2011 at 14:16.
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