wraggster
February 28th, 2012, 00:54
EA's decision to reboot the Syndicate with a first-person shooter was "the right choice", the gargantuan video game publisher has insisted.Both publisher EA and Swedish developer Starbreeze have discussed the development of the game, which launched last week.EA's decision to go first-person for today's Syndicate angered many fans of the much-loved strategy series and this, Starbreeze admitted, added pressure to the development.But EA said it was the right choice, given how old those strategy games are - and the fact that they're still around."It's been nearly 20 years since the original Syndicate came out back in 1993," EA's producer on the game, Jeff Gamon, told Eurogamer."So a lot of people playing this game would probably have heard of the original Syndicate but not necessarily have played it. Obviously we get asked a lot about the reaction of fans of the original to us taking it into first-person direction. But we have to maintain that was the right decision."Why remake that classic in its original form when it's still out there? So with a whole new audience and tastes in video games, and a whole new suite of platforms to develop for, the game we made was the right choice."For developer Starbreeze, which began pre-production on Syndicate with a small team in 2007, it knew from the start it faced an uphill battle convincing the veteran fans of the merits of the project."I knew that no matter what we did people would have strong opinions about it," lead co-op programmer Lars Magnus Lang said. "I can be the same with some games, also. I can still feel like, oh, did they have to do that?"So, absolutely, it was quite a bit of pressure to live up to those expectations. We knew that we really couldn't do that. Unless we made it into an RTS they would not be happy. But if we had made it an RTS we would have made only those people happy."
"Unless we made it into an RTS they would not be happy. But if we had made it an RTS we would have made only those people happy."
Lars echoed Gamon's comment about Syndicate being new for most modern gamers."They might have heard of it, but most people haven't played it," he said. "We wanted to cater to those people also, to everyone. I'd rather make a really good game for our players and make them really enjoy it, than just make a copy of an old game with updated graphics. That's not that super fun for either the end user or us. That game already exists."He pointed to the job Bethesda faced making Fallout 3, which caused controversy among hardcore Fallout fans for going first-person."I remember Fallout 3 also had the same thing. It is kind of forgotten now because it was great. Almost everyone liked it. There's always a few…"We make it good on its own merits, then we take the universe, the setting, the cyberpunk, and really be true to the original Syndicate, and that's it. "Syndicate endured a somewhat protracted development, although both EA and Starbreeze are keen not to go into too much detail.We do know that Starbreeze went back to the drawing board after a year of production because both the developer and EA agreed the game that was being made wasn't right.We also know that the game's co-op portion - perhaps its best - only came into place later on in development."We started off with a small team and probably going in the wrong direction," Gamon revealed. "It probably took a year before we figured out what we wanted to do with it and started building that in anger."We're grateful to have the opportunity to spend that time rather than being forced to get it done and out the door. It's not often you get the opportunity to take the time you need to make it as good as you'd like it to be."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-27-ea-syndicate-reboot-as-fps-the-right-choice
"Unless we made it into an RTS they would not be happy. But if we had made it an RTS we would have made only those people happy."
Lars echoed Gamon's comment about Syndicate being new for most modern gamers."They might have heard of it, but most people haven't played it," he said. "We wanted to cater to those people also, to everyone. I'd rather make a really good game for our players and make them really enjoy it, than just make a copy of an old game with updated graphics. That's not that super fun for either the end user or us. That game already exists."He pointed to the job Bethesda faced making Fallout 3, which caused controversy among hardcore Fallout fans for going first-person."I remember Fallout 3 also had the same thing. It is kind of forgotten now because it was great. Almost everyone liked it. There's always a few…"We make it good on its own merits, then we take the universe, the setting, the cyberpunk, and really be true to the original Syndicate, and that's it. "Syndicate endured a somewhat protracted development, although both EA and Starbreeze are keen not to go into too much detail.We do know that Starbreeze went back to the drawing board after a year of production because both the developer and EA agreed the game that was being made wasn't right.We also know that the game's co-op portion - perhaps its best - only came into place later on in development."We started off with a small team and probably going in the wrong direction," Gamon revealed. "It probably took a year before we figured out what we wanted to do with it and started building that in anger."We're grateful to have the opportunity to spend that time rather than being forced to get it done and out the door. It's not often you get the opportunity to take the time you need to make it as good as you'd like it to be."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-27-ea-syndicate-reboot-as-fps-the-right-choice