On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 05:05:58 -0800 (PST),
saleh.gms@gmail.com wrote:
On Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 11:31:10 PM UTC+3, BDB wrote:
I haven't been following the game releases for several years. Has
anything come out that is like Syndicate or Syndicate Wars? I also
really liked Crusader No Regret. So basically I'm looking for an
action/strategy mix, overhead view (1st/3rd person is so overused
and usually makes me want to puke), lots of explosions, and not
an RTS.
Well, responding to (a response to) a 10-year old post asking about a
23 year old game, but what the heck, it's not like this is the
busiest corner of Usenet.
Following Syndicate's success there were a slew of similar top-down action-heavy titles, most set in a cyberpunk dystopian setting. These
included the aforementioned "Crusader" games, "Gender Wars", "Bedlam",
"Scud the Disposable Assassin", the original "Postal", this one game
with a black-clad female cyber-ninja whose name I can't recall, and
more. These were all mostly action-games, lacking the strategic
elements that made Syndicate so memorable and focusing instead on
delivering non-stop action. "Cannon Fodder" at least offered some
element of team-work, while X-Com and its sequels went in the other
direction - though turn-based, it still shared many similarities in
tone and setting. And, of course, the original Syndicate had a sequel
of its own - Syndicate Wars - that was a lot of fun to play even if
its 3D-engine wasn't up to par.
The "Shadowgrounds" series - released in the the early 2010s - was a
return to the Crusader-style of shooter. More recently, "Satellite
Reign" is a modern reimagining of Syndicate in almost every respect
except for the name, cleverly recapturing that mix of action, puzzle
and strategy that made the original stand-out 23 years ago.
Just whatever you do, avoid the 2012 "sequel"*. Not only is it an FPS
but a god-awful one at that. If you are a fan of the original games,
you will scream at the heavens wondering why they tried cramming such
a novel IP into a cookie-cutter first-person shooter, and if you
aren't you'll just wonder why all those fans were insisting Syndicate
was such a great game. The 2012 game is lazy; linear and lacking
interesting gunplay, they manage to make even its gimmick of
"persuading" the AI to suicide seem boring. Save your money.
* prequel, actually
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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