Satellite Reign

Great Syndicate inspired cyberpunk game with RPG like elements and fun action. Good game, especally at the price.

Well ♥♥♥♥, I feel bad about leaving this on my backlog for so long - it was excellent.

A rough-around-the-edges Syndicate successor. Little bit late on the review, but I've had it since release. If you are a fan of cyberpunk or syndicate (wars), then I suggest snatching this up at a discount.

Game is OK, looks cool and works flawlessly on linux. That's about it. Giving negative because of total lack of immersion, shallow story, generic protagonists, no engaging characters whatsoever, no voice acting, no real cyberpunk music, no atmosphere, no real story to tell. Shame - good scenario, any sort of acting, proper music - I believe it could've been a real gem.

I played this game with 3 friends, and while co-op is supported, it became very clear that it's not the way the game is meant to be played. Controlling only one character in a 4-person squad feels very strange in an RTS. Manually clicking each enemy to nudge your character to shoot at them gets old fast. Also, the character 'classes' are imbalanced in how interesting or necessary their skills are (Hackers can hack doors, camera's, people, ATM's, and mechs; Heavy's can shoot slightly harder). While I can't recommend this game, this review isn't a hard 'No'. Co-op is filled with wacky shenanigans and the combination of RTS and stealth gameplay is fun and tense. The story is there, but will be mostly incomprehensible if you haven't read the prequel novella.

"Theatricality and deception are powerful agents." This is the first game where I encounter a mechanic like this, unlike other games that feature stealth, for this one it is different. Generally, I would turn off the cameras and waltz in bypassing what would be considered patrols. When I did this in Satellite Reign, I was starting to get frustrated after I destroyed a camera and there were now 3 NPCs patrolling the entrance I wanted to use, then it hit me. They were guarding the gate because someone blew up their camera. If you want a stealth approach in this game you need to take this into consideration, if you turn off the lights the guards will notice and boost their patrols. I really like this as you either bypass their security systems without altering anything, or you create distractions in close-by areas so the guards will leave the one you are interested in. You can use hijacking for this as well, works very nice. I really like the variety in setups you can have and the many ways you can use your agents, the aesthetics are very pleasing, very Cyberpunk. The game does not force you down on any path, you have complete freedom. You can even try to rush the final boss fight without getting much gear if you really want to, or you can take your time and do all the missions, it is completely up to you. One thing that I did find lacking, and this is where you can see that this is an indie game, is variety in missions. There are really 4 types of missions, go in and get out, go in with someone and break into the facility, break someone out of the facility, and finally, break into a facility and assassinate whichever NPC comes out running. I would of liked more variety in this area. The world design is great, the ending has a nice twist, the visuals and music are great. Game play is awesome, I hope they make more of this. I wish I played this sooner because it really is a really good game.

Satellite Reign is squad-based, real-time, isometric combat game with a semi-open world set in a neon, cyberpunk future. Unfortunately, it is far worse than the sum of its parts. It suffers from an embarrassingly clunky UI, a profound lack of polish, and poorly thought out game systems that never manage to mesh. There seems to be a lot of half-baked systems and ideas being tried (is it a combat game, a hacking game, a stealth game?), but none of them work on their own or mixed together. The ultimate result is an initially confusing, but mostly boring game, wandering into vaguely tedious and occasionally frustrating territory. Not worth anyone's time.

Absolutely perfect, in almost every way. The only possible improvement would be a mechanic for your team to fire on actively hostile enemies without you having to designate a new one every time one dies.