Satellite Reign

Satellite reign has been billed as a "spiritual successor" to Syndicate, to which it has a good claim. It's RTT + management formula have been augmented with asymmetical character abilities that mix in RPG mechanics, as well as stealth and cover-based shooting, and an open world to explore. There's quite a bit going on in Satellite Reign. The aesthetic and soundtrack are heavily inspired by the original, mixed in with other cyberpunk influences. The neon-drenched city the game takes place in is gorgeous and fun to explore, with lots of interesting landmarks and a modestly engaging (but largely irrelevant) story. The brooding, bass heavy synthwave soundtrack is great too. Gameplay-wise, Satellite Reign is a rare example of a shooter that can be played stealth or loud, but both are fun. Abilities build into both paths, so switching between approaches, even mid-mission can be great fun. The shootouts are tense and exciting, relying heavily on tactical advantage and careful use of abilities. The heavy use of cooldown abilities can even make it feel a bit like a multi-role RPG, but this has the downside of making unit management tricky. This is much more fun with 3 friends than alone- which is why it's such a shame networking is unstable. Stealth, as in so many games, is where Satellite Reign falters. Both player and enemy pathing is glitchy and unpredictable, and the stealth kills (which require getting extremely close to an enemy) are just not reliable enough. Conversely, once you acquire cloaking, stealth becomes a bit too easy, and you might find yourself ditching your other agents because it's faster without them. A definite minus. This isn't Syndicate Wars 2, and I'll argue that's a good thing. It's been modernized with more depth, and a lot of different ways to play. But it's an indie title made in Unity and it shows. If you can forgive it's bugs and the change in formula, Satellite Reign has a lot to offer.

The graphics are pretty impressive, the story starts really good, the game mechanics feels very interresting. The tactical aspect is good and the ambiance rocks. All of this disapear after playing a while. The problem, once you've completed 10 missions or so, you've seen all mechanics and few effort are made to play with them and introduce new twists. Sure you get new gear and it introduce some variability, but it's not enough to make the cut. Missions are just flat and similar as you get to the next one. You are guided through the game with a task list, which is kinda boring. The game would hold it if the storytelling was strong but it is abscent and it lacks a proper narative support. Reading lore isn't what i'd expect to be very engaging, you end up giving no shit about what's happening. After having lost interrest in playing the mission, nothing remains... oh maybe getting gear and leveling... BUT, the difficulty follows your gearing and leveling ala Bethesda. Nothing's more boring than that. If you happen to gear and level faster than you're supposed to, you are penalized, also, this kind of mechanic is cheap, it's very easy to put in place as it's very easy to tune. In the final, the game is full of promises, but it feel uninspired and repetitive, it feels like a project that started strong, the visual got a lot of polishing, but had to be shipped before completion. I'd love to see a game like this, done with more love and supported by a good story, filled with decisive events, decisions, twists etc... etc...

Probably, a large part of the negative reviews is associated with unfulfilled expectations from the game: apparently, many expected a dynamic isometric action game in the spirit of the early Syndicate, which consisted of a series of short dynamic missions focused on combat with the enemy. But that's not the case with this game: instead of individual missions, it's a large sandbox city divided into districts, in the style of GTA, and the emphasis is not on combat, but on ways to avoid combat, and complete tasks without resorting to violence. Enemies are too thick-skinned, and besides, in case of direct combat, endless reinforcements are called in, which is why the battles become not so much difficult as dreary. The game is different from the creations of Bullfrog and most of all resembles not so much Syndicate as the Commandos and Desperados, famous stealth tactics games: there are many opportunities for moving around the locations of interest while being unnoticed. And besides this, there are numerous gadgets that simplify the passage: an improved invisibility generator, special hook that allow you to get to the mission location by a cable above the wall, various hacker improvements, the ability to reprogram guards ... And the locations themselves are more open for non-linear exploration than in Commandos. As for downsides, quests and missions often follow the same pattern, and it gets boring over time. As I have already noted, the balance between combat and stealth is off in favor of stealth, which is much more interesting than boring and drawn-out battles. The ending of the game is disappointing, as is the story as a whole. There are no saves in the missions themselves, despite the fact that the missions themselves often could drag on for hours. However, the game is addictive and captivating. Just don't expect a third Syndicate from it - despite some similarities and marketing buzzwords on this page, it's a completely different game under a similar skin.

Don't really know why people hate without stating reasons, but I'm having fun with this game. It's a big city you can just roam in. The first thing I did was just walk around my squad and see available options. The only thing this game really needs is mod-tools of some sort, preferably map editor for the building blocks of a long-lived community, and/or random missions.

Taking cover at a security door pops you through it. Apparently this bug has been around since release. It certainly kills my desire to play when in my first moments with the game where I'm being taught how to get through these doors correctly, and then I just click on it and get glitched to the otherside, then having to try to glitch myself back again so I don't feel like I'm cheating/at risk of breaking anything. A very poor first impression.