Game News Sovereign Syndicate Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Crimson Herring Studios; Sovereign Syndicate

​

Review roundup:

But Why Tho? 8/10
Checkpoint Gaming 8.5/10
PC Gamer 80/100
RPG Fan 76/100
Try Hard Guides 9/10​

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1674920/Sovereign_Syndicate/
https://af.gog.com/game/sovereign_syndicate?as=1649904300

 

[luj1]

Sovereign Syndicate's unique Tarot system

lol

why am I under the impression its like that card shit from Pathfinder Kingmaker?

Expecting it to be neither unique nor a good system, but ill torrent it and we'll see. Devs nowadays sure love feature bloat and system bloat

Also I bet they are calling that Disco Elysium dialogue ripoff also a unique system

 

[SixDead]

I tried the demo and fell asleep after 10 seconds

 

[Morroweird]

review for those interested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDja8ss9G9o

 

[bionicman]

this looks like a fun adventure game

 

[Infinitron]

Oh right, there are reviews. Updated OP.

 

[Forest Dweller]

It's looks like a Disco-lite more than anything. Four attributes/skills instead of the twenty or so that Disco had. Mostly two options in conversations, rarely more, based on what's been shown. And multiple characters that you jump around to so that you can't really develop one too much. It's like if Heavy Rain and Disco Elysium had a baby. But it might be entertaining.

 

[luj1]

Ooops... just found out this doesn't even have combat. And also it has like binary dialogue choices lol

Guess I wont even bother to torrent it after all. Bizarre they dared to call it Arcanum successor.... Crazy false marketing

 

[Modron]

Did they actually call it an Arcanum successor? Or are you thinking of New Arc Line?

 

[luj1]

Right

 

[Urthor]

Looks good.

Has anyone actually played it?

 

[True Ukrainian]

I really dislike this recent trend of jumping between multiple protagonists and having them so heavily predefined.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Congrats, Disco-like is now a genre. Woop de doo. Will it get absorbed into adventure genre, establish a new subgenre of RPG, or go the way of the Walking Sim? (i.e. promoted through false advertising, shilled by faggy journos, and then dying pathetically due to no sales)

Anyway, a real game came out today, play that instead:

 

[LanciaArdita]

As admitted by the devs themselves, the game draws heavier inspiration from titles like gamedec than DE, so it would be fairer to call it an adventure game/interactive novel with RPG-lite elements, rather than a cRPG.

It has nowhere near the complexity of DE.

The writing style is something of a hybrid between angsty young adult novels and the communist manifesto.

Also halal for furries. Or furry-adjacent, hell if I know.

 

[Bester]

And also it has like binary dialogue choices lol

What's a binary dialogue choice - a yes or no?

 

[luj1]

Two options. Maybe it's a yes and yes, Idk.

 

[LanciaArdita]

Ooops... just found out this doesn't even have combat. And also it has like binary dialogue choices lol

Actually, and this is just a hunch mind you, but going by the about us section from dev's official site, I think they are implicitly in support of non-binary choices.

"As an organization, we strive to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive employer. We welcome applications from all qualified persons and encourage women, indigenous peoples, members of visible minority groups, and persons with disabilities to participate in our communities, play our games, and work with our studio."

 

[luj1]

honk honk

 

[Irxy]

As admitted by the devs themselves, the game draws heavier inspiration from titles like gamedec than DE, so it would be fairer to call it an adventure game/interactive novel with RPG-lite elements, rather than a cRPG.

But gamedec is crap, was it even popular? Why draw any inspiration from games like that instead of the ones actually successful.

 

[luj1]

But gamedec is crap, was it even popular?

Infinitron tried to make it popular but failed

 

[LanciaArdita]

But gamedec is crap, was it even popular? Why draw any inspiration from games like that instead of the ones actually successful.

It was a 72/100 on the metacritic aggregator, so good enough I suppose.

They drew inspiration from gamedec because it has just barely enough RPG elements to be tagged as an RPG (which is a sought after tag nowadays, almost every game shoots for some form of RPG-lite). Nevermind the fact that none of the skillchecks matter one bit and the dialogue choices are false dilemmas.

That's too bad because the art is quite eye-catching and unique. Reminds me of that old steampunk goblin card game, Gremlins, Inc.

 

[Isaac (Crimson Herring)]

As admitted by the devs themselves, the game draws heavier inspiration from titles like gamedec than DE, so it would be fairer to call it an adventure game/interactive novel with RPG-lite elements, rather than a cRPG. It has nowhere near the complexity of DE. The writing style is something of a hybrid between angsty young adult novels and the communist manifesto. Also halal for furries. Or furry-adjacent, hell if I know.

But gamedec is crap, was it even popular? Why draw any inspiration from games like that instead of the ones actually successful.

It was a 72/100 on the metacritic aggregator, so good enough I suppose.

They drew inspiration from gamedec because it has just barely enough RPG elements to be tagged as an RPG (which is a sought after tag nowadays, almost every game shoots for some form of RPG-lite). Nevermind the fact that none of the skillchecks matter one bit and the dialogue choices are false dilemmas.

That's too bad because the art is quite eye-catching and unique. Reminds me of that old steampunk goblin card game, Gremlins, Inc.

We've never said we took heavier inspiration from Gamedec than DE. I'm actually not sure I ever said I took any inspiration from Gamedec at all. Though it certainly was one of the first "Disco-likes" and I did enjoy the environments, UI design, and thought the premise of the game was interesting. I wish the writing had been better. Really wanted to enjoy that game but it just didn't click with me.

 

[Twiglard]

Ooops... just found out this doesn't even have combat. And also it has like binary dialogue choices lol

Actually, and this is just a hunch mind you, but going by the about us section from dev's official site, I think they are implicitly in support of non-binary choices.

"As an organization, we strive to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive employer. We welcome applications from all qualified persons and encourage women, indigenous peoples, members of visible minority groups, and persons with disabilities to participate in our communities, play our games, and work with our studio."

Good to know. I've updated the master wokeness list for this particular indie studio. Now only need to know how bad the actual game is.

 

[Rean]

I played the first segment (with the minotaur) and some of the second one (prostitute). It's steampunk Disco with some Victorian-era street English thrown in. Themes: sad orphan, discrimination against beast races, taking drugs in an opium den etc.
Refunded immediately after I saw that on the second character's quest details it said something to the extent of 'women have it reeeeally hard in this world'. Bear in mind that the segment was about a literal paid whore sleeping around with aristocrats and exploiting them to make bank so she can fuck off.