Syndicate, the "remake" of the old Syndicate, which was a strategic top down squad based game, not a first person shooter like the new one, has released their first gameplay video today (11 minutes long with commentary). It leaves an impression of sorts, but first let me give some background and information since we have never covered this game on Violent Gamer before. This is another game that they are remaking that is absolutely nothing like the original, much like the new X-COM FPS. It seem's a trend to make everything into FPS's these days. The original Syndicate game, made by my beloved Bullfrog Productions, was widely popular, much like games now that manage to release on every platform, Syndicate was released on at least five of them back in 1993. The new Syndicate, now made by EA, does have a few similarities to the old one, but only in the sense that it takes place in a sci-fi environment and that it's all about syndicates going to war with each other. This game looks surprisingly like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, except it doesn't feel like a good thing.



The FPS gameplay of Syndicate is complemented by an embedded security system that allows your character to hack objects in real time, quickly, without having to go into a mini-game. The security system allows you to do some cool things, but based on the video it makes it seem like it's much easier just to shoot people, unless you have to hack an object. A major concern is the ease of which you can hack into anything, in the gameplay demonstration the character seem's to be any to hack into people or objects fluidly, continuously and without restraint. The graphics are gorgeous and the whole hacking thing could be pretty interesting, but is all very similar looking to Deus Ex and besides hacking it doesn't seem to have any genuine qualities, at least not yet. This is the first footage, so it still has time to change and evolve, but based on my knowledge of EA i would say that it's mostly done already, especially since it has a release date of February 2012. Check out the video and let me know what you think. All it managed to do was to make me miss all of the fantastic games that Bullfrog created back in the 90's. Thanks for reading, be back with more sometime this morning.
Main Sydnicate Website: http://www.ea.com/syndicate