Mon, Sep 12, 2011 | 13:00 BST
It’s official: Syndicate reboot confirmed for early 2012
EA has finally confirmed the worst kept secret of the last few years: Starbreeze’s Project Redlime is indeed Syndicate.
Described as a “unique and brutal sci-fi first-person shooter experience set in a not too distant future, where business is war,” the official details of Syndicate line up with information leaked yesterday.
A dedicated micro-site promoting the game has been advertised, but is either swamped or not yet live.
Syndicate stars one Miles Kilo as he explores the corporate-run world of 2069. Three mega-coms – Cayman Global, Aspari, and Eurocorp, of which Kilo is a memer – are at loggerheads over the US market.
In a totally connected world, players will be able to slow down time and use digital techniques to combat enemies, using upgradable DART 6 bio-chip techniques, skills and abilities.
“We are excited to finally reveal what we’ve been working on the past couple years,” said Mikael Nermark, CEO of Starbreeze Studios.
“It’s been a great experience working with EA, and an amazing opportunity for us to use our expertise in the first person shooter and action genres to bring back, and reignite, the signature action/espionage gameplay of Syndicate.”
Syndicate and its sequel Syndicate Wars were real-time tactics titles produced by Peter Molyneux’s studio, Bullfrog, in the early 90′s. Syndicate is at least the second real time tactics title to be remade as a shooter in recent years, the other being the forthcoming XCOM.
“Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today’s gamers as well as fans of the original. I’m sure they will enjoy and recognize the legacy that made it such a classic,” EA Partners executive producer Jeff Gamon said.
“Fans of the franchise will recognize many weapons and environments in the game, but in a whole new way. The game also provides a separate and deep four-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic, which adds another layer of depth to the overall experience.”
Syndicate will release in early 2012 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
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Posted in: EA, PC, PS3, Shooter, Xbox 360
Tags: Project Redlime, starbreeze, starbreeze studios, syndicate
21 comments
#1
Mr Tom
12/09/11, 7:57 am
Below this comment – gamers complaining it isn’t like the original Syndicate.
Well of course it isn’t. A game like that wouldn’t get funded these days.
#2
Perfectionist
12/09/11, 8:22 am
Kind of reminds of Deus Ex:HR.
#3
Freek
12/09/11, 8:27 am
That’s not the point, ofcourse they coulden’t make that game litterly like the old one and that’s not what would be a reasonable expectation. But at the same time it is entirely possible to bring back a beloved franchise, remain true to what made the original game great and still be a huge financial succes.
Look at Fallout 3, look at Deus Ex Human Revolution. Both excelent modern takes on a classic franchise.
They could have done that with Syndicate. A kind of third person tactical game set in an open world-ish enviroment. Mass Effect meets Grand Theft Auto (another series that has had a great modern day re-interpretation without loosing it’s core ideals). But instead they threw out everything that anybody who knows about Syndicate likes and made just another First Person Shooter, a genre that’s already overflowing with great titles.
Wich begs the question: why bother bringing back Syndicate if you are going to make something else anyway? Or is there still some of that flavour left in the new game?
#4
FabioPal
12/09/11, 8:30 am
I’m crying…..
#5
The Evil Pope
12/09/11, 8:35 am
This isn’t Syndicate. Also, daylight in a Syndicate game. WTF.
#6
Blerk
12/09/11, 8:44 am
Wow, as soon as ‘early’ next year? Why’ve they been keeping a lid on it this long, I wonder?
You’ve got a lot of convincing to do, EA.
#7
Maximum Payne
12/09/11, 9:09 am
I still don’t get this announcements without any kind of trailer.
Well at least there are images.
#8
alterecho
12/09/11, 9:24 am
Is the last picture the cover art? It looks cool… but it doesn’t remind me of the original syndicate in anyway.
#9
Munty
12/09/11, 9:26 am
read that last paragraph, missions from the original game?
4 play co-op?
sounds good to me
#10
GamezIdiot
12/09/11, 10:08 am
It’s exactly how I remember it, except for everything about it. Slow hand clap EA. You’ve sat on the franchise for this long and this is all you come up with in return. A monkey could do better.
#11
Chockster
12/09/11, 10:50 am
Simple reason it’s an FPS: they can release on consoles. A game in the style of the first would be PC only. I’d love it like that, but the economics of publishing say different.
#12
NeoSquall
12/09/11, 11:27 am
@3 We have the same opinion in this. I can’t understand how could they come with this crap after two years of development.
I think I’ll just go to the PS Store and purchase Syndicate Wars…
#13
GamezIdiot
12/09/11, 12:32 pm
@11 Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a brilliant example of how well an isometric style tactical adventure/shooter can be done. Works perfectly on twin stick and so would Syndicate. Blaming the type of game is a lazy excuse for not trying hard enough. The reason this is an FPS is because the twats in marketing look at the best sellers and only see FPS games at the top.
#14
The_Red
12/09/11, 1:01 pm
Coming early 2012!? Really? Unless there’s a serious delay announcement coming, this sort of quick release after announcement is for bad budget games Activision publishes around Q4 or Q1 of every year.
#15
AHA-Lambda
12/09/11, 1:07 pm
@14 – yep. Seems like EA just want this thing out after its obviously troubled development
#16
NeoSquall
12/09/11, 2:21 pm
From the EA announcement:
“We are excited to finally reveal what we’ve been working on the past couple years,” says Mikael Nermark, CEO of Starbreeze Studios.”
#17
themadjock
12/09/11, 4:59 pm
Aparently a lot of Bullfrog members are involved in creating the new one. After seeing the new XCOM gameplay videos I am willing to give it a chance the same goes for syndicate too:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/318508/syndicate-body-of-bullfrog-veterans-onboard/
#18
alaris
12/09/11, 10:58 pm
Newsflash – Fans of the original don’t want an FPS. The market is flooded with top tier games like Fallout, Bioshock, Deus Ex, Rage, etc. etc. etc. Why on earth would the Syndicate and X-COM games be First Person Shooters?? Heck if someone would just remake X-COM with last gen graphics I would be set.
#19
OwningXylophone
12/09/11, 11:37 pm
@18
“Heck if someone would just remake X-COM with last gen graphics I would be set.”
What about UFO: Extraterrestrials Gold, only been out for a year and a half on steam… But of course that is expecting people to actually take their heeads out of the sand and do some investigation…
#20
IL DUCE
13/09/11, 2:09 am
Everyone saying it reminds them of Deus Ex just because it’s in the near future with a cyberpunk vibe is retarded…both games were in development for years without the other knowing the other one was in development so they are not copying Deus Ex HR…also this seems to be more of a shooter than an RPG while Deus Ex HR had more RPG elements…
#21
GwynbleiddiuM
13/09/11, 8:12 am
c’mon now, Dues Ex HR was a direct rip off of Metal Gear Solid 2&4 and Ghost in the Shell animes. Was really really disappointed with the story and how poorly RPG elements were implemented. All in all was much better than FO3 and NV as a sequel. At least it reminded me of MGS and GitS with many awkward moments about it, but I can say I liked the gameplay at least. I really hope that Syndicate don’t end up a pure FPS with a lil poorly placed tactical elements that are useless and you could just ignore and QQ ban-bang your way to the end.