Warning: Long post.
So, Satellite Reign.
Is it the Syndicate / Syndicate Wars sequel you have been waiting for?
I don't know. It sure seems to be the one I was waiting for though.
The Basics:
The evil company Dracogenics (it's a cyberpunk story, big companies are by default evil) created immortality tech: the rich and powerful can download themselves into new bodies and essentially live forever. But a new player has arrived on the scene who aims to grab this tech and power it brings for themselves. Enter you.
To this end you control a small, 4-man clandestine team of cloned agents in isometric real time (without pause). A main story offers missions to guide you along and access to the different districts of the city has to be unlocked, but mostly players are free to do as they please in each district and pick targets of opportunity.
Your Agents:
Your agents have been cloned using stolen Dracogenics tech. As a result you can discard their bodies at a whim and download them into new hosts. This is meant to a) explain the respawn mechanic and b) the game's new recruitment mechanic.
If an agent dies, they can be respawned at the nearest beacon. After some time. For a bit of cash they'll respawn sooner. The respawn timer and cash depends on the complexity of the agent being cloned. More augments and equipment requires more time and resources to procure after all.
But a base body can provide only so many ressurections before the genetic information starts to degrade. Thus you are required to diverify your gene data base by snatching people off the street.
While in previous games your agents were faceless, vat-grown base clones, interchangable for anything but their installed augments, the dracogenics tech has allowed for far more sophisticated skill sets. Your agents now each have a class/specialization. You have one of each, representing the four key agents who's conciousness is being transfered from clone to clone. Melkathi notes: This has been a point of critique from fans of the old games: we want our faceless clone. It is part of what makes cyberpunk so distopian after all. Now that the body snatching is in place though, I for one have become quite happy with the new system.
The Soldier Agent:
The soldier is your grunt. At first not really able to do all that much other than shoot stuff and be shot at, they can enter a state of Rage to become more effective in combat, Draw Fire away from squishier friendly targets, Harden themselves to damage, and become the team's Explosive Specialist. On top of that they can learn to Hardwire equipment - a usefull skill when you want to turn off the electricity to a military compound.
The Support Agent:
The support agent does exaclty that: help your team accomplish their mission. They can heal team mates, hand out combat stims and even have some leadership training to boost the team's effectiveness. Most importantly though they are equiped to perform a World Scan, checking the flow of information for details about their surrounding. They can see what camera is connected to which control panel, but also who that civilian is who just strolled past.
The Hacker Agent:
The hacker agents hacks. They can hack door controls. They can hack security cameras. They can even hijack the chips implanted in a person's brain. Melkathi notes: In effect the good old persuadatron from the Syndicate games, intelectual property tied to that license, has been turned into a skill in this game. A hacked person can follow the agents around and assist in combat, or they can be send back to base and used in the gene pool (ouch). In combat, the hacker is an expert when it comes to energy weapons and can deploy combat drones like a rigger in Shadowrun.
The Infiltrator Agent:
The infiltrator does the sneaky stuff. Like the soldier they start off rather skill-less (though with a neat sniper rifle). Soon though they can develope their sniper skills, dealing knockback damage and entering sniper stances, but they can also learn to be extra sneaky. The click button turn invisible mechanic can seem out of place in many games, in a cyberpunk game it does make a certain sense though (think assassination scene in 1995's Ghost in the Shell). And to make the stealth even more usefull, the infiltrator can be trained in melee combat for stealthy, silent kills.
Melkathi says: Yup, I do kinda miss the agents with the complete lack of personality. Syndicate was the one game series where this lack actually enhanced the atmosphere. But the classes and accompanying skills add a lot more options without truly taking anything away gameplay wise. Maybe it would have been better if the player could choose how agents specialize. But 5 Lives Studio is just five people and they do have to set in limits if they want to ever produce a finished product. This is a limitation I can live with. Most importantly it adds more than it takes away. Agents haven't lost any ability. They simply became from four clones who can hold an Uzi, four clones who can hold an Uzi and know how to...
The City:
You can move around the city freely. For specific values of freely. There are restricted zones where guards will shoot you on sight. There are gates that need to be bypassed one way or another. there are security cameras that will spot you. So let's say: you can try to move freely. But nobody stops you from trying.
The city districts have been quite lovingly crafted to give players loads to do, and more than one way to do these things.When for example you leave the short tutorial (right click to make your agent walk over there etc) and enter the Downtown District, all you have to do is get the band back together and get access to the next district. All you can do though is a whole lot more. There is a bank waiting to be robbed. There is a Dracogenics military compound waiting to be raided. There is a Ronin Industry storage facility to be snuck into. There is the CCTV database to be hacked and the Black Market Clinic inside the Wyvern compound that could be of interest.
And of course there are the spots to set up your beacons, the ATMs to be hacked and the civilians doing what civilians do: walk around oblivious to the fact that the player is about to happen onto their lives.
Holster your weapons, stroll around, see the sights. Don't get arrested.
The Mission:
Your mission log holds the information Tag (the lady with the sexy accent) has provided you both on your main mission and on targets of opportunity. She also provides opportunities to purchase more info through information brokers and strategic bribes.
For example, and only the tiniest spoiler, the game intro informs you that one of your agents has been arrested. As you leave the tutorial, saving them should be a top priority. You know the location of the police compound they are being held in. It has a big gate. You could blast your way through the gate. Shoot the guards and fight your way back out through the inevitable reinforcements. You could wait for a patrol to open the gate, then fight your way in. Of course you could also wait for no guard to be in sight and hack the gate controls. Alternatively you could snoop around for something other than the gate. Have some spare cash? Tag has a contact who knows someoneone who knows a corrupt cop. That can save you the snooping. Through the back alley to the west you can enter through the compound's back door. Or from the construction site to the east you can use a cable to zipline directly onto the prison roof. The choice is yours.
Melkathi says: the back door really is the easiest way. Your agents come out fairly close to the CCTV control panel, turning the sneaking to the prison building into a stroll. And if you don't dawdle, you can be back out the same way before the cameras wake up.
Hijacking:
A note on hijacking. It is a skill only your hacker has. And it is a skill that needs to be upgraded. A level 1 skill can only grab civilians. At level 2 some minor guards can also be controlled. The heavier guards require a higher skill. Guards too can be send back to the gene databank, though currently it messes the game up a bit: Sending the hijacked person to base releases them from your command, resulting the guard you hijacked to then try and shoot you if you are in a restricted area. When you kill them they still appear in your gene pool.
Before you hijack a new recruit it is advisable to perform a World Scan with your support agent. Once a person has been scanned, with just a small expenditure you can download additional information on them, showing you how they would affect an agent's stats if they were used as gene material for a new clone.
The World Scan:
The Wold Scan is an integral part of the game. Within its radius it shows you power lines, highlights important objects and highlights human targets in different colours: white for civilians, red for guards, blue for agents and yellow for VIPs. Need to assassinate a target? Scan the area they were last seen and locate their chip. Need to bribe someone for their access codes? Do the same. And as guards are highlighted in red, a scan will help you keep tabs on them while you are infiltrating a facility.
And you'll want to do random scans as you travel through the city. Not all civilians are just average Joes and Janes. Sometimes someone will turn out to be someone you need: a World Scan may reveal a person to be a scientist you can headhunt. Offer them some cash and poach them away from their current employer to bolster your research team.
Final Thoughts:
It seems you cannot lose the game. Even though clones deteriorate if they die too often, you can simply grab more bodies off the street - life in the city is cheap. Hacked ATMs provide a steady cash flow. It seems you will always be able to recover from any mistake. Some people may wonder what the point is of trying then. Well, for some there may be no point. But dying does rob you of time, can rob you of money, of the sense of accomplishment and, as you are forced to replace the clone base for your agents, it can rob you not only of an agent's dashing good looks, but also the desirable traits of a body. Melkathi remembers: While most civilians seem to give around +10 Health as a clone, and my base soldier clone had a nice +30, I ran accros a lady with a funky haircut who had +80 health. The ideal meat shield! To me, eventually being forced to replace that body could end up just as bad as a game over screen.
To me the game is a lot of fun. I love the atmosphere. A LOT of work has been thrown into it by the small dev team. It captures a lot of what made the original Syndicate games *feel* great without simply copying them. It is a game that stands in its own right. It is real time without pause, but so far it hasn't gotten so hectic that I woul have needed the pause. Then again. When I did get overrun, I recloned my agents and tried again.
