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KickStarter Satellite Reign - Syndicate Wars spiritual successor from original devs

Chippy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 5, 2018
Messages
6,037
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I am curious though, has anyone heard from these devs? 15 seconds of googling shows that 5 Lives Studios may have vanished. I like their concepts and ambition from this first project, I hope the game didn't tank and ruin their careers.

Apparently they are still working on a new project.



Would be great if they were working on a game inspired by the Syndicate franchise.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Recently people on Steam forums were talking about the death of 5 Lives for some reason, but apparently they're alive, ten times, and still working on the new game: https://steamcommunity.com/app/268870/discussions/0/1636410430548659270/?ctp=2#c1737763618272323018

We are still 5 Lives, in fact we're over 10 Lives now. As already stated we are working on something new which hopefully you will hear about this year sometime. But that's all I can say. I can also say that we have not forgotten Satellite Reign either.

And a post from November 2017: https://steamcommunity.com/app/268870/discussions/0/1488866180609015535/#c1488866180610106155

You're right Oddball, there is no harm in us commenting on Satellite Reign. Just no one ever really asked us before.

Satellite Reign has been a modest success for us. Going from literally nothing as a studio, funded by Kickstarter and successfully launching the game, receiving mostly postive reviews and funding us further to not only add Co-Op Multiplayer after launch but to fully fund our next game ourselves.

We can only thank our backers and people who bought the game to bring us where we are now. We're now swimming in money and buying islands and sports cars, our modest success just allows us to keep doing what we love, making games, while we support our families and basically live our lives.

That's by no means claiming SR is a perfect game, far from it. There's things we'd like to address and things we could have done a lot better. But at a certain point we have to step back a bit and concentrate on what comes next.

Our new project is something completely new, we spent some time looking into Satellite Reign sequels and spin-offs but for now they are on the backburner for various reasons. We have tons of ideas of where to take SR, but for now our new project is taking all our time and focus. I can't say definitively SR follow up will come next, as things may change. But if our next game is just as successful as SR was, a followup to SR will be one of the first things on the cards.

You're right we should be spending more time communicating with the community, but it's difficult to remember on a day-to-day basis. That's by no means an excuse, as it's not good enough. It's just we're a small team with our heads down, doing what we're best at, making games.
 

Sinatar

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
569
Funny, this game crossed my mind the other day. Was it really that bad? Never tried it.

It's not a bad game, but it doesn't play anything like Syndicate. Feels more like an open worldish Commandos then anything.
 

Iluvcheezcake

Prophet
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,651
Location
Le Balkans
After initially disliking the game for various reasons people already mentioned i gave it another spin and actually finished it. Bought it for 10 bucks a few years back on GoG.
All in all, its not bad, and i had a lot of fun with it. Went through missions mostly as stealth.
Its decent, and i liked it. Just not worth 30 bucks. Buy it on a sale
 

Van-d-all

Erudite
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
1,557
Location
Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
After initially disliking the game for various reasons people already mentioned i gave it another spin and actually finished it. Bought it for 10 bucks a few years back on GoG.
All in all, its not bad, and i had a lot of fun with it. Went through missions mostly as stealth.
Its decent, and i liked it. Just not worth 30 bucks. Buy it on a sale
It's noticeably better in Hardcore mode, when a grenade blast can instakill your entire squad, giving it the American Revolt vibe.
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
9,420
Location
Grand Chien
This game wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. As others have explained, it plays little like Syndicate, and becomes repetitive rather quickly. I enjoyed my time in the first city but realised pretty quickly that I wasn't motivated to play it further.

I think they delivered on a moderately enjoyable game, but failed to deliver a good Syndicate game.
 

Daedalos

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
5,559
Location
Denmark
This was nothing like Syndicate Wars.

The sound design was fucking terrible compared, the graphics were good, but overhyped and unoptimized as FUCK.

The overall art was okay-ish, but too bloomy.

The game design and mechanics itself was nothing like the old syndicates.

It was a huge disappointment to me, coming from Syndicate Wars, which is a fucking amazing game.
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,509
Location
The Present
:necro:
Yea they marketed it as a successor to Syndicate but ended up making a successor to Commandos.

I've been playing this recently, getting through my backlog. I very much agree that this game plays like Commandos. The Syndicate parallels are obviously there, but right now I'm very early in the game so I don't have many weapons or abilities to play around with. Hacking & hardwiring are so patently important that putting skills elsewhere is prohibitive. In the meantime it's all about sneaking past guard rotations and cameras.

Overall the general mechanical design seems pretty solid. Area design seems decent, but again, they areas mostly play out the same due to skill priorities. One thing I like a lot, is how they've turned meta-game functions into skills. A wise choice that should be done more.
 
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Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
990
I've been trying SR several months ago and dropped it at a third area.
To me gameplay became too repetitive. There were no tactical decisions to make. Because the squad is small (4-6 units) while the units don't vary that much. Squad composition is fixed. Weapon variety is minimalistic (anti-shield or anti-armor? maybe something else as well). You always want to begin combat capturing one of the enemies to serve as a tank (and probably as a damage dealer).
Missions are very simple in structure. You move from A to B and maybe shoot someone at B.
Economic system is retarded, since you can hack some ATMs to get some cashflow and go to sleep/work. Come back and you have all the money you would realistically need. IIRC, there're no trading or base-building systems.
I liked the level design. It's copypasted at times and has almost no interiors, but the backdrops themselves are pretty atmospheric.
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
990
the game autocloses after 30 minutes afk.
I've beelined straight to ATMs in each new area. And then wandered aimlessly through the areas looking at pretty stuff and fooling around secondary missions while the benjies flowed in. Got zero money problems all game.
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,509
Location
The Present
SR shines in midgame. Early game is too much like commandos because you have so few abilities and items, late game your squad is nearly invincible. Going to the industrial zone after the starting one also gives the best challenge.

This game wasn't my favorite, but I am glad I played it. It does a great deal of things correctly even if they aren't obvious at first. I have been contemplating writing a review and guide to highlight those things, but I've been lazy.
 

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