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.
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RPS Feature No, the FPS
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
No, not that one. The other one. Yes, the FPS. EA trying to resurrect Bullfrog’s top-down tactical series as an FPS was obviously going to rile up the people it was supposed to excite, but ignore the name. It’s a pleasant spot of face-shooting in a sumptuous cyberpunk world of gleaming clean lines and filthy neon. I don’t remember much of the campaign, but writing this has me wanting to dive back into the co-op.
RPS 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 is hot.
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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I’m playing Satellite Reign right now, so the Bullfrog subversive squad-shooter which heavily inspired it is very much on my mind. SR marks a sea-change: a game that’s been bewilderingly ignored by studios for decades is only now getting the follow-up it deserves.
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?
“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 and do that right now. So I did. And I’m glad I did.
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RPS Feature Visible ASCII
Invisible, Inc. is coming to Steam Early Access on August 19th. It’s developer Klei’s return to stealth after 2012’s Mark of the Ninja, but this time it’s turn-based, tactical, and about steering a team of operatives through a Syndicate-inspired world of corporate espionage. It’s also their return to procedural generation and permadeath after 2013’s vastly successful Burtonesque survival game, Don’t Starve.
I spoke to company founder and programmer Jamie Cheng about why they came back to stealth game design, the challenges of procedureal generation, the right way to do Early Access, and mods.
