By John Walker on October 13th, 2011 at 3:21 pm.
Crikey, from being an unknown (and yet somehow inevitably always an FPS) project of rumour and vapour, there’s already footage of Syndicate to coo at/smash up your house in rage because of. Ten minutes of it! Which you can watch below.
Your perception is augmented with ambient information from the databurst. Like, duh.
It’s rather strange hearing the rather bored narration over the top of such extraordinarily brutal violence, eh? There’s quite a lot going on here. Hopefully we’ll get our fingers on a copy of the game very soon, and report much more.
13/10/2011 at 15:25 Snegletiss says:
Seems a bit like Dead Space 2. O.o Just not as scary, and with more ‘basic’ weapons.
13/10/2011 at 15:37 Inigo says:
You know what it doesn’t seem like?
Syndicate.
13/10/2011 at 15:40 Cunzy1 1 says:
Agreed.
13/10/2011 at 15:42 Erd says:
Seems like human revolution. Curving bullet machine gun anybody? Eidos montreal should feel proud, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Also, persuadotron in your head?
13/10/2011 at 16:15 Tatourmi says:
Wouldn’t want to disappoint but I am pretty sure that bullet curving stuff was imagined and put into video games way before Human Revolution came out. WAY before.
13/10/2011 at 16:37 RichMakeGame says:
fifth element anyone? but hey, who *doesn’t* want to fire a homing-bullet machinegun
13/10/2011 at 18:29 PhallicBaldwin says:
looks better than human revolution did at this stage
13/10/2011 at 21:12 Justin Keverne says:
What, three months from release?
13/10/2011 at 22:42 Trousers says:
@Erd Didn’t Perfect Dark do this first?
13/10/2011 at 23:39 Dervish says:
Perfect Dark did not have curving bullets.
14/10/2011 at 09:29 Koozer says:
Perfect Dark *only* had a homing sniper rifle that could shoot and see through walls and killed in one hit. Fun times.
14/10/2011 at 20:08 Stromko says:
The curving assault rifle is from Resistance: Fall of Man. Half-Life 1 also had a gun that worked similarly, but you didn’t have to select enemies before it would home in on them around corners and such. Subverting enemies or defeating them through nontraditional manner also isn’t that special.
The game shown in that video seems like a parody of a marketing-designed shooter in 2010-11. Or perhaps as though it were designed by throwing darts at tvtropes.com’s videogame section. The only hope I see for this game is if what we’ve seen so far is just a long-running joke as a follow-up to that Bulletstorm modern warfare shooter demo.
It’s sad that they didn’t take advantage of anything unique to the setting. For instance, you are an actual body that’s taking part in the action instead of a controller sending strategic orders to a bunch of combat-reflexive drugged up meatbags. There is actually nothing here that relates to the Syndicate setting. Frozen Synapse got much closer with its vatform soldiers, AI protagonist, ‘matrix’-dominated world and vying corporations.
It’s really quite sad how publishers will throw so much money after making a game that’s only a retread of a bunch of recently released games, instead of at least considering other proven designs from the past and from non-AAA genres. Partly it may be that they are selling consoles short by saying that only FPSes can be marketed to them.
13/10/2011 at 15:25 TillEulenspiegel says:
Kudos to the environmental artists; the setting looks quite nice, especially that bit near the beginning with the flying cars and giant ads.
Still doesn’t look like an interesting game, though.
13/10/2011 at 15:31 Teddy Leach says:
Coo.
13/10/2011 at 15:31 DickSocrates says:
Is that Will Arnett? He’s the only person with a ridiculously manly voice that I wouldn’t be annoyed with.
13/10/2011 at 15:41 V. Profane says:
COME ON!
13/10/2011 at 15:50 Binary77 says:
Who, the other agent? I’m pretty sure that’s a guy called Michael Wincott (The Crow, Alien Resurrection) doing the voice for him. I recognized it straight away.
I actually think this looks pretty good, despite the change in genre. I’d much prefer it if you could control a squad of 4 agents & be able to switch between each one/issue commands, Brothers in Arms-style. But the breach & adrenaline elements look like they might tart it up enough for me not to care.
Everybody loves a tart sometimes :)
13/10/2011 at 15:56 Brannigan says:
Yea, I’m fairly sure it’s the main villain from The Crow
13/10/2011 at 16:54 roryok says:
Michael Wincott is a legend. Also played Guy of Gisbourne in Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves. And he was one of the many good things about Alien Resurrection.
13/10/2011 at 16:58 Voight-kampff says:
Yup, that’s Wincott alright! One of the most underrated actors of his generation. When ever he’s in something you can be DAMN sure that atleast SOMETHING in it is worth watching. I’ll be getting this game now, for him alone. I can’t say I’m happy with what they’ve done with Syndicate, and from what I’m seeing it looks quite generic, but IT’S WINCOTT DAMN IT!!!
13/10/2011 at 17:31 Binary77 says:
Indeed, he is quite cool. They seem to have based the physical model of that character on Michael Fassbender though, who’s also a fantastic actor. I was kinda hoping when that first image of him was released that Fassbender had done the voice too, but Wincott is a top choice.
Behold: http://bit.ly/quVFEq
13/10/2011 at 18:10 DickSocrates says:
It isn’t Will Arnett then. :( Still, that guy sounds enough like him for me to be ok with it. Manly voices I’m not ok with are ones like your character in Deus Ex: Human Resources.
13/10/2011 at 19:16 EOT says:
Michael Wincott will also be providing the voice of Death in Darksiders II.
13/10/2011 at 15:33 Moni says:
Highlights:
- The gun sounds are nice and meaty Battlefield-esque.
- Your “friend” is a massive arsehole. What does that make the player character for hanging out with him?
- It looks like there’s a script governing dead bodies that tells them to dramatically fling themselves over balconies. I love little details like that.
13/10/2011 at 15:57 jellydonut says:
You’ve never been the good guy in Syndicate.
13/10/2011 at 16:52 DrGonzo says:
You will be. I bet you that later in that level/later in the game you switch sides from him and have to save the world.
13/10/2011 at 17:39 lcy says:
I hope they don’t go all predictable – they should keep the PC as a ‘company man’ rather than turning him into the good guy.
13/10/2011 at 21:46 Commisar says:
other Highlights: this game looks to be shaping up pretty well. i know it isn’t ye olde Syndicate iosometric strategy game of your, but give Starbreeze a chance, I mean, The Darkness and Escape From Butcher By and Assault on Dark Athena were all great games
14/10/2011 at 10:58 Buzko says:
I will be quite disappointed if the “breaching” of people is as all as scripted as it looked in the video. Surely one of the good things about the first-person view would be the ability to jump into somebody else’s head, Messiah-style. Not that you couldn’t do meat-puppetry isometrically…
And why the hell would your extraction vehicle get there so early? Of course it’s going to get shot down if it spends five minutes plinking away at the local security.
13/10/2011 at 15:35 Unaco says:
Sweet. Haven’t watched it yet… still working for the day… but knew it was coming (they’ve got count downs on their website for when the next reveals are coming). There’s another video up today, the “Deep Dive – Origins”, and a bunch new screenshots. The single-player campaign follows Miles Kilo and the new story, while the 4 Player Co-Op is the original game’s levels, done up all fancy and the like.
Tremendously excited about this… I really can’t wait to start being a virtual c*nt.
13/10/2011 at 21:47 Commisar says:
really, well then, it loos like this game is shaping up nicely, although we can’t stop the rage from people who want it to be a clone of ye olde Syndicate from the 1990s
13/10/2011 at 15:36 Anthile says:
Looks wonderfully violent. I’m just afraid the action seems a bit static.
13/10/2011 at 15:36 H.P Kraftwerk says:
So I take it that your friend/mentor in the begining, either 1) dies and comes back as the main bad guy 2) stabs you in the back and becomes the main bad guy, or 3) dosen’t give a f**k and becomes the main bad guy
13/10/2011 at 16:01 Dakia says:
I’m going to go with: He doesn’t care and tries to stab you in the back, but you kill him. Turns out he isn’t dead and comes back to be the main bad guy . . . . .but is also your father.
13/10/2011 at 16:10 H.P Kraftwerk says:
What a twist!!
13/10/2011 at 16:17 Monkey says:
Going with turns out to be your sister, then stabs you in the back by stealing your mix tapes
14/10/2011 at 14:57 Groove says:
I was thinking the same thing, depressingly.
If they can avoid tepid writing like that then this looks very promising. It might not be Syndicate, but so long as it’s good then I’ll be quite happy.
15/10/2011 at 00:28 vecordae says:
Yeah, but can you romance him?
13/10/2011 at 15:37 N says:
Seems damn fine. Love the guns and body awareness.
13/10/2011 at 15:38 Angelo Cameo says:
I’m quite excited for this one.
13/10/2011 at 15:40 konrad_ha says:
I am now slightly interested. Doesn’t have much to do with Syndicate for me but looks like a decent shooter. The cold-blooded violence helps.
13/10/2011 at 15:41 SonofSeth says:
Looks ok I guess, I’m just kind of sick of shooters.
13/10/2011 at 15:41 mcnostril says:
I find it hilarious that the main character, a superhuman killing machine, can’t get off the chopper without falling on his hands and knees.
Maybe their knees don’t bend in the future.
13/10/2011 at 16:55 sinister agent says:
That made me chuckle as well. A pity he didn’t graze his knee, then sit up and start crying.
13/10/2011 at 20:25 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, that was really quite pathetic, like they felt that had to cram that now-standard SO REAL first-person hard-landing animation in there.
14/10/2011 at 17:11 sneetch says:
When your drinking starts affecting your ability to do your job, then you have a problem.
13/10/2011 at 15:42 7rigger says:
It looks good, but I was hoping for a more open ended gameplay approach rather than the heavily scripted play we saw. Still, it was an early level and the game could open up much more.
Suppose theres no chance of 4 player co-op?
*edit* Just read Unaco’s comment, super YAY for original levels!
13/10/2011 at 15:42 c-Row says:
Enjoyed the video and still looking forward to the full game. I’d love to see a city level like they were featured in the first two games. In my mind, they look like an awesome mix of DX:HR and Blade Runner.
13/10/2011 at 15:42 Capt. Eduardo del Mango says:
Run run, shoot shoot, run run, press X to automatically perform action, run, climb, shoot, run run.
It’s a little underwhelming, isn’t it?
15/10/2011 at 12:47 Dave Mongoose says:
You forgot ‘use this neat toy to solve scripted puzzle, then realise it’s actually useless in real combat’.
:D
13/10/2011 at 15:43 Alexander Norris says:
I am actually excitedly looking forward to this. I absolutely love cyberpunk, and this looks absolutely gorgeous. I’m a little worried about Starbreeze’s tendency to screw up the last third of their games, though (which they did to both Riddicks).
13/10/2011 at 15:44 danimalkingdom says:
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this but I think i would enjoy this, even though it’s not squad-based. it still has that sardonic edge that the original had.
13/10/2011 at 15:44 coldvvvave says:
9 likes 0 dislikes
HERE COMES THE HIVEMIND
9 likes 10000000 dislikes
What a shame
13/10/2011 at 15:45 Cinnamon says:
Press x now to feel like you have some say in how the game plays.
13/10/2011 at 15:48 JohnnyMaverik says:
Looks alright if you forget that it’s called Syndicate, a little showy at points but more substantial than I was expecting overall.
13/10/2011 at 15:48 Vexing Vision says:
The level design looks incredibly linear, which is a real shame. I love the setting and the cold-blooded brutality. Deus Ex was too nice to people.
13/10/2011 at 15:48 Yargh says:
looks like a decent shooter with some fun gimmicks. Bit of shame they decided to ditch the lore from the original.
This agent has a friend and mentor?
What happened to kidnapping citizens, replacing all their limbs, putting a control chip in their heads and filling them full of drugs?
13/10/2011 at 15:48 Yorick says:
This actually looks great. I’m not convinced entirely by the gunplay, but the world they’ve created seems to be fairly true to the source material. The world also looks swell, though I do think it would look better with destructible environments…
13/10/2011 at 15:49 Fwiffo says:
My shooter fatigue is kicking in just watching that. :(
13/10/2011 at 15:49 deadly.by.design says:
That voice DOES NOT mesh with the in-game character, even if it’s Will Arnett.
My interest is piqued, despite that. We’ll see if it lives up to nostalgia or not.
13/10/2011 at 17:36 chabuhi says:
I agree – when the vid first started I though it was FMV (a bit shocking for 2011, but kudos to them for fooling me), and I was really thrown by how the voice just seemed in no way attached to that character.
13/10/2011 at 15:50 frenz0rz says:
You know what I love about Starbreeze’s games? You can see your feet.
Shame this had to come now though, as in all fairness I’m more or less cyber-augmento-future’d out from playing Deus Ex 3 and replaying the original whilst also playing Frozen Synapse.
13/10/2011 at 15:50 Pantsman says:
Hm. I hope that’s not how slowly you’ll move all the time.
Also, breaches seem rather overpowered, like DXHR’s takedowns except you can do them to anything from anywhere. I wonder how they’ll limit that.
13/10/2011 at 16:19 Tatourmi says:
Yes, the only thing I could think during the video was: “WHAT THE FUCK MAN, CAN’T YOU RUN OR SOMETHING? FASTER! FAAAASTEEEEEER!” and then I died of boredom.
13/10/2011 at 15:56 Wizardry says:
People who buy this game are directly responsible for destroying the games industry.
There. I said it.
13/10/2011 at 16:05 Ian says:
People who make comments like this are directly responsible for making themselves look quite silly.
There. I said it.
13/10/2011 at 16:08 Anthile says:
*pre-order*
13/10/2011 at 16:14 Vexing Vision says:
Stop making me pre-order that game, Wizardry. :(
13/10/2011 at 16:16 ResonanceCascade says:
It’s OK. Age of Decadence will come out someday and then you’ll have something new to play again.
13/10/2011 at 16:17 Emeraude says:
Now, now, don’t go mistaking catalysts and causes.
13/10/2011 at 16:29 Unaco says:
Pre-ordered. Twice.
13/10/2011 at 16:33 TillEulenspiegel says:
I’d love to destroy the videogames industry. Stuff like this, sadly, will just make it more successful and ever crappier.
13/10/2011 at 16:55 DrGonzo says:
I think you are muddling directly with indirectly.
13/10/2011 at 17:05 Wizardry says:
@DrGonzo: Not at all. Developers make what people buy. The developers creating an FPS Syndicate are the ones indirectly destroying the games industry while people who buy shitty FPS after shitty FPS are the ones directly destroying the games industry. Of course, marketing goes a long way towards influencing consumers, but humans have free will after all and it’s therefore the consumers who are to blame for falling for the marketing in the first place.
13/10/2011 at 17:37 Emeraude says:
@Wizardry: Developers make what publishers believe people will buy.
And I’d say publishers have long shown a level of ineptitude high enough for us not to take them just too seriously.
The making of FPS after FPS -even in light of many of those not actually turning a profit – paints them as creatively bankrupt and unable to find a way out of the block-buster model tomb they dug for themselves.
The fact that there actually exists a market of people willing to buy FPSes has nothing to do with that though.
13/10/2011 at 17:44 chabuhi says:
If car manufacturers only made cars that explode the first time the engine is turned over, who is directly responsible for destroying the auto industry? The manufacturer or those who buy exploding cars?
See Chicken v. Egg, I say :)
13/10/2011 at 18:11 BurningPet says:
Couldn’t agree more. this is not a game, this is an interactive fiction without the story parts.
An insult to Syndicate.
13/10/2011 at 19:05 Wizardry says:
@Emeraude: It has everything to do with it. If no one buys these games then publishers will go bankrupt if they don’t change their ways. It’s in the hands of gamers.
The people who are directly responsible are those that bitch about Syndicate and XCOM becoming FPSs while also pre-ordering them. What incentive is there for publishers and developers to create games in other genres when people are happily handing them cash for FPSs?
@chabuhi: But this is marketed as an FPS. So unless the exploding cars are marketed as exploding cars the analogy doesn’t hold up.
13/10/2011 at 20:24 Emeraude says:
“The people who are directly responsible are those that bitch about Syndicate and XCOM becoming FPSs while also pre-ordering them. ”
See, we’re making progress, now it’s no more “people who buy this game” but just a subset of those. I’m no big fan of FPSes myself, but why would those be made responsible of poor management by the publishers ? It’s their time to see the market saturated (once it was platformers, then there was (j)RPGs) with their game of choice. Let them enjoy it.
The problem, again, has little to do with the fact that people buy these games (in fact many of those games don’t hit big, when they even manage to turn a profit). The problem lies in decision makers being unable to see – or clear up ways to provide for – other smaller markets who just might be as much, if not more, profitable.
They’re back against the wall, unable to sustain the hit-driven model they fostered partly to prevent smaller developers and publishers from making any headway in the market, and instead look up at the biggest selling games and hope to take the spot they occupy, lest they become victims of their own strategy.
13/10/2011 at 15:57 feda says:
Finally, they’re making Deus Ex 4!
13/10/2011 at 17:12 Bfox says:
I think you mean Ghost in the Shell the game…
or was it Bladerunner…
13/10/2011 at 16:00 lasikbear says:
That into bit with your friend was really nicely animated. Not sure how I feel about the breaching, seems like they made it a ‘press button to make something happen’ kind of thing, rather than something actually interactive. I guess it would be hard to actually control two entities at once, but the interrogation seemed to be just pressing the ‘make a thing happen’ button and then watching it happen.
13/10/2011 at 16:13 deadly.by.design says:
Which is different than ‘right click to minigun civilian’ or ‘spacebar to persuadertron’? I think the first-person view just makes us question it more. That, and certain games’ ‘press x to win’ mentality… but I don’t think a single button is a huge deal.
Just Cause 2 had a three button hijacking instance where you were prompted to hit buttons 1-4 in a sequence that flashed on-screen. Maybe that’s better, but I don’t know if it would work in a more intense FPS scenario. Maybe that would balance the risk/reward/convenience of melee takedowns.
Regardless, I think we can all agree that both games’ mechanics are superior to Modern Warfare’s quarter-second knife insta-kill.
13/10/2011 at 16:04 Bodylotion says:
looks good but also looks to much like a lesser version of Deus Ex. Hope im wrong.
13/10/2011 at 16:13 Robin says:
Cowering scientist! How we’ve missed you turning up in every FPS of the 1990s.
Okay, a tiny sliver of optimism: if the keep-killing-to-keep-superpowered mechanic is balanced well, and not weighted to just make the game challenge-free for console players, that could be excellent.
The level they showed seems very small and empty (and nonsensical – so this is a facility with no security outside but a small army inside, a reception, an interrogation room and an office? Immersion!), with most of the ideas on show being derivative. Smells like another EA action committee-em-up like Dead Space et al.
If there are going to be bustling city levels then my interest is raised significantly, but I think that might be expecting a miracle.
13/10/2011 at 16:19 frenz0rz says:
Oh man, now thats a question. Which game had the best cowering scientists?
Aliens vs Predator 1, perhaps? That whisper when they realise they’re about to be eaten alive and curl up into a ball of compressed fear… oh god, oh please god no, no god, please….
13/10/2011 at 16:21 Dervish says:
That’s the question, isn’t it? I understand that videos like this are meant to show off features, but jeez the guy was just strolling around without a care in the world. Would it hurt to make the combat look a little less snoozers? Oh well; withholding judgment for now.
Series bastardization aside, I do like that we’re getting some high-tech future cyberpunky FPS games currently. This recalled fond memories of the first level of Perfect Dark.
13/10/2011 at 16:23 ResonanceCascade says:
AvP definitely has the best ones, if only because you get to chomp their heads off after stunning them with your tail. Much more satisfying than using a health pack!
13/10/2011 at 16:29 TillEulenspiegel says:
That’s what always kills linear shooters for me. They painstakingly create a very pretty world, then beat you over the head with the fact that it makes absolutely no sense and exists solely to funnel you through the game.
I liked Crysis, for example. I want to see more stuff along those lines. Maybe a mission-based shooter where the level designers just focus on creating a really cool place with all sorts of stuff going on, and you the player get to decide how to approach it. Something like maybe, y’know, the real Syndicate.
13/10/2011 at 20:54 LionsPhil says:
I did like that one scientist had the sense to get down on the floor. Beats the usual duck-a-little-and-whimper.
Honorary mention has to go to Half-Life 1 just for the “wargh!” yells they’d make. Oh, poor hapless men of science. What hath your hubris wraught?
14/10/2011 at 07:36 sinister agent says:
The best thing about the half-life scientist was when you’d shoot them in the stomach, and they’d go “I seem to be seriously wounded!”, with the same slightly detached curiosity they displayed with everything else.
Also there was one time that I killed one and due to a bug, he carried on talking, delivering his entire speech while lying dead on the floor. That was a bit creepy.
13/10/2011 at 16:17 actionthom says:
MILES KILO!
13/10/2011 at 16:20 Emeraude says:
Yeah, might just buy it because I’ve been famished for cyberpunk games for so long I’ll take anything that comes… but this doesn’t like anything I’d buy if it weren’t for that sole fact.
13/10/2011 at 16:22 ReV_VAdAUL says:
Wow this is one of the most boring gameplay videos I’ve ever watched.
13/10/2011 at 16:22 Danorz says:
starts with a talking head in a helicopter which is always fresh and exciting and then proceeds to show you wandering around a mass effect level doing nothing at all that another game hasn’t already done but better years ago, 2 weapon limit, overscripted everything and then the helicopter gets shot down WOW
and in all those games it takes things from not a goddamn single one of them is the original syndicate, this is a designed-by-committee pile
13/10/2011 at 16:29 Danorz says:
also how the hell was that the gauss gun at all
13/10/2011 at 21:55 ChiefOfBeef says:
I recall firing the gauss gun in the Amiga demo. I recall that shot blowing up a car and setting fire to a building and all the people in it came screaming out. That was the first shot.
13/10/2011 at 16:24 michal.lewtak says:
What’s up with games telling me I’m crouched, these days? Seirously, I know they want to account for the average idiot, but is the average idiot really THIS stupid?
*holds crouch button*
Why not show an icon telling me when I’m running forward and backward and strafing, for that matter?
13/10/2011 at 16:26 woodsey says:
I can’t if it was the presentation that was boring or the game, but… I was bored.
13/10/2011 at 16:26 Danorz says:
derp, disregard
13/10/2011 at 16:27 PointyShinyBurning says:
Just looks like a corridor shooter with some geegaws. Without open city levels I don’t see how this is an heir to the original games.
Also think they missed the opportunity to do something more interesting with the reality-warping premise. What if the agents are controlled with a false version of reality just like the populace is?
I also worry that cynicism will be skin-deep and your character will join a plucky resistance four levels in.
13/10/2011 at 16:33 Inigo says:
According to the leaked design documents, the Resistance is made up of “Urban”-styled characters.
I’m not entirely sure what “Urban” is, but already I feel the bile preemptively rising in my throat.
Also WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS HAPPENED TO THE GAUSS GUN
13/10/2011 at 16:34 Emeraude says:
I’m more worried you agent having free will.
I can see the big twist of the game being it was all a simulation run by the corp via your chip to elicit free-will in your doing the missions… Would be ridiculous enough.
13/10/2011 at 16:39 Danorz says:
@inigo: “urban” seems to be the current favoured delicate tongs of polite distaste dropped into a sentence used by people who should go deepfry their own heads for when they mean “black” or worse, but don’t want to get punched
13/10/2011 at 17:17 Nemrod says:
OW NO!
Just hope Urban doesn’t mean shitty gangsta rappers with big shoulder (yes UT3 I’m looking at you >___<).
If it was made with coherent architecture/open space free will level, yes…. but seems no
13/10/2011 at 16:34 Bharg says:
I wish futury game world buildings would look more like real buildings and not like in Deus Ex HR or this game. More concrete plz.
13/10/2011 at 17:58 woodsey says:
So you want futuristic buildings to look like buildings from the 70s?
13/10/2011 at 16:34 Blackcompany says:
This is so exciting. Given the dramatic shortage of First Person Shooters in the video game industry, I cannot begin to express my excitement for Deus Ex: Syndicate Reset.
.
No, not really.
.
We can’t yet clone human beings. Based on the things I have seen from the video game industry this is a good thing.
13/10/2011 at 16:35 kraken says:
This looks like a nice cyberpunk FPS.
So where is that new Syndicate game they were talking about?
13/10/2011 at 17:16 Bfox says:
They’re still making it bro’
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/21/paradox-announce-cartel-interview/
14/10/2011 at 11:38 michal.lewtak says:
Right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc7IVbY3UYg
13/10/2011 at 16:37 michal.lewtak says:
John, you should mention that this is inferior console controller gameplay.
15/10/2011 at 12:57 Dave Mongoose says:
Yes. Watching console FPS footage just makes it look like the person playing is really incompetent – that section after the ‘puzzle’ where he seemed to get stuck crouched behind a planter and the gun kept switching to a blind-firing animation over the railing…
It also makes it seem that the game is no challenge – 4 goons at once with copious amounts of cover? Oh noes!
13/10/2011 at 16:44 Snuffy the Evil says:
It’s doesn’t seem half bad if you consider it to be a game named Syndicate rather than a new Syndicate title.
The lack of music was more off-putting than anything else, to be honest.
13/10/2011 at 16:58 deadly.by.design says:
I didn’t think the original game had much in terms of music. Mostly just some beats and bloops. Syndicate Wars had more of a sound to it, though I still think that calling it a soundtrack in the traditional sense is a bit off.
I think the intro was the only part with a proper ‘song.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrruSboN1bQ
13/10/2011 at 16:46 MrThingy says:
The Guass Gun seems to have transformed into some sort of ballistic fishing rod… ??
13/10/2011 at 16:51 Milky1985 says:
Isn’t the guy at the start hte one they have had in all hte trailers hinting that hes hte main guy? Or am i missing something
13/10/2011 at 16:52 Chaz says:
It seems to have all the right ingredients and yet it just came off as looking a bit dull. Perhaps it was the boring voice over but the combat just didn’t strike me as looking very dynamic or exciting. Yes guns went bang and guys fell off balconies and yet it had a strange serene feeling about it, like the guy was just taking a walk in the park.
13/10/2011 at 16:52 Two Sheds says:
This looks really good. Anticipating.
13/10/2011 at 16:53 Alexandros says:
*yawn*
I feel like in the last 6 years there’s only been one new FPS game release and we’ve been playing mods for that ever since.
14/10/2011 at 02:48 baby snot says:
I was thinking the same thing when the protagonist gets to his feet and proceeds to look around at the large holographic type screen reminiscent of those in the sequel. Then I realised that the short walk from the helipad to the first door seemed like a homage to Freedman’s first meeting with Barney in the original.
Assuming we’re thinking of the same game here. Talk about setting standards.
13/10/2011 at 16:55 dopefish says:
two things pop into my mind:
1. what’s with all the hand gestures from agent merrett ?
2.woman’s voice reminds me of half life 1 rail pa system(anyone else thinks so?)
13/10/2011 at 17:01 Prime says:
Admissions time: I haven’t played either of the original Syndicate games. I watched my brother playing Syn’ Wars on the PSX1 a few times…but I have no personal investment in the franchise.
This, I would buy. It does seem a little generic, nothing really we haven’t seen before, but it’s the cyberpunk dream writ large. Deus Ex in Dead Space’s clothing, which is no bad thing. And it’s been while since I enjoyed a shooter. Goes on the hotlist.
13/10/2011 at 17:11 vodkarn says:
Wow, that video is getting pretty hammered by ‘thumbs down’ on YouTube.
Though to be honest, it really does look like someone went “What are some popular shooters we can steal fro- I mean ‘get ideas’ from?”
13/10/2011 at 17:14 roryok says:
I like the bit where the guy says “theres always an element of navigation and puzzle solving to syndicate” as the dude is using brute force to open a door.
Quite the puzzle.
13/10/2011 at 17:15 Psico_Payaso says:
You are now aware of the following :
1) Syndicate went into production roughly after the pre-production phase of Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution. Therefore a direct and deliberate rip-off / imitation of the game is hardly possible.
2) It is not the company’s fault for people wanting to play first person shooters. You may not like first person shooters, I may not like first person shooters, the majority of the rps community might not like first person shooters. This does not mean that noone likes first person shooters. Many publishers start a traget group analysis, by looking at poll results or simply by observing the market. COD sells incredible amounts of copies. Be it bad or good. Publishers see that and want a share of the cake. The contract developer companies to make said game that enables them to get that share.
I also want to clarify the following:
1) Comments like “hey devs, suck my d***” are not helping anyone and second of all, why are the developers the ones getting blamed for clear gameplay decisions made by the Publisher?
2) By not buying the game, you directly hurt mainly the Publisher and not the developer. The developer companies receive payoff by holding up to deadlines and by finishing the game. Or receive a 50 – 50 payroll (for instance), which means they get half of the agreed amount before starting production and half when it is finished. An alternative is getting payed depending on the metascore. The higher it is the more money they get (they = developer companies). By not buying the game, you inderictly hurt the developer, because the Publisher might decide to contract some other company for their future projects.
I may be wrong about some parts. But thats what i have heard and/or seen and/or experienced.
Cheers fellas :D
13/10/2011 at 17:27 Emeraude says:
(“By not buying the game, you directly hurt mainly the Publisher and not the developer.” I gather you meant the reverse ?)
All being said, why would I want to help a developer which does not produces the games I want to play ?
I can’t see how you can on the one hand ask me to absolve companies for doing FPS after FPS because they want to make money, but on the other try to make my refusing to support developers who do not make games I want to play look uncharitable.
If by making FPS they manged to make their money, good for them I guess. If they don’t, well hopefully somehow they understand there are other markets that need to be taken care of. I’ll be there.
13/10/2011 at 17:30 Milky1985 says:
“By not buying the game, you directly hurt mainly the Publisher and not the developer. The developer companies receive payoff by holding up to deadlines and by finishing the game. ”
And developers say that publishers are the ones pressuring them to make games in certain ways so we are harming hte correct people
Or are you saying that we shoudl buy the game reguardless of how crap it is because otherwise we will harm the developers who made it , who according to you have already been paid?
Not made my decision yet but your logic has more holes in it than a coffee strainer
13/10/2011 at 17:38 Psico_Payaso says:
Oh! Guys, you got me wrong there!
I actually reacted to the people saying: “Meh f**k them devs, they SUCK” or “Its the developers fault, for destroying the games industry!”..
All I meant was:
if you really want to blame someone, blame the publishers and their respective investors! The developers are merely *developing* the game they were paid to do. Sure, many decisions are being pitched and “sold” to the publisher, but nevertheless the CORE elements of the game are decided by the clients of the dev comp. which is the publisher.
You, of course, dont have to buy the game if you dont like it, or dont agree with it in some way. I never meant to phrase it in a way that actually implied the opposite.
:D
edit:
again, i agree with both of you, by all means, i dont buy games i dont agree with, or dont like.. I just wanted to share information on how devs are getting paid, because people do often think that developers are making 100% of the decision on the game. SOME games are decided by the Devs, they go to the publisher and present it, they “pitch” it. If the publ. wants to invest money into the project they sign a contract and off it goes. But thats not always the case, obviously.
13/10/2011 at 17:44 Emeraude says:
Oh. All right then, sorry about the misunderstanding.
13/10/2011 at 19:36 Kadayi says:
I do find it quite amusing that people complain about developers making games in genres they have no actual interest in. It’s like complaining about there being too many Adam Sandler comedies. Whose forcing anyone to buy these things?
13/10/2011 at 23:21 Dreamhacker says:
Although I can easily see why someone would like to take EA down…
14/10/2011 at 00:33 Wisq says:
I like first person shooters. As a control scheme, it’s pretty much my favourite, and it’s also where you usually get the most immersive games.
And yet, even I’m getting tired of pretty much every major title being a first person shooter. Mainly because very few of them bring anything new and interesting to the table.
This game, for example. Breaching. Mmkay. Looks to me like you pretty much point and click on an object with a flashy thing over it, watch a little progress bar thingy, and then some pre-scripted action occurs. No minigame, no chance of (catastrophic) failure, no customisation, no “gotta find the security console to hack this turret”, no particular skill or attention required — just “oh, look, the enemy killed himself. Now I’ll just fight for a bit to let that recharge.”
It’s like distilling everything interesting that’s ever been done in a game into a pre-scripted “click here” action. It’s the sort of thing I would expect from an MMO, not a decent modern game.
14/10/2011 at 14:51 Asuron says:
Publishers do that all the time. It was the same crap with WW2 shooters.
In fact the guys who made MW commented on this, they thought nothing would be successful if it wasn’t a WW2 shooter. That the market only wanted them
Turns out the public did want something different and so the parasites latched onto it and now we are facing the same goddamn cycle again and who knows how long before its over.
I hate this nonsense, I don’t understand how any logical human being could think that repeating what everyone else has done a million times before , having more experience in the field, and still think that their own teams can get the same sales by copying every goddamn thing about them.
I just don’t get it, what type of idiots go into business thinking that’s the sane way to move in what is a creative medium
13/10/2011 at 17:27 Milky1985 says:
“Dart enables you to see the digital world and hack it , this is called reaching”
Sooooo many jokes to make so i’ll make the obvious one, i guess you have to do the reach around quite a bit.
13/10/2011 at 17:38 HermitUK says:
Breaching.
13/10/2011 at 18:02 Psico_Payaso says:
lol Milky1985.. I guess you saw your joke…getting breached…
13/10/2011 at 17:28 WhataShame says:
Love it, gunplay seems really solid, with some special skills additions and all that jazz.
I have only one question, why are the coats of our protagonists not properly animated? It kinda distracts from the whole awesomeness.
13/10/2011 at 17:37 Psico_Payaso says:
reply fail, sorry
13/10/2011 at 17:30 Burning Man says:
The intent of this project (to make a non-Deus Ex Deus Ex) and the ideology behind it (there is no such thing as IP loyalty, people will take whatever scratches their Deus Ex itch) saddens and educates me. I can understand EA’s thought process and strategy but….. damn.
13/10/2011 at 17:34 JackDandy says:
Looks very “Eh”.
13/10/2011 at 18:06 mkultra says:
The best part is when the narrator says “there’s always an element of navigation and puzzle-solving to syndicate” as a QTE prompt pulses on the screen.
13/10/2011 at 18:14 killmachine says:
looks like mediocre to me. a popular brand tailored for the consoles.
13/10/2011 at 18:27 buzzmong says:
Mixed feelings on that video.
Waltzing through firefights without a care in world makes me a sad and unfulfilled gamer. Fully regenerating health is nothing more than a slightly delayed godmode. There’s a happy medium with partial regeneration and health kits (Max Payne one had it perfect, with regen only to 25% health. AvP2010 had an interesting system as well) but it looks as if this game doesn’t have it, shame because the whole cybernetic agent twist would support that really well.
I somewhat miss the days of the late 80′s and early mid 90′s where even mainstream titles offered a challenge (I don’t miss the balls hard games though where losing a single life in the first 15 levels meant you couldn’t ever beat the game).
On the plus side, I quite like the art style. The floating ammo count and information popups can go though.
13/10/2011 at 18:45 The_Great_Skratsby says:
That was well…
Uninspiring and not terribly imaginative to be honest, as a shooter not a Syndicate game I was expecting something with a bit more flair.
13/10/2011 at 19:03 BreadBitten says:
Other than the ho-hum environments the game looks pretty good…!
13/10/2011 at 19:05 Yosharian says:
Dataverse?
13/10/2011 at 19:45 Kadayi says:
Aside from the terrible voice over (peppy american would of beena better option Vs than Methodone Londoner), I thought this showed some promise. Pace was a bit glacial, but it’s a walkthrough trailer rather than an action one, so that’s faintly understandable. I quite liked the graphical style and information overlays. Interested to see how broad the environments get later on.
13/10/2011 at 19:56 Navagon says:
After Human Revolution this is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it? Not only did the third Deus Ex manage to actually stay faithful to what made the predecessors good, but what really adds insult to injury is that this game also looks like HR but with all the interesting bits stripped out and replaced with more generic, lazy, challenge-free console shooting.
In a sea of FPS this one just becomes lost. It’s all too obvious that those who made the Riddick games so damn good had nothing at all to do with this.
13/10/2011 at 19:56 LTK says:
I have zero background information on Syndicate, and to me this looks like Human Revolution, only crap.
13/10/2011 at 22:07 Tei says:
Syndicate…. thinks a crazy strategy arcade (not that much different than Cannon Fodder) where you are a total asshole, using hundreds of civilians as canon fodder. In Deus Ex you are a good guy, in Syndicate you massacre in every mission hundreds of civilians and wipe with a few nuclear blast a few buildings (maybe just for fun). Imagine 4 crazyly armored and cyberpowred `villains with autoguns, laser sniper riffles and rockets launchers walking down your favorite city, killing everything, in a mission to kill 1 scientist on the other side of the city. Syndicate is… cyber fun massacre simulator. Or maybe “hitman” with RTS interface. It depends how you play.
13/10/2011 at 20:05 zeroskill says:
I cant say im particularly excited about this. Although its too early to condemn this game it doesnt seem to have very much in common with the original Syndicate, which is a let down for me personally. So far I havnt seen anything that leads me to believe there will be any form of free form approach to completing missions, which really was the meat of Syndicate. Judging from the footage seen here it looks quite the contrary, quite linear in fact.
Well I guess this is just the way it will be then, it will work for EA and sell a good number of units, im sure of that. Lets drink some tea and hope for the best.
13/10/2011 at 20:27 Scandalon says:
I thought the whole “syndicate agent” thing was supposed to be doped-up, brainwashed minions under control from some type of overseer…how are they supposed to have a friend/mentor?!?
(Mind you I only played the demo a bit back in the day on a Mac LCIII w/ a 12″ screen with some wonky resolution, so part of the interface was cut off.)
13/10/2011 at 20:35 Muzman says:
Even though it might be alright, after watching that I mostly want this game to do well so someone can mod it into a System Shock 2 remake.
13/10/2011 at 20:39 Shazbut says:
It’s like Deus Ex but without all that annoying depth that everyone hates so much.
13/10/2011 at 20:54 Revisor says:
It’s going to have a story with at least one worried woman in it:
http://www.ea.com/syndicate/1/media?item=http://web-vassets.ea.com/Assets/Richmedia/Image/Billboard/screenshot02_sep13_full.jpg#http://web-vassets.ea.com/Assets/Richmedia/Image/Billboard/screenshot02_sep13_full.jpg?cb=120319801980
13/10/2011 at 21:05 Bull0 says:
Cool so it’s follow a guy around: the game
13/10/2011 at 22:01 fuggles says:
With that narration it’s just like an episode of peepshow – how briliant would that cross over be? “God I’m bored, I wonder what Mark’s doing. Oh look, some kids hanging around the estate… I wonder if they are going to mug me. I’d better just shoot them to be on the safe side”
13/10/2011 at 22:03 Tei says:
All games now have RPG elements, crates and air conducts. I don’t know what to think about that, probably a no-good thing.
But this game looks good. Derivative, but the type of fun derivative. Its somewhat like Deus Ex: Human Revolution 1.5. It take some good ideas from the Deus Ex genre, and add some fun shaders and tricks. it could create some fun gameplay. Anyway, I feel that some parts of the game are too scripted and the game show in this video is just a alpha…. the way the player move is not very natural, so I imagine that part is not programmed yet.
13/10/2011 at 22:17 CommanderJ says:
Huh. So I guess when they say it’s a Syndicate game they meant, like, the title.
Maybe I’m just turning into a grumpy old man, but after the atrocity that was Fallout 3, I really don’t feel like game devs needed to go kill off yet another classic.
At least I’ll still have xcom.
Oh wait….fuck.
13/10/2011 at 23:23 Dreamhacker says:
I gotta say, I’m really liking the amount of mandarin writing/speech sneaking into games lately.
14/10/2011 at 02:21 John P says:
This looks nothing like Deus Ex. What’s wrong with you people?
14/10/2011 at 03:39 DOLBYdigital says:
I was also underwhelmed… the auto aim on the pistol was crazy stupid so I hope that is scaled back for the PC version. Also the ‘breaching’ just seemed way too easy and quick… Very linear as well although that could change but somehow I doubt it. It seemed to have solid shooting mechanics and movement animations but seems like a brain dead linear auto aim shooter made for extreme accessibility.
Oh well, I didn’t really have high hopes. I’ll pick this game up in a couple years when its $15
14/10/2011 at 04:25 LuNatic says:
Press x to win? Frankly, I’d rather go looking for the red key…
14/10/2011 at 08:07 Shinryoma says:
See Syndicate Move
I’m looking. But I don’t see Syndicate.
14/10/2011 at 08:42 evilhayama says:
I’m pretty disturbed that the main hacking feature they’re showing is forcing people to go insane and go on a murder/suicide rampage. That’s pretty far up the immorality scale, surely!
It’s not even presented asa big deal deal, just another combat or puzzle mechanic… Just that has turned me off the whole game (more)
14/10/2011 at 08:48 Inigo says:
It’s not even presented asa big deal deal, just another combat or puzzle mechanic
Ironically, that’s the one thing it manages to get right in terms of staying faithful to the tone of the original games.
14/10/2011 at 11:29 Tunips says:
I had held out hope that this would be a ghost recon kind of FPS. That would be a syndicate FPS I would gladly play. This I will wistfully, or perhaps glumly play.
14/10/2011 at 17:37 shoptroll says:
With a different name this might be a competent shooter. Or as a side game…. you know… one of those games where it’s Franchise: Uninteresting Subtitle.
For a game with as much violence as they’re showing it’s a bit lame/ridiculous that the security guard “hitting” their captive stops a good 6 inches from the man’s head and stomach. REALISM!
Also, what’s with the dialogue? I thought agents were basically puppets?
It’s weird that your breach skills (suicide, backfire and persuade) are tied into the amount of action going on. I could see that being interesting in Serious Sam where you have large waves of enemies, but something like this which is just a shooting gallery…. eh. Also, Persuade shouldn’t be up at the top of that list. Half the point of Syndicate was persuadotronning half the population and wrecking havok with your impenatrable human shield.
Not much else really to contribute here that hasn’t already been said. This isn’t Syndicate to me, but if it’s actually a good shooter I’ll probably play it at some point. This doesn’t scream $60 pre-order must-buy.
15/10/2011 at 15:48 bill says:
God that looked dull.
Could it be any more linear and limited. The “breach” function seems to be the main selling point, but it also seems to involve highlighting something and clicking on them. Oh the excitement.
“some enemies have shields that need to be breached first”. Enemy is highlighted. Enemy is breached. Shoot.
“kill stuff for more powers” oh! never seen before in gaming!
by the time we got to the bored delivery of “looks like we’ll have to fight our way through the populated offices” all i could think was… no, really, we won’t. I couldn’t take any more Walk slowly. click on highlighted thing. shoot highlighted thing…. not for a whole office…