Reboots: On Shaky Ground

With brand new original intellectual properties becoming more and more of a risk for big AAA studios, the idea of taking an existing intellectual property and 'rebooting' it can seem like a promising venture. The product already has market awareness, fans of the original game will be onboard and they can engage a new audience too.

But the results can be mixed, there are other risks when rebooting a game that aren't present with a brand new IP. Here's a few reboots from the recent past and the near future... and the lessons we take away from them.

Syndicate
Original (1993), Reboot (2012)
Metacritic Score: 69

Perhaps serving as a warning to those who stray too far from the original formula, the Syndicate reboot certainly didn't set the charts alight. It took the setting of the original real-time isometric strategy game and translated it into a squad-oriented first-person-shooter instead. Whilst it wasn't a bad game, it wasn't a great game either, and fans of the original balked as their dreams of a modern-day Syndicate were churned out as a fairly generic FPS.

Lesson: Straying from the gameplay of the old games too drastically may alienate fans of the originals.

Tomb Raider
Original (1996), reboot (2013)
Metacritic Score: 86

The new Tomb Raider had a focus on story and action which got it favourably compared to Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. The brand evolved slightly here, shifting the focus away from raiding tombs and into survival. It was well recieved, although it didn't quite live up to Square Enix's perhaps unreasonable sales expectations (it sold over a million in the first 48 hours, and almost 3.5 million by the end of the month).

Lesson: Unreasonable sales targets. AAA development costs and brand awareness doesn't always equal insanely good sales figures.

Thief
Original (1998), Reboot (2014)
Metacritic Score: (not yet released)

The Thief reboot, due out next year, has me sitting on the fence... and falling off on either side any time there's new screenshots, footage or previews. On the plus side, The City itself looks really faithful, but now there's a feeling of scale to it that was never quite captured in-game with the originals. The first-person immersion looks promising too, with Garrett's hands darting to interact with the world as you move through it. They've captured an atmosphere in the design that looks immersive and intriguing, which is what the Thief games captured all those years ago.

But, for each positive there's at least two warning signs. The game's concept art looks much more Assassin's Creed than Thief, the original voice actor has been replaced and there's a new breadth of combat options such as drop attack takedowns and kung-fu-style martial arts moves that just seem out of place in a Thief game.

Put this alongside the previews that suggest the original lore and setting is being altered to be more palatable to a new audience, ignoring important factions and sidelining the fantasy aspects of the series, and it feels like fans of the series game aren't the ones being targeted here. Which then raises the question... why use this particular intellectual property anyway?

If it doesn't sell well, there's a good chance they'll blame the stealth genre of the game, when they alienated the fans of that particular niche genre in the first place with their approach at rebooting it.

Lesson: Ignoring the lineage and lore of the original games is a quick sure-fire way to gain the ire of series fans. Also, some IP's may be too niche for the AAA market.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Original (2000), reboot (2011)
Metacritic Score: 90

Okay, so this isn't technically a reboot (the game acts as a prequel to the original Deus Ex), Human Revolution introduced many new fans to the Deus Ex universe whilst respecting it's origins. What we got here was effectively a reboot that still considered the original game as canon.

Although not as deep in branching story and gameplay as the original offering, DE:HR did still improve on its namesake in other areas, especially art direction thanks to a beautifully slick and stylish look that really made the game stand out.

Most importantly, Human Revolution did right by the fans of the original, acting as a love letter to the old game whilst still being accessible to a new audience. The game acts as a prequel, with hundreds of references to characters, events and organisations that are relevant later. This attention to detail tells the fans that they're being respected.

It's not to say the game didn't have it's own problems, the biggest being the forced combat-only boss fights that were at odds with the breadth of options available elsewhere in the game. The game also stuck too closely to the original by making the ending a choice of several options, dependent upon which button you press (similar to Mass Effect 3's... Why do developers think we'll find this satisfying?)

But these points seem like nit-picking when the rest of what's on offer works so well.

This is a reboot done right.

Lesson: Respect the games, respect your fans.

Currently Funding: Satellite Reign

Currently Funding provides a look at games that are in the process of running a crowdfunding initiative.

Satellite Reign by 5 Lives Studios

Funding Target: £350,000 
28th June - 29th July 2013 on Kickstarter
PC, Mac and Linux

Satellite Reign is a real time strategy game set in a simulated cyberpunk city. You direct the actions of four agents who clash against corporate police and corrupt governments, choosing your path to the top in this sandbox city. The game aims to support a variety of gameplay styles, from all-out assault to espionage and infiltration.

The game is a spiritual successor to Syndicate, an isometric strategy game from EA and Bullfrog which came out in '93 (evoking memories of me rushing home from school, eager to play). A sequel followed several years later under the name Syndicate Wars. Whilst EA's latest take on the Syndicate series abandoned the isometric tactical gameplay in favour of a squad-based first person shooter, 5 Lives Studios is staying faithful to the strategic nature of the original games. Mike Diskett, project lead on Syndicate Wars, is one of the five members at 5 Lives Studios.

One interesting detail the Kickstarter campaign focuses on is the use of emergent gameplay, with the flow of electrical power, finances and information being part of the city simulation. The suggestion here is that this will allow the player to manipulate the world in a variety of ways. The game intends to be quite open in its mission structure, with the player being free to complete objectives using whatever means they see fit within the simulation.

The Pledges

If you're looking to support the development of the game, a £16 pledge gets you a digital copy of the game when it's finished (£13 if you can nab a migrating early bird), with options for boxed copies starting at £55. The usual run of pledge options are covered across the various tiers, from digital soundtracks, t-shirts, art books and signed copies all the way to being immortalised in the game as an NPC.

My Opinion

It's worth noting that whilst the games concept is promising and the art direction is solid, what remains to be seen is the gameplay itself. A lot of really cool extra features have been resigned to stretch goal material (multiplayer, larger scale destructable environments and so on), but what is promised here as a base game concept seems quite a desirable package to me. If the project doesn't reach well over the funding goal by the end of the campaign, I'd expect to see a fairly basic game world, but hopefully one with the potential for expansion packs or future installments to tackle some of those elusive stretch goals.

Personally, I've jumped in at the Transistor / Resistor pledge level as I like what I see here (plus, the t-shirt design looks pretty cool, even if it liable to change between now and shipping). The beta access at this level is a nice bonus, if I get the chance I'll likely jump in when it becomes available. With a team of just five trying to build an elaborate city simulation, I'm sure 5 Lives Studios needs all the beta testers they can get.

Further Reading

For more information on the project and pledges visit http://support.satellitereign.com/

The game is listed on Steam Greenlight and GoG, so if you like what you see, voting on those sites will help to ensure its future presence on those services.