''Satellite Reign'' is a

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...

real-time tactics Real-time tactics (RTT)(Article at IGN discussing their perception of RTS and related genres as of 2006. RTT is discussed as a new and not yet established genre from the publisher's perspective, so currently all RTT possible titles are still con ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

that was released in August 2015 for

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, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. The game was developed by Australia's 5 Lives Studios and is a spiritual successor to the ''Syndicate'' series, which co-founder and programmer Mike Diskett had worked on. The name derived from one of the weapons featured in ''Syndicate Wars'' called "Satellite Rain."

Development

After the release of the ''Syndicate'' reboot in 2012, the '' Syndicate Wars'' producer and lead programmer, Mike Diskett, expressed his displeasure over the game's lack of similarity to previous entries in the series:

"A lot of ''Syndicate'' fans, including myself, got our hopes up when we heard a new ''Syndicate'' game was in development, but in the end it turned out to be nothing like the original games."

This encouraged him to create the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

-based 5 Lives Studios (which included team members who had worked on other video game series such as ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily d ...

'', ''

L.A. Noire ''L.A. Noire'' is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. Set in 1947 Los Angeles, the game follows detective Cole Phelps's rise among the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department as he so ...

'', and ''

Darksiders ''Darksiders'' is a hack and slash action-adventure video game franchise created by Vigil Games, now developed by Gunfire Games, which consists of some of the original members of Vigil. The series is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where mank ...

'') and develop a spiritual successor to the game he made back in 1993:

"I've decided to take it upon myself to deliver what the fans really wanted."

Unlike the reboot, which was a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

, 5 Lives Studios tried to build upon the real-time tactics gameplay experience found in the original games by introducing a fixed camera system and

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is a job or profession commonly used to differentiate the abilities of different game characters. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes aggregate several abilities and aptitudes, ...

es. On June 28, 2013, ''Satellite Reign'' was announced on crowdfunding website Kickstarter with a (US$546,875) goal. On July 29, 2013, the project was successfully funded with (US$720,832) raised. The game was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on August 28, 2015. A post-launch update introducing four-player cooperative gameplay was released in July 2016. The soundtrack was composed by Russell Shaw, who worked on both ''

Syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...

'' and '' Syndicate Wars''.

Plot

Satellite Reign takes place in an unnamed fictional city referred to as "The City". A corporation named ''Dracogenics'' rises to prominence after releasing a prototype named Resurrection-Tech that is capable of providing immortality. Dracogenics turns to

corporate crime In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corpo ...

and bribes politicians with immortality in exchange for control and influence. This eventually leads to the privatization of The City's services and full corporate control over The City's police force. Civil unrest arises and is suppressed by Dracogenics, but a rival corporation soon comes to light and launches anti-Dracogenics attacks. The player controls this rival corporation and must overthrow Dracogenics from The City.

Reception

''Satellite Reign'' has a score of 75 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://satellitereign.com/ 2015 video games Crowdfunded video games Cyberpunk video games Kickstarter-funded video games Linux games Open-world video games Organized crime video games MacOS games Real-time tactics video games Science fiction video games Steam Greenlight games Video games developed in Australia Video games scored by Russell Shaw Windows games