Satellite Reign

Why i cannot like this game: First: i started it about 5 times since i bought it a few years ago but i never got warm with it. Then, a few weeks ago i started it and really wanted to give it a try. I played about 8 hours straight. (never left the first region) It was still frustrating. The stealth wasnt working for me, my agents were contantly dying, and it was frustrating. But i kept going. Out of frustration i searched if there are any cheats and i discovered how to edit the savegame. But then i discovered something that was even more frustrating for me: The lack of feeling superior. What i mean by that: As i mentioned, i never left the first area.So i thought: When i "cheat" myself more money and research more things, then it will be easier for me and not that anoying. BUT IT WASNT. Whenever i got better, i noticed that enemies also got better. Areas that i already "finished" suddenly got enemies with shields and Miniguns (where before they had pistols and simple machineguns.) So whats the point of progressing and developing my chars, when they allways feel inferior to the enemies. Then there is a fact that you cannot clear out an area: The enemies/reinforcements will respawn everytime. I went to an area guns blazing. Killed anyone, also the reinforcements. Then went deeper feeling safe. Suddenly my agents were taking hits while i was behind a cover from new enemies in front of me. So beeing behind a cover they could not hit me - at least not that hard. Here i realized that NEW enemies were atacking me at my back.... from where i just cleared everyone before. The only thing was to retreat completly. I really dont know how to play this game. And and this point it really frustrates me more than i can enjoy it. Maybe i havent realized something - some kind of trick that makes all the points worthless, but as long as i dont discover it, i cannot give it a thumb up. Sry, i really wanted a Syndicate in a modern Graphics - but this isnt it.

Syndicate Wars was my favorite game as a kid.

True Cyberpunk, the closest thing to the original Syndicate (1993) I have ever played.

This was "sold" as being like Syndicate, but no, it's not, it's really not. Horrid controls and not 'like' Syndicate.

It's 11 years after this game released and my PC still struggles to maintain 60 fps. But beyond its poor optimisation, let's talk about the actual game. The game is massively ambitious, but doesn't really pull off what it is going for. It is essentially an attempt to blend Syndicate Wars with the XCOM remakes in an Ubisoft-style open-world, where the core gameplay is built around raiding outposts. This is a great concept, but unfortunately the execution misses most of the things that made each of those games fun. Although it introduces tanky enemies, a cover system and a rudimentary stealth system in an attempt to get you to play tactically as you would in XCOM, the enemies are very dumb and nothing really stops you from just marching your guys around in a blob shooting everything that moves. As a result, you never really get the satisfaction of pulling off a well-crafted plan. Mere survival is not rewarding either, since unlike it's inspirations, your guys just respawn with nothing lost if you fail. This is not necessarily a dealbreaker. After all, most of Syndicate and Syndicate Wars boiled down to pretty much the same thing. There is a big difference though. The Syndicate games were full of chaotic destruction and after the first few missions put you up against overwhelming odds, leading to sprawling firefights that could level entire city blocks. There is no such destruction here, and thanks to the tanky enemies and the need to click each enemy individually and watch their healthbar slowly go down, the frantic action that made Syndicate great just isn't here. The aforementioned tactical and stealth layers were likely intended to replace it with a more cerebral approach, but as I said earlier, the enemies are just too dumb to make engaging with these layers feel rewarding. Exacerbating all the above problems is a progression system so tightly controlled and obsessively 'balanced' that it more or less completely shuts down any opportunity to come up with crazy tactics or loadouts, or any attempt to play it in some way other than 'play the game in the exact manner the devs planned for' or 'ignore most of the gameplay systems and just march a death blob around', neither of which is particularly fun or satisfying. I have tried many times over the last decade to get into this game, and I would love a true successor to the Syndicate franchise, but sadly this just isn't it.

Superb spiritual successor to the original Syndicate and Syndicate Wars games. No notes.

great game

The big "Multiplayer Co-Op" badge is not exactly stating the reality of the situation. It works on LAN and simulated LAN over VPN if your ISP will allow it. "Internet" option is there and not working.

Despite a few glitches/bugs like similar ones that are no-worse than many games' , this game's atmosphere, style, and intense gameplay were underrated at the time of it's release, and in relativities of things like retro-gaming, are still-fantastic, compared to such. The degree of challenge from the AI opponents varies, and even with a high degree of familiarity, you can still be surprised by their random emergences, although there is a degree of under-organised responses, to the kind of threat that you pose. Instead, it's a bit generalized-for-crime in the city, and not COUNTER-organised / proportionised, as you scale up. it does scale up in general stat.s weaponry / armor, it doesn't respond to which gear you CHANGE, and instead simply improoves in all-stats / threat types, so tactically, as your specialist abilities get superior,.. they remain without counter-specialisations to a similar degree. That does limit the challenge TYPES, as the game nears it's end, which could've been more technically-challenging, with more plot-driven , map and map-limitative constrictions on-which abilities you have posing a greater specialist challenge, so that NON-AI objects, and more technical traps, surprises, and quick-adaptation challenges that can-NOT be adjusted to at ease / without needing to re-equip limits the divesity OF the end-game play. And, other plot-device compatible delays,.. getting replacements/deliveries of gear via drone,.. more CHOICES of NPC mission-allies, rather than only weak with a pistol, no armor, etc, ones,.. could have RANDOMIZED the challenge more,.. and more confrontations between the 3 major factions, the draconics, uzi corp, and the eternals, could've also randomized play for both surprise-challenge, and RE-playability. Instead, although territorially, each (un-playable)faction realistically tolerate each other,.. there would be FAAAAR, more, agents from each infiltrating the other 2 (or chasing you down), and as a new, chaotic, underestimated outside group, you would be able to exploit the conflicts between the 3. Thematically, you should be able to enter buildings, too, so that during pursuit from each, plot circumstances could make interacting with and evading all 3, could've both varied,.. AND,.. elaborated the diversity of tactical choices, and challenges - for instance, not being able to escape and having to win, a firefight in order to escape - it happens far too LITTLE, in regualr play - more activities indoor, could've allowed for more challenge in that regard, but-also even-more stylized and atmospheric differences, and could've also facilitated special multi-player maps or special game modes. Similarly, the game's static single map, limits it's RE-playability, which is quite a dissapointment as a fan of both this game and Syndicate. More multiplayer game modes and map-making features, could've really maintained more of a community, AFTER the buzz from the solo-campaign buzzed-out, but instead it didn't get enough of a follow-through to make things like that, perhaps even, a combination of map-making / custom multiplayer games, and AUGMENTED-reality? Being able to make maps out of you local town, or section of a real-world city,.. and then playing virtual team-games based off augmented-reality captures,.. would've been massive fun! Very intense sci-fi-firefight sim though, my suggestions don't detract from that at all! :) --- To anyone reading all the reviews for this game with the potential for investing in a remake,.. think twice about that last augmented-reality-captures idea,.. so-far,.. i've got a 100% in-principle agreement, with EVERYONE, i've described it to, so-far! :)

Original Kickstarter backer and finally got to the game 10 years later after a few false starts. Found the game quite difficult at the beginning but once the gameplay looped finally clicked, absolutely loved the game. The amount of possible routes and options for approaching any given situation is pretty impressive and once I worked out that (for me) slow and stealthy in deactivating cameras, assassinating guards, hijacking everything was the way to go, I felt like an elite unit when I could get in and out of a complex without anyone realising. The random item drops though was a bit weird... getting the medipak and zip line blue prints just before the very final mission made me laugh, a little bit late to be of any use at that point. Also I barely used cloning throughout the game, found no real need to? There's a tonne of weapons that I only used a handful of, but seems like a large focus on heavy weapons rather than a spread of all the different weapon types. Gorgeous looking and great atmosphere, though it has relatively low fps (ran consistent 40 for me) it doesn't bog down the gameplay at all. Glad I finally got around to giving this a proper chance and finishing it.