1. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)(Adventure)2. Revulsion (PC)(FPS)3. Nonogram - Master's Legacy (PC)(Puzzle)4. Sekiro (PC)(Action-Adventure)5. Grim Dawn (PC)(Action RPG)
6. Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth (PC)(Action RPG)
7. Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods (PC)(Action RPG)8. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage (PC)(FPS)9. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)10. Shrine (PC)(FPS)11. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PC)(Adventure)12. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (PC)(Action)13. Red Alliance (PC)(FPS)14. The Forest (PC)(Horror)15. Pixel Puzzles: Japan (PC)(Puzzle)16. 12 is Better Than 6 (PC)(Top Down Shooter)
17. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)18. An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (PC)(RPG)
19. Port of Call (PC)(Walking Sim)20. NeonCode (PC)(Walking Sim)21. Carrion (PC)(Adventure)22. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC)(Walking Sim)
23. Helltaker (PC)(Puzzle)
24. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr (PC)(RPG)25. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)(Platformer)26. Treachery in Beatdown City (Switch)(RPG)27. Zeno Clash (PC)(Action)28. Borderlands: Enhanced Edition (PC)(FPS/RPG)29. Ion Fury (PC)(FPS)30. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC)(FPS)31. Shrine II (PC)(FPS)
32. Lycanthorn I (PC)(Action Platformer)33. Lycanthorn II (PC)(Action Platformer)
34. DLC Quest (PC)(Adventure)
35. Live Freemium or Die (PC)(Adventure)36. Satellite Reign (PC)(Real-Time Tactics)Just as Popo played through Syndicate, I played through Syndicate's spiritual successor, Satellite Reign. This was developed by 5 Lives Studios, a company founded by former Bullfrog dev Mike Diskett to create an update to Syndicate after the release of the FPS in 2012. Many fans of the original as well as former devs didn't like the complete genre reworking, so instead they decided to make their own, and instead of it ending up a straight remake, they switched up and modified many of the game's systems or streamlined them to both fit with modern design ideas as well as simplify the process.
Satellite Reign is still Real-time Tactics. Instead of a global fight for domination, however, you're now battling over a single city-state, which is the headquarters to a global corporate empire, Dracogenics. Dracogenics has created a new system by which to upload the mind and download it into clones, thus creating a form of immortality. With politicians, celebrities, and the wealthy all vying for a piece, this has made the Dracogenics Corporation very powerful...and you, as agents of a small and scrappy rival corporation, are eager to steal this tech and this power. To do this, you infiltrate the city-state, work your way through various districts' security checkpoints, mess up the operations of the various corporate power players in the area, and hijack, steal, or buy new arms, gear, and tech off the black market to aid you in your mission. Of course, you're not immortal, but thankfully you start by taking over a pirate version of Dracogenics tech, so...now you are.
Unlike Syndicate, there is no world map to move around, and your four characters are given specifically designated classes which they cannot deviate from. This does encourage some specialization, though gear choices can help you when one class isn't the best for a situation, such as needed a Hacker when your Infiltrator is making a milk run through a bank vault. To get the tech you need, you do still have to acquire it via various means, though once you have it, you get some choices: use it as a one-off prototype or research it to make a mass-produced cheaper knock off for you to buy at manufacturer cost. Of course, your backing corporation doesn't exactly want to give you money to do this, so instead you'll be skimming off ATMs to earn revenue, but hey, can't have everything in life.
While the gear can make up for the specialization of different classes, the specializations still will lead to choices on who to bring on a run and how to build them over time. There are four characters: Soldier, Support, Hacker, and Infiltrator. As you earn points while doing runs, you will use these to unlock skills and upgrades for each individual character. All of them get potential boosts to health, damage, and inventory size, but some get further benefits. For example, the Soldier can learn to carry and do more damage with explosives, can rapidly pump up damage output, or can even make themselves absurdly resistant to damage and then call attention to themselves so enemies focus fire, taking the heat off your team. The Infiltrator can cloak naturally and gets better melee abilities but also can learn to set up with a sniper rifle for massive damage output. Support can see the wiring of the world, rapidly boost healing, tell folks to focus fire on enemies for increased damage output, and even use stims to slow down time up to 90%, which because a pseudo-pause function to enable giving individual orders easier. And then there is the Hacker, who can get drones, hack systems, and hijack.
Yeah, hijacking comes back from Syndicate, only this time it serves a few more functions than before. First, it can convert civilians and later enemy troops to fight on your behalf. More importantly, it's how you get new clones. As your characters die in combat, their clones degrade in quality over time. So how do you fix this? Fresh meat; you seek new targets that will make for better up-to-date clones. While the benefits aren't as immediately apparent as, say, converting the big guy with the minigun to suddenly join your team in the middle of a fire fight, it can lead to massive upgrades in health, speed, accuracy, and so on. You want a good clone, probably a big tough corporate goon and not one of the bums sleeping on the street downtown.
Of course, none of this matters if you don't also bring firepower, and there are three main types: ballistics, lasers, and plasma. While explosives and fire are also usable, they're more specialty cases instead of a general option. All of these weapons and types are better suited towards taking down different types of damage resistance: shields, armor, and health. When an enemy runs out of health, it dies, but you first have to tear through the shields and then the armor to get to the sweet meats inside. Lasers are better at shields and flesh, though shields aren't common, even when nearing the end game. Plasma melts armor and isn't bad against flesh but suffers against shields. Ballistics is an all rounder that just doesn't hold up over time. While it's best to mix and match a few weapons across your team for sustained combat ability, truth be told you'll probably end up with a mix of laser and plasma weapons by the end. And these weapons can also get upgrades, like silencers so you don't attract attention, extended magazines, special abilities, and so on. My final loadout: Soldier with a plasma minigun and damage boosts, Support with a silenced plasma assault rifle, Hacker with a silenced laser assault rifle, and Infiltrator with a range boosted laser sniper rifle. Pick some good cover, convert an enemy or two to your side, get set up properly, and you can mow down a freaking army like this.
Yet it's not all easy street. You will have to contend with the occasional jank of the cover system. While it's usually great, and you should always send your troops between cover and look for great ambush spots, you'll find that sometimes it's tough to get that one spot you want or need. This isn't helped by the isometric viewpoint, which cannot spin but slightly sways like a security camera. Odds are you'll get used to it, but if you get seasick, well...this is an area that might have been improved with a full 360 camera spin, but maybe that wouldn't have been Syndicate enough. Usually the game isn't so bad about it and shows you enemy outlines and the like, but sometimes it is a pain in the ass trying to move into cover and not accidentally shoot out a security camera and attract unwanted attention.
Overall, I really enjoyed Satellite Reign. It takes a little to get going, but once you have some tech and a grasp of the gameplay, it becomes a hell of a lot of fun. I recommend it, both to fans of Syndicate and folks who are just curious.