EA and Starbreeze reveal Syndicate FPS
No more "Project Redlime".
EA and Starbreeze (The Darkness, Riddick) have announced an FPS "reinvention" of Syndicate, which pushes real-time strategy aside in favour of "action/espionage" in a "fast paced, futuristic, action shooter" world.
The game is in development by an "all-new development team" at Starbreeze for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Syndicate has a surprisingly close-at-hand release date of "early 2012".
Syndicate, the "reinvention", is set in 2069, where governments have given way to mega corporations - syndicates - that sell neural implants enabling direct connection to world's Dataverse hub.
Customers flocked to buy the implants and associated benefits from the syndicates. In return, the syndicates gained unprecedented access to their customers' minds.
Three such syndicates vie, agressively, for the American market. You, Miles Kilo - a bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcer - belong to one of them, Eurocorp.
Combat revolves around upgradeable weaponry, armour and gear, as well as the bio-chip DART 6 head implant. This allows you to look through walls, slow time and "breach your enemy and everything digital in the world with Dart vision", according to information dug up on NeoGAF.
When enemies are killed, you can "harvest" their chip technology for personal advancement and "sinister corporate greed".
Author Richard Morgan has written the story.
There will be a separate four-player co-op mode that features missions from the original Syndicate game of 1993.
"We are excited to finally reveal what we've been working on the past couple years," commented says Mikael Nermark, Starbreeze CEO. "It's been a great experience working with EA, and an amazing opportunity for us to use our expertise in the first-person shooter and action genres to bring back, and reignite, the signature action/espionage gameplay of Syndicate."
"Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today's gamers as well as fans of the original," added Jeff Gamon, EA Partners Executive Producer.
"I'm sure they will enjoy and recognise the legacy that made it such a classic."
