Sovereign Syndicate - a Steampunk Disco-Like

[1998]

This one was released yesterday. Steampunk and Disco, surely an HQ favorite. I will unironically play it next and report back.

[Shillitron]

Coulda swore we had a thread about this already.

I'm cautiously interested. IIRC the trailer looked like ass though.

[Acrux]

As I said in the other thread, this is every bad idea combined onto a single "game". Including no combat, btw.

[The_Mask]

I will unironically play it next and report back.

This would be much appreciated!

[asf]

is being disco like supposed to be a positive trait

[1998]

Including no combat, btw.

That's why it's not in the RPG subforum

[1998]

[1998]

Something like 3 hours in, just finished chapter 2.

• You will play 3 different characters and can choose an archetype out of 4 for each of them. Each archetype has varying bonuses to 3 out of 4 attributes (different for each character). Attributes are often only flavor-text and especially in the beginning they feel like inner voices. Often there are multiple consecutive entries from these attributes, your "self-image" etc. It is presented like a dialogue but its only the PC talking to himself.

• Attributes are also occasionally used for checks. So far they don't seem to mean much. Either by succeeding in the check you get another random line to describe an object, or often it doesn't even matter one bit. In one instance I failed the check to break a lock, the lock broke anyway. I re-loaded and succeeded and got exactly the same result.

• Generally it's very pretentious. They have of course a tooltip dictionary in case you don't know what a "barmy naff" or "mingebag" is. But the same is true for the character system/progression. To increase any attribute, say Grace, you need to increase the corresponding "influencing humour", in Grace's case this is Blood. Once you collect 10 Blood you get one additional point Grace. Just call it EXP.

• The first chapter had little exploration, but potentially some real choices. I actually started it again just to see if those are real, meaningful once and it could be. You basically have the choice to leave this chapter via 3 different ways, and as far as I can tell they play at least initially differently. The second chapter's area was much larger, even a bit too large. But also very linear, I don't think any of your Archetype choice would make any difference.

• The camera is also a bit weird. You can't rotate, but it's also not fixed. It's constantly moving and panning what feels in all directions for no apparent reason.

• The card thing is just a gimmick. Instead of rolling a dice for attribute checks you draw a card. Mechanically the same. New traits are also shown as cards. But there is no deckbuilding and obviously also no combat whatsoever. Traits open new dialogue options, that's it. They could have shown the traits in a list and it wouldn't change anything

• As for woke content, just see above screenshot. There are 1-2 more examples like that in the second chapter. But it does make sense that the character lectures us about morality given that she is the most successful hooker in East London.

• Story so far is still somewhat interesting enough to keep me going. I think the final verdict really depends on how well all three story lines come together in the end and how much non-linear the story actually is

[Vanger]

Barf.

[Hauberk]

I can't let you suffer alone, @1998.

Having grown to a team of over 20 developers, Crimson Herring Studios collectively has experience ranging from indie to Triple-A video game production across all disciplines. Our projects are being produced through a combination of Canada Media Fund programs and self-funding / self-publishing.

Since founding the Studio in April of 2020, Isaac has guided the growth of the organization and project resources to include over $1 Million combined from the Canada Media Fund Conceptualization, Prototyping and Production programs.

The World We Want To Make

As an organization, we strive to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive employer. We welcome applications from all qualified persons and encourage women, indigenous peoples, members of visible minority groups, and persons with disabilities to participate in our communities, play our games, and work with our studio.

We encourage the participation of marginalized groups in our gaming community and seek their input to give a credible voice to the characters and perspectives we share in our games. By seeking out members of these marginalized communities and engaging with them on issues that are important to them, we can develop more inclusive games.

The founder / producer was also in HR previously.

https://www.crimsonherring.com/about/

[rusty_shackleford]

Our projects are being produced through a combination of Canada Media Fund

What are the examples of government-funded games that aren't total shit?
Off the top of my head, WL3 scammed the Louisiana government and it's decent.

[Acrux]

@1998 - thanks for wasting your time!

[Vanger]

What are the examples of government-funded games that aren't total shit?

Piranha Bytes used German state funding, some of their games have been good.

Kingdoms of Amalur was okay, thanks Rhode Island.

[1998]

Finished it.

It's more of a visual novel than Disco was. Disco had at least some sort of exploration, here it's just meaningless and long backtracking between locations at a way-too-slow walking speed, even with "always run" on.

As for choices, it's basically Telltale-level. Often the game clearly wants you to select the "good" choice, if you go off-track the game just ignores it. Reactions often feel a bit off or awkward because of that.

The story itself is pretty meh as well. It's a 10-12h "game", 18 chapters, 3 characters so it's easy to keep going until the end, just like an average Telltale game or similar.

2/5

[1998]

Since founding the Studio in April of 2020, Isaac has guided the growth of the organization and project resources to include over $1 Million combined from the Canada Media Fund Conceptualization, Prototyping and Production programs.

Yeah, when I saw that Canada splash screen I knew what was coming.

[Konjad]

I tried it a while ago, so here are my thoughts about it.

It copied the formula of games such as Disco Elysium or Planescape Torment - where the bulk of the game is reading, making some dialogue choice or two and reading more.

But where DE or PST succeeded many games failed. It's easy to see why. PST was a game which touched a lot of philosophical matters about mortality and morality, ideas people thought about thousands of years ago and will probably think about it in thousands of years in the future, and an abundance of text was the consequence of it. Disco Elysium was a game which brought into question modern politics and culture, with the player making choices about his own worldview and spiralling into it, and a lenghty texts were the result of such approach.

Sovereign Syndicate, however, is written with a contrasting perspective. It reminds me more of Torment: Numanuma. It's a game that was made with the design like "let's make a game like that other one 'cos it was popular, it had lots of text, so we need a lot of it too". So you read through pages and pages of tedious dialogues to get dull stories in a passionless world to complete jejune quests. Then you start skipping it more and more and finally ask yourself "why do I even play it?"

[Xenich]

Sovereign Syndicate, however, is written with a contrasting perspective. It reminds me more of Torment: Numanuma. It's a game that was made with the design like "let's make a game like that other one 'cos it was popular, it had lots of text, so we need a lot of it too". So you read through pages and pages of tedious dialogues to get dull stories in a passionless world to complete jejune quests. Then you start skipping it more and more and finally ask yourself "why do I even play it?"

I am getting tired of that to be honest. It seems like most games of this nature these days try to produce some intellectually deep philosophical question, yet end up being nothing more than a bunch of stoned idiots splashing around in a puddle.