Syndicate, a religious isometric shooter from Bullfrog, turned 30 years old
Today, the Syndicate is thirty years old, the cult of the isometric shooter from Bullfrog, the action of which takes place in the Cyberpanic reality. On this occasion, it is worth recalling this classics and a series that she opened.
In Syndicate, we commanded a detachment of ruthless agents who followed the orders of the corporation. Unlike most of these games of that time, the authors did not realize this idea in the form of a step -by -step strategy, preferring it to an arcade shooter in real time. Another unusual element was the complete immorality of the game. We were not punished for the killings of civilians and other terrible acts, which fed perfectly into the Cyberpankovsky nature of the game.
The players liked such solutions, and the success of the game also contributed to an excellent audiovisual design. Graphics – a real masterpiece of that time and one of the best examples of creative bypass of hardware restrictions. This is due to the fact that the developers chose a high resolution at that time 640×480. To do this possible on 1993 computers, the authors limited the number of colors up to sixteen. The result was an attractive and very unusual graphic design, which can be enjoyed today.
The game received one extension in the form of American Revolt. The popularity of the game has led to the fact that it was redone for consoles. The consoles could not cope with the original version of Syndicate, so the graphics and architecture of the levels differed significantly from the original on PC and Amiga computers on SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive.
The brand lived to two other parts. In 1996, a sequel was released in the form of Syndicate Wars. The game moved the series to the third dimension using a highly modified Magic Carpet engine. Today his settings seem simple, but at the time of the release he was very impressive, at least in SVGA mode. However, he was very demanding, so many players were forced to play in VGA (320×240), which, unfortunately, offered an extremely unreadable image.
The rest, however, it was a successful sequel, who developed many ideas of the original and proposed significantly improved AI. Fans were generally satisfied. At that time, they still did not know how long they would have to wait for another similar game.
After the exit of the sequel, the franchise lay idle for sixteen years. And only in the last decade, Electronic Arts, which he belongs, remembered him. Bullfrog studio has long closed, so the development of the new part was entrusted to the Starbreeze team, known for The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. As a result, in 2012, a series reloaded was released, which received a simple name Syndicate.
The game abandoned the mechanics of previous parts. Instead, we got a first -person shooter. Fans were disappointed, but in a retrospect, if you look at this game in isolation from its brand, it was a successful FPS, with an impressive combat system and impressive graphics.
The reloading of the series was pretty good, but it cannot be denied that she disappointed many fans who wanted to return the old play style. It was on this discontent that the 5 Live studio decided to earn money by developing Satellite Reign. Released in 2014, this game was conceived as a spiritual heir to Syndicate Wars.
The authors managed to fulfill this task quite effectively. Satellite Reign is a slightly more modest setting of the original, but successfully recreates its mechanics and atmosphere. This was facilitated by the fact that one of the developers of Syndicate Wars acted as a work consultant. The project is clearly low -budget, but in the category "The spiritual heir Syndicate" You will not find anything better.