
While the original Syndicate was a real-time tactical game played from an isometric view, the new Syndicate is — unsurprisingly — a “visceral first-person shooter experience,” according to the game’s description. Set in the year 2069, Syndicate is set in a world “no longer governed by politicians,” but “divided up into regions controlled by megacorporations known as Syndicates.”
“These Syndicates have revolutionised how the consumer interacts with the digital world,” reads the game description. “No longer does the consumer require a device to access the world’s data and control their technology, they can do this at the blink of an eye via neural chip implant.”
Business has become war in Syndicate, with “bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcers” at the front line. Players will assume the role of Miles Kilo, an Agent of the Syndicate Eurocorp.
EA and Starbreeze tout “chip enhanced gameplay” that lets players slow time, see through walls and “interface directly with the Dataverse.” Read the game’s full (and still unconfirmed description below.
Syndicate is the re-imagination of a cult classic franchise from 1993 – a unique action shooter set in a not too distant future, where Business is War.
2069 — No longer governed by politicians, the developed world is divided up into regions controlled by megacorporations known as Syndicates. These Syndicates have revolutionised how the consumer interacts with the digital world. No longer does the consumer require a device to access the world¡¦s data and control their technology, they can do this at the blink of an eye via neural chip implant. Civilians flocked to be ¡§chip¡¦d¡¨ and enjoy all that their selected Syndicate has to offer; housing, medical, banking, insurance, education, entertainment and jobs. One complete package. One complete lifestyle. In return, the Syndicates gained unprecedented insights, and control, over the individual and their behaviour. With little governmental oversight, business has become war. The Syndicates will stop at nothing for ultimate market dominance. At the front line of this war are the Agents, the Syndicate¡¦s bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcers. They can breach anything in the wired world including their enemies, their weapons and the environment that surrounds them, making them the most efficient and deadly technological weapons in the world.Take on the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp¡¦s latest prototype agent, and embark on a brutal action adventure of corruption and revenge.
• Chip Enhanced Gameplay: Slow down time, see through walls, and breach your enemy and everything digital in the world with Dart vision — A neural DART6 chip implant that allows you to interface directly with the Dataverse.
• 4-Player Online Co-op: Assemble your Syndicate for global domination. A 4-player, online co-op experience like no other, with chip enhanced gameplay and 9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate.
• Visceral FPS Experience: utilise an upgradable arsenal of futuristic weapons, armour and gear to annihilate your enemies and harvest their chip technology for personal advancement and sinister corporate greed.
• Sci-Fi Fiction: Immerse yourself in the world of Syndicate 2069, with a world-class sci-fi story experience, written by bestselling author Richard Morgan.
Starbreeze’s Syndicate – New Info And Screenshots Leaked [NeoGAF]



















Korwin
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:46 AMOh looks, it’s a shooter… how surprising.
matt b
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:46 AMExcited by the headline
Disappointed by the post
welbot
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:47 AMWHAT! FPS!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????????????
What’s wrong with an updated isometric strategy?! SERIOUSLY!!! WHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY??????? It had better be bloody goood or I will RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Fred The Oyster
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:06 AMOn the other hand, the fanbase had the very same reaction when Fallout 3 was revealed – “Oblivion with guns”, “why are they messing with it?” we all know the complaints, and yet it turned out pretty well.
Glenn
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:00 AMHowever this is EA we’re talking about here. They’ve been known to screw up reboots/sequels/series in the past. Just look at Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, and lest we forget C&C!
Toolboy
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 4:13 PM+1
Aaron
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:30 AMFallout 3 isn’t the acid test though.
Xcom will be the comparable title, and we know Xcom is going to absolutely bite.
juststu82
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:48 AMI am disappoint
Aliasalpha
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:53 AMDon’t you guys know anything? FPS’ are the only thing that anyone wants, you can tell by the fact they’re the biggest sellers on the market
I’m certain that those sales figures have nothing to do with the fact that they’re about the only feckin thing produced by the risk paranoid industry nowdays
Mase
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:54 AMThey are the biggest sellers because they are the majority of the market and cheaper to make
Aliasalpha
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:13 AMKinda the point of my second paragraph, sales predictions become a self fulfilling prophecy when you change the market to have nothing but what you predict popularity for
Mase
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:21 AMI wouldn’t say it’s predictable, more like controlled. Shooters sell because most games are shooters and people have very little other choice in their gaming these days.
sumlolz
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:58 AMLets not get paranoid kiddies, they might do a good job at revitalizing Syndicate. Deus Ex was a good game despite being a FPS.
welbot
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:04 AMDeus ex was always and FPS though…
Braaains
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:29 AMExactly, and Syndicate wasn’t.
This is just like the new XCom game. It may well end up being a good game in its own right, but it won’t be a XCom(or Syndicate, in this case) game. So why give them those names? The names won’t mean anything to younger games who never played the originals anyway. And the people who DID play and love the original games all just get pissed off when these games they love get stripped of everything that made them special in the first place and turned into something completely different with no resemblance to the originals except the name on the box.
Pakka
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 6:56 PMDoes that mean Halo Wars isn’t really Halo cause it’s a RTS?
I can understand frustration over people who are sick of FPS – I reckon FPS games (mainly new IP) bomb more than any other genre, at least on consoles these days.
But just because they are doing the game in a different genre/aspect, doesn’t mean it can’t be apart of that franchise or hole that title.
coolguy
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 3:43 PMCome on man…….
I give up :(
PuppyLicks
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:58 AMRighto, after Riddick and The Darkness, lets see what Starbreeze can do with this.
Space Monkey
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:55 AMYep, next we’ll have “Populous: the shooter” :s
[Razor]
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 12:02 PMRollercoaster Tycoon: Gun Zone!
ABODI
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 6:37 AMlaughed at/with both you guys, but populous the shooter was so funny.
that would be so so so bad it could be good.
f4ction
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:59 AMAll aboard the fail train!
Luke
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:00 AMStarbreeze – leave Syndicate alone and stop relying on tenuous links to past games in order to promote your new game (which is clearly not a Syndicate game).
Sick of this shit.
Aidan
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:10 AMEA have an obsession with the word ‘visceral’ at the moment. Their marketing people need a thesaurus.
juststu82
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:25 AMinternal organal
Mad Danny
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:27 AMespecially since if they call everything a ‘visceral’ game, people might think they only have one studio developing them all!
El Sombrero
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 2:24 PM“visceral” is the new “immersive”.
Skidd
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:10 AMGuys guys guys….
Lets face it, you cant have an isometric strategy on the console with a flimsy game pad to control it. its bad enough they spew FPS onto the consoles with the sub standard control system…
Sigh I’m going to load up dosbox and play the classic. Wake me up when they remake the proper game.
MoVENTURA
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:22 AMMy first Syndicate experience was with Syndicate Wars on the PS1 and that worked brilliantly.
James Mac
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:04 AMI’ve said this many times… but here we go again:
There are a number of buttons on a modern controller, if you use the triggers as modifiers, then the numbers increase exponentially.
A lack of inspiration or willingness to try something different is not the fault of consoles… but of game developers.
DogMan
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:38 AMGo play Battalion Wars for the GameCube. Give me a small budget and I can make a game engine based on that which stays true to the original Syndicate games while bringing the franchise forward into the modern era of gaming and remaining easily accessible to any FPS player.
The issue isn’t that you can’t make a good Syndicate game for the modern console audience, you totally can, it’s that these guys aren’t looking to make something brilliant. They’ve been given Metroid and they’re going to make Doom with brain slugs instead of Metroid Prime.
SoulSilver
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:13 AMWhile dissapointed that its not an overhead isometric strategy game. As long as they keep the tactical squad based elements then it might be ok.
If they do an X-COM with this then I will definately be dissapointed.
Braaains
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:36 AMYou mean like this?
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/07/new-xcom-is-a-shooter-because-strategy-games-are-not-contemporary/
SoulSilver
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:05 AMPretty much.
tom
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:18 AMI’ve already played this, except it whent under a different name. It started with a ‘D’ I think.
Wade
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:19 AMGreat…..
So a Dues Ex clone inc then….
SunSkorpion
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 2:54 PMYou’ve taken the words right out of my mouth, sir.
al
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:36 AMugh
it will be another drop in the ocean as an fps. There is nothing to compete with syndicate at the moment in its genre.
well who knows as long as i get the persuadatron an can get an army of civilians following me ill be happy.
Ynefel
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:45 AM[slumps on desk at the prospect of Syndicate FPS]
[loads up DOSBox and Syndicate Wars]
[realisation I don't need this reboot crap]
[all is right with the world again]
Marathon
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:59 AMThe chance to bring back something awesome for a new generation,, instead another FPS clone to pile onto the junk heap.
Still hopeful it will be a good game on it’s own right.
Matt
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:06 AMSo it’s official then? Every video game has already been made and we’re going to get lumped with re-releases, remakes, reboots, rehashes and every now and again, “homages”.
MaxDestructo
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:23 AMI never played the originals and never will. I’ll wait until solid info and eventual reviews come out then decide on whether it’s worth it or not. Too many people moaning about these rehashed names without actually judging a game on its modern merits.
Ynefel
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:07 AMSays the guy who ‘never played the originals, and never will’.
I think you just made your own opinion null and void.
Weresmurf
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:45 AMI played the original, I saved my pocked money and bought American Revolt on day of release and eagerly purchase and was enthralled by Syndicate Wars.
I don’t see the point of the hate for this project. We know nothing of it at this point. It could turn out well.
I’m disappointed yes, that it’s not an rts but then, we knew it wouldn’t be didn’t we…
Osi
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:26 AMWhere’s my persuadertron bitches?
+1 here, excited by the title
-10 from the grim reality of it becoming another FPS.
Alex K
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:30 AMMan this makes me furious. What’s the point of keeping the Syndicate name if everything we love about the original is gone? Fkn raaaaaaaaaage.
Rod
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:56 AMI wouldn’t mind this being a ‘Syndicate:[insert subtitle here]‘ game so long as Starbreeze spent a few weeks whacking together a 21st century re-bake of the original ‘Syndicate’. It doesn’t need bloody “re-imagining” – it just needs high-res graphics, Win7 compatibility and the ability to rotate the camera angle! Give us that, and you can faff around with FPS spinoffs until you’re blue in the face.
gman
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:57 AMThe title built up my interest, screenshots killed it…
meh for another FPS…
Reign
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:02 AMSlow down time AND see through walls?
Wow, it’s completely new and exciting!
Osi
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:39 AMMost FPS’s I play these days seem to full of players speeding up time and seeing through walls…
Lone Wolf
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 11:02 AMFour player co-op is the only ray of light in this cloud of crap.
I remain optimistic about this, although I would be happier if the persuadotron returns.
In a 3rd person perspective, with the character as a mental program which can transfer to enemy agents slaved by the persuadotron if they die, this could have been an interesting game.
As it is, I understand Starbreeze are comfortable with FPS, but they could have at least tried to branch out a bit.
XCOM and Syndicate were both squad based with evolving rosters, so KEEP the roster, damnit!