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8 months ago
Free stuff is always cool, and when that free stuff just happens to be two polished and relatively well-received strategy games, all the better. For the next 48 hours or so, you can snag Syndicate revival Satellite Reign via the Humble Store and the Heroes of Might & Magic-ish Eador: Masters of the Broken World via its Steam page here completely free to keep forever, no strings…
2 years ago
Feature: Why does it always reign on me?
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. I never completed Satellite Reign, because fellow journo and one-time board game co-conspirator Matt Lees told me something that completely demolished my enjoyment of it. I won’t tell you that thing unless you come with me below the line, because I want you…
A syndicate of one is no syndicate at all. It's a small business at best. Something you run on the kitchen table. An Etsy store, maybe. No, if you want to be a syndicate - a megacorp - you really need cool killer cyborg pals. So huzzah! After a stretch in open beta, the Syndicate-inspired tactical cybersquad action of Satellite Reign [official site] is launching…
3 years ago
Feature: When it pours
When I consider Satellite Reign [official site] as a whole, a grand canvas spattered with raindrops, neon and bulletholes, I'm in love with it. Yes, it looks and feels a little like Syndicate, but 5 Lives' Kickstarted RTS-RPG does not slavishly follow a model from the past. Its city is open, a series of district-hubs with opportunities and mission locations scattered across them, and there…
Feature:
I haven't played Satellite Reign's [official site] yet. It's been in Early Access since December last year but I'm excited enough for a spiritual successor to Syndicate that I decided to wait till its rain-slick streets and neon signs were at their moody best. That's now due to happen in ten days when the game launches on August 28th, and there's a new launch trailer…
Rain-soaked, neon-drenched and corporate-haunted, Satellite Reign's [official site] urban setting is the kind of near-future city that feels like a convincing world of tomorrow. Through sleep-starved eyes, this morning's launch video looks a bit like the 'world of last Saturday night', to be honest. It's a gorgeous Syndicate-inspired team-based tactical shooter / ARPG hybrid and after a long stay in the augmentation chambers of Early…
4 years ago
Don't panic, I mean the original one, not the forgettable Starbreeze shooter (though it did have a decent multiplayer mode). Given Recent Events it's a good time to look back at glory days Molyneux/Bullfrog, a time when that studio's games were rewriting the rulebook. So, I heartily recommend grabbing Syndicate from Origin today, given it's currently free.
Feature: Wet work
In this irregular column, Marsh Davies stumbles across an impressive effect or neat bit of trickery and asks, “How did they do that?” his eyes brimming with tears of admiration and wonder. Then one of the developers tells him, hopefully using terms that don’t cause the soft mass of his brain to boil out of his ears. Something about cityscapes at night triggers a very…
Feature: The Syndicate remake we need
Spritual Syndicate sequel/remake Satellite Reign arrived on Steam Early Access last week. Can it possibly live up to its hallowed Bullfrog cyberpunk squad shooter legacy? I jacked in to find out. The bad news: we're running out of things that we want spiritual sequels to! Everything we ever wanted is coming true! CRISIS IN VIDEOGAMELAND. The good news: Syndicate remake (of a sort) Satellite Reign…
Prepare to download jubilation and dispense judgement, agents: Satellite Reign has arrived on Steam Early Access. The game's been covered a-plenty on RPS since it was teased all the way back in May 2013, and that's undeniably been helped by its promise to be the successor to long-forgotten series Syndicate. I said long-forgotten. What's an FPS?
You and your squad find yourselves in a neon alleyway somewhere in a dangerous electro-future and set out into the night. Your hacker hacks doors and cash machines, your infiltrator sneaks through difficult areas, while your support man heals and your soldier does what soldiers do - he shoots things real good. You're a formidable team, and one with the option to tackle missions in…
Feature: Kissing The Bullfrog
Back when I interviewed Syndicate-veteran Mike Diskett about his plans for Satellite Reign, I was buoyant with excitement: he spoke of systems, not scripting, and of sprawling cyberpunk cities playing host to mad shoot 'em freedom, just like we were promised in the old days. Now, having spent some time with the "pre-alpha" test release that the team have put out to backers, I can…
Satellite Reign comfortably cleared its £350,000 Kickstarter target in July of last year, but that this Syndicate-inspired tactical cyberpunk game didn't extend its tally into the millions was perhaps the first sign that i) the crowdfunding service isn't a magic well full of money and ii) that we don't live in the best of all possible universes. One of the signs that our universe is…
"I wonder what's going on with Syndicate remake/spiritual sequel Satellite Reign?" I asked myself yesterday. "It's been a while since we heard anything about it. Oh God, maybe it's dead, oh no, please", I panicked, before realising that "heard" would involve "games sites covering it", which meant that I simply hadn't checked in on it for a few months, which meant that I should go…
5 years ago
Want first proper in-game, in-mission footage of spiritual Syndicate remake Satellite Reign? With agents and cars and civilians and cities and miniguns and all? Step right this way. I think you're going to like what you see.
Aha, good to see the spiritual Syndicate sequel (the real one, not that dreary cash-grab from Starbreeze a couple of years back) breaking cover again after its successful Kickstarter. The good stuff - an early glimpse of Satellite Reign's unfinished world, with its newly animated civilians scampering about - doesn't kick in until 6m40s mark, but let's not be churlish - it's always fascinating to…
The Steam Greenlight machine keeps right on churning, and I have to say: it's getting a little more efficient. Initially, batches of new games were wheezing out in sickly trickles, but now we're getting 15-game shotgun bursts every couple weeks. There's still plenty of room for improvement of course, and it remains to be seen whether or not Valve can keep pushing this pace, but it's…
After much gnashing of teeth and tearing of our sackcloth, the Kickstarter we all wanted but no one was funding has made it. Satellite Reign has reached its £350,000 funding. In fact, with three days still to go, it's over the target by another £20k already. So there is to be a new cyberpunk game from the creator of Syndicate Wars. How was that ever…
You do realise this guy made Urban Chaos and Startopia, right? Here's the Kickstarter.
Feature: Mike Diskett Interview
Perhaps it's my insomnia, but I'm feeling rather emotional. There was something that made me want to well up in my interview with Satellite Reign lead, Mike Diskett. Even with the fall of Mucky Foot on his CV, it seems unfair to say that Diskett has had a tough time of it – he's a talented programmer working on numerous successful (and not so successful)…
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