Satellite Reign

Such a fun game, reminds me a lot of the Syndicate games from back in the day. It really abodies that old school spirit. The graphics are really good. I wish they had made more, DLC or sequal, but the game has replay value, so I can return to it whenever I want, every playthrough is different.

Every now and then I come back to this game, in search for any news of a sequel, some meaningful mods, or another game that is similar enough. Played the game with a friend in coop mode and we loved every bit of it, despite it having a fair share of bugs. There's just nothing quite like it, it's a near-perfect blend of cyberpunk, tactics, real-time, isometric, an interesting world, and some great and fun mechanics. There are always multiple approaches to all the missions, it's awesome to split up in coop and simultaneously try to find a way inside a guarded area. I loved how alive the city feels and how it connects all the missions seamlessly. We had so many moments where we were about to be caught, and then just barely managed to either escape or go under cover again. Just brilliant. I'll probably do another playthrough sometime, but in the meantime I'm writing this love letter in hope for a sequel someday. Thanks, 5 Lives Studios!

Totalnie nie polecam, gra ściek, ledwo ją ukończyłem przez to, że postacie robią co chcą, a nie co im się każe. Błąd na błędzie, totalnie nic z tej gry nie wyniosłem chyba, że zdenerwowanie i rozczarowanie.

Satellite Reign gives tantalizing glimpses of syndicate and syndicate wars, but never quite getting there. There is resemblance of a good game there, but it is buried under repetitive missions and overall clunkiness.

Modern Syndicate!

syndicate from 1993 under a different guise. I enjoyed it as a kid, probably wouldn't now with different preferences, and sadly, 30 years later they still didn't think to include tactical pause and a decent save system, not just sparse checkpoints and manual saving under certain conditions. there's an ability that slows things down and ♥♥♥♥♥ up the screen, can be chosen to be maxed out on startup, but basic accessibility shouldn't be an unlock. and it should be actual pause if it's called 'realtime with pause', not just slow motion with a headache-inducing effect. and speaking of slow, sprinting for 3 seconds, then waiting for it to recharge shouldn't be allowed in games anymore. also, enemy scaling (and respawning cameras) is one of the laziest things a developer can do, removing any sense of progression. what they should've done instead is ui scaling. decent settings otherwise but not mentioning any of these on the store page and asking 25 bucks back in 2015 is a joke.

This is the spiritual sequel to Syndicate and Syndicate Wars, two fantastic Bullfrog Productions games from the 90's. These games dove headfirst into the idea of controlling cyborg agents in a futuristic cyberpunk city, free to roam and pick off targets (both people and locations) as you wish while using fun and interesting weapons, gadgets and body augments. This was designed by some of the same people behind those games, so it feels true to that original vision and you can tell it was a passion project. It's a game that takes some planning and thought, and will reward you for having the right equipment and a good way in and out of your target. That being said, there's plenty of fun to be had when your plans go awry and you're thrust into the middle of a firefight, scrambling to find cover and figure out a new escape route as you're steadily becoming overwhelmed by enemies. The atmosphere in this game is amazing, and stays consistent throughout the 4 main city areas you steadily progress through. The music is great, with some lovely ambient tracks for when you're moving through the city's open areas, and also some solid synthwave tracks for when combat begins. There are some rough edges here and there, mostly to do with AI pathfinding occasionally getting stuck on objects (which can usually be fixed by blowing up said objects). The UI is a bit clunky when it comes to selecting which ability you want to use. There are hotkeys for each one regardless of the agent using it, which does help once you've played for a while and get to know them. I think a lot of the complaints about the game come from people not understanding just how important the different abilities are that you can unlock. True, there's no pause mode or speed control available from the start, but your support character gets an ability that slows time, and this works well as a panic button to give you a moment to figure out what you want to do next without being shredded to pieces by gunfire. The Hacker's Hijack ability is also crucial to the game's progression, because it's not just how you're able to upgrade the clone bodies you use for each of your agents... it's also how you can accumulate your own little army of soldiers and units to roll on through the tougher areas (and get through locked doors quickly and easily). There are also plenty of ways to tackle each objective/location, so you almost always have more than one option and won't ever run into a "this sucks because I'm not equipped for it" situation. Unfortunately, the devs closed up shop sometime after the release, so we're unlikely to ever see anything more from them (a sequel to this could have been amazing), but nonetheless, I recommend anyone who enjoys somewhat slower-paced action to give it a try. It's even got co-op play where you each take control of one or more agents, which I haven't tried but seems like an intriguing way to play a game like this.