Starbreeze’s Syndicate, a reimagining of Bullfrog’s original strategy release from the 1990s, has hit store shelves today for the PC, 360, and PS3. The game might have shifted from an isometric strategy to a first-person shooter, but the dystopian future ran by mega corporations who hire bio-chip-enhanced agents to carry out their dirty deeds remains the same. As one of these agents, players will be able to manipulate time, see through walls, and hack their way to money and power.

Syndicate features a single-player campaign as well as four-player co-op multiplayer. As members of the new Wulf Western syndicate, squads of agents will need to fight through nine different missions to dominate their rivals by stealing blueprints and ripping bio-chips from the heads of syndicate bosses.

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Set in 2069, Syndicate takes players into a dark, Machiavellian world where corporations are vying for market dominance. With no government to question their intentions or actions, mega corporations are at the forefront of this war. Stepping into the mind of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp’s latest prototype agent, gamers embark on a brutal action adventure full of corruption and revenge. Syndicate features the talents of celebrated actors Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Men in Black II) and Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity), who take on the roles of cutthroat executives working for the biggest and most aggressive syndicate. The engaging storyline was penned by award-winning sci-fi writer Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon, Thirteen) who has brought these deeply conflicted characters to life in an unforgiving world where violence, corruption, technology and betrayal have become the everyday tools of business.

Official Site: Syndicate.EA.com

Sins of a Solar Empire developer Ironclad Games has announced a new free-to-play ‘hero-and-commander’ strategy title, Sins of a Dark Age. Unrelated to the other Sins, Dark Age pits online teams against one another in short head-to-head matches or as allies against an AI opponent in custom scenarios. Players choose a commander to oversee the army and base building, while a group of heroes lead the charge. Heroes are selected from an increasing pool of power-wielding warriors who level up with experience and act as rallying points for the troops. On a slight twist to the free-to-play model, powers are free, with heroes, commanders, factions, and skin costing real-world bucks.

Ironclad is looking to kick off Sins of a Dark Age’s beta later this summer.

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Official Site: SinsofaDarkAge.com

Back in Action is a remake of Sir-Tech’s 1999 turn-based strategy game Jagged Alliance 2. Longtime fans would be forgiven for not seeing the connection once past some superficial similarities of story, characters, and locations—these aren’t totally in synch in all cases, either. Mercenaries have biographies and squadmate preferences, but they largely lack the eccentric personalities from before; also gone is the danger and fear of them packing their gear and hitting the road, as their contracts are now for the duration of the mission. Fog of War is gone as well, replaced with clear skies and replacing the series’ methodical pacing with an emphasis on setup and ambush. Even the core of the game is different, with the traditional turn-based system supplanted by a real-time setup that features a turn-based-styled subsytem dubbed “Play & Go.”

With the play-and-go system, orders can be given to any number of mercenaries while the game is paused, as well as synchronized between each mercenary’s action timeline; these orders are then carried out once the game is resumed. There are also some helpful visual aids, including a visible line of sight and highlighted targeting radius, which indicate whether a move might end up being a bust before it’s even engaged—even an elaborate six-step order can be erased with the click of a button. In theory, this is a great workaround to streamline the menu system while keeping the action fast and furious. In reality, as with much else Back in Action brings to the table, it’s a series of small victories and major headaches.

The problem with the play-and-go system is that it relies on an erratic AI that indulges in its mischievous nature at random. That perfect two-team insertion and two-team flanking maneuver that took so long to tweak just so, canceling moves and re-issuing them to ensure that the mercs hit just the right spots and cover just the right angles, can quickly go down the tubes as one team gets stuck trying to enter a doorway—or one taking a turn before the other, causing their squadmate to jerk back and forth as they try to walk around their partner. Other times, it’s a non-playable character, like the time when a child ran and cowered directly in front of my mercenary as she was trying to cross a makeshift bridge to support her squad. Sometimes the furious jerking will cause them to shift enough to where they can get around the impediment, but there are also times when they will just give up. And sometimes they don’t even bother moving. Seeing as how I racked up a nice pile of henchmen and cut a trail of sweet liberty across Arulco, pathfinding problems won’t prevent the job from getting done, but they are common enough to be a major annoyance.

Then there are the curious design decisions that make life just that much more difficult. There tend to be workarounds for most of the more common issues, such as setting squadmates on Guard so that they can cover a merc who was given an order to fire on an enemy while the game was paused and will stop after one shot (unless given numerous attack orders), but they are far from optimal. Another instance is that the function keys are assigned to various stances, with each stance modifying movement speed and accuracy. The sequences goes Prone (slowest but most accurate), Crouch, Run (fastest but least accurate), and Ready Weapon. Notice something odd? It’s as natural to accidentally order someone to Run, thinking they’re being ordered to Ready Weapon due to the flip-flop in numerical sequence, as it is to forget to assign multiple attack orders during a turn in the heat of battle.

Speaking of awkward, the inventory system is in dire need of some tweaking, as is the militia system. In many instances, it seems as though what shouldn’t have been streamlined was and what should have been wasn’t. Let me go through the process of both to help illustrate how their deficiencies are compounded by their intertwined nature, and how the combination does a number on the game’s newfound focus on fast-paced action.

Each mercenary’s main inventory menu shows a paper doll of the character with several slots (head, chest, feet, hands, weapon mod slots, and eyes) as well as two grids, one for three backup weapons and another for everything else. Weight is also a factor, with weaker mercenaries quickly degraded to hobbling status once they become weighed down when carrying too many items. As the game progresses, and the standard tactical situations become known and the mercenaries’ abilities take form, it becomes necessary for each character to carry a backup weapon as well as the mods and ammo required for it. For instance, a mercenary with a high degree of marksmanship would do well to have a long-range rifle for closing in and a medium-range assault rifle for urban combat; that’s one backup weapon slot already taken up. Weapons also degrade over time, so it becomes important to have some squadmates with mechanical chops as well as the requisite cleaning and repair kits. Also, because there are varying degrees of every situation, it’s never enough to have one type of repair kit or one type of gauze: each specialist will need to have multiple item types to meet each situation. Now then, with everyone kitted out, let’s get some locals armed and ready to hold down the fort while the squad moves out.

As with the original, Arulco is open for exploration. Each area has a number of guards holding it, and once they are defeated, that sector’s revenue and manpower are shifted to you. Revenue is earned at the end of each day, as is the militia count, swelled by those willing to take up arms against the island’s despotic ruler Deidranna Reitman, the so-called Queen. Unlike before, militia are now recruited simply by giving them a weapon; the better the weapon they’re given, the better the chance they have of stopping one of the many enemy raids that are launched against the player-controlled sectors. Again, stripping out one level of micromanagement sounds like an interesting way to streamline a carryover from the original, but it falls flat.

Now it’s time for the laborious process of grabbing items and equipping the militia. Say a gun is found on an enemy’s corpse. If you have a backup weapon slot free, then no problem; however, if you don’t, you’ll be juggling items. Since the inventory portion of the pick-up item screen lacks the mercenary’s paper doll, everything has to be done before interacting with the item. This is a much bigger problem with smaller items, such as a medic not being able to equip bandages in their empty left hand but instead having to swap out something else for a desired item (which then has to be picked back up), but there will be times when weapons have been shifted about for repair purposes. Oh, and if you want to swap items between mercenaries, it can’t be done from the item screen but through a separate command, even if they’re standing right by each other.

Great; with the items ready, it’s time to haul it to the militia. If it’s within the same town, even better. If not, then be prepared to hoof it. Once at the location, every single militia has to be tracked down and handed an item. Nothing can be done from the world map. Since each mercenary has at the most three backup weapons they can give, often much less, and areas can have a dozen-plus militia, that’s running either back to a nearby shop to purchase items (expensive) or to another area where loot is still on the ground (time consuming), and then all the way back to the location, loading it, and then tracking down the militia one by one again to hand them a weapon. It also doesn’t help that the militia is awful and constantly needs more weapons.

Rarely did the militia perform above the level of simply existing, often running right into the enemy’s line of fire. What this means is that the process of purchasing or looting weapons and distributing them happens over and over and over—and across a sprawling map that, for a while, will only house one or two squads. That’s a lot of running around and menu wading. Cutting off a raid seems like a sound strategy, but traveling the world map depletes each mercenary’s overall stamina, often leaving them too tired to stop the invaders in time before they rip the militia apart (or limping along to very slowly hand out the gear). Overall stamina and health, which can be lowered due to severe damage, can be replenished by having the squad sit on the world map with the time accelerated, but extended breaks are rare. This is a lot of busy work for very little pay off, and the disparity between the militia and the quick-drawing, Kevlar-vested commandos Deidranna utilizes is both striking and infuriating.

This protracted process completely drains any momentum that gets built up during forward thrusts. When there is a lull so that things can finally be accomplished, such as running the hours or days away to pick up airlifted supplies purchased from an online arms store, it feels like a vacation. Most of the time, though, it’s rushing from one hot spot to the next and hoping that the militia can hold out long enough for the squad to reach the area in time to hold it. A lot of the strategy involved in maintaining proper levels of weight, health, and stamina is lost in the senselessness of so much of the design.

As I mentioned before, there are some moments of pure glory. The system of kitting out a fighter and tailoring their progression by allocating points to their various attributes and skills is as captivating as ever. The process of taking a medic and pumping points into Dexterity, Stealth, and Marksmanship to turn them into a fearsome and treasured combat medic that is as adept at resuscitating teammates as they are at scoring headshots remains satisfying. Similarly, seeing a mercenary’s proficiency increase in everything from forcing doors open with crowbars to picking locks as they slowly become experts through point allocation is also rewarding; though, I do feel bad for explosives experts, who can only gain so much experience due to there being only have a handful of designated spots to plant charges on walls. Sidequests will help in winning over the populace and gaining some cash to pick up some swanky new gear for the squads, as well as offer the rare chance to pit the mercenaries against cannibals, search for exotic porn for bored townsfolk, and drive off harsh taskmasters from a prized mine.

Mercenaries also have traits, which can mark them as a wimp (whose morale plummets when injured—looking at you, Barry), or as an expert in a certain field. They can also affect the squad makeup, as some prefer going solo while others might have a problem with or trust someone already hired. This interplay makes creating the perfect squad an elusive and addictive pursuit, and I found myself to be a fearsome guardian over their wellbeing; no shame in abusing the loading feature here, especially when the designers were thoughtful enough to create an autosave when entering an area and when combat is initiated. That only serves to intensify the sense of elation whenever a squad makes it out of a hairy situation deep in enemy territory unscathed.

The mercenaries can make you work for it, though. It’s not uncommon for an axe-wielding maniac to chop their way through a squad’s perimeter and maul all of them to pieces. The seconds-long stun that takes place whenever someone is injured or switches to melee means it’s incredibly easy for someone to switch to attack with the butt of their rifle only to be cut, stunned, cut, stunned, and repeat—for the entire squad. Or how they can all be highlighted and ordered to move to a location but can’t be told to all face in the same direction, which has to be done one at a time. Or why they can repair weapons but not armor, which is chewed up with alarming frequency. Or how items in the inventory transform into non-pictured nothings. Okay, so maybe not all of this is their fault. Still, while they might be professionals, and my own prized little army, they aren’t very bright.

Overall: 6/10
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is a game whose potent post-patch potential buoys its otherwise limp arrival. The framework for an exceptional tactical strategy game is in place, but it’s hampered by so many time-consuming chores and head-scratching implementations that it will be too rough around the edges for many. There are some exciting running gunfights and near things to be had, but there are also a lot of bugs (weapons vanishing, spotty pathfinding, inventory items disappearing) and onerous design decisions (erratic militia, inventory juggling, menu wading) that need to be addressed before it can come close to Sir-Tech’s original.

(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.)

Square Enix has released some new screenshots from United Front Games’ upcoming action title Sleeping Dogs. Formerly True Crime: Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs follows the adventures of officer Wei Shen, an undercover cop tasked with infiltrating the Hong Kong Triads.

Sleeping Dogs is scheduled to be released during the second half of 2012 for the 360, PC, and PS3.

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Official Site: SleepingDogs.net

With all the hubbub surrounding the PC release of Alan Wake, the launch of the 360 standalone spin-off, American Nightmare, has (almost) snuck up on us. To remind everyone that Alan is still at war with the dark, this time with a doppelganger going by the name Mr. Scratch, Remedy has released a launch trailer showcasing some of the new dangers. The 1200 MS Point release also includes a new Horde-style arcade mode, Fight till Dawn. Get your flares ready.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare will be available on Live Arcade on February 22.

For more information on Alan Wake, check out our reviews of Alan Wake, Alan Wake – The Signal, and Alan Wake – The Writer.

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Official Site: AlanWake.com

Final Fantasy XIII-2′s second post-launch DLC pack has been announced for the 360 and PS3, a new episode titled Sazh: Heads or Tails? The new side quest runs parallel to the main storyline, and as with the previous DLC release, the Lightning and Master Sergeant Amodar Coliseum Battle, victory is rewarded with the option to recruit him as a party member. The 400 MS Point/$4.99 pack, due out February 28, also comes with two new card games for Serendepity, Chronobind and Serendipity Poker.

Additional DLC was also announced, with Noel and Serah both receiving new outfits. Set to launch next week, Noel’s Spacetime Guardian outfit and Serah’s Beachwear outfit will be available for 240 MS Points/$2.99.

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Spacetime Guardian (Outfit DLC)

Beachwear (Outfit DLC)

Official Site: Square-Enix.com – Final Fantasy XIII-2

Zen Studios’ latest pinball adventure, Epic Quest, is now available for consoles and mobile platforms. Xbox gamers can download the role-playing pinballer as part of the Pinball FX2 platform for 240 MS Points, while PlayStation gamers can snag it as a standalone download off PSN for $2.49. Those wanting their pinball on the go can download an Android or iOS copy off Android Marketplace and App Store, respectively, for $0.99.

As Max the Knight, players will set out on a perilous journey using nothing more than their wits and, as goes with every noble warrior, a steel ball. There’s also a touch of Monty Python-esque ridiculousness for those who enjoy a dash of comedy in their perilous adventures.

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Official Site: ZenStudios.com

Alan Wake has finally made its way to PC. After years of previews and a year-plus of coverage for the Xbox 360 version, Remedy’s psychological action thriller has launched for PC on Steam. A retail version, from Nordic Games, will be hitting store shelves “shortly.” The download version is $29.99 and features both available DLC packs, The Signal and The Writer, as well as support for multiple monitors and stereoscopic 3D. There are also multiple configurable control schemes and options to both hide the HUD and adjust the field of view.

A $34.99 collector’s edition is also available, which includes developer commentary videos, a 130-page book in PDF format, and a 13-track soundtrack.

For longtime fans, Remedy has launched a new developer diary for the upcoming Xbox 360 standalone download-only release, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.  The 1200 MS Point spin-off is set to launch on February 22 and follows Alan as he battles a doppelganger, Mr. Scratch.

For more information on Alan Wake, check out our reviews of Alan Wake, Alan Wake – The Signal, and Alan Wake – The Writer.

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Official Site(s): AlanWake.com & SteamPowered.com – Alan Wake

Street Fighter X Tekken’s console release is quickly approaching, and with but a few weeks to go until 360 and PS3 gamers bash it out, Capcom has finally revealed the final four fighters as well as the PC release date. The Street Fighter roster is now two bosses stronger with the addition of Akuma and M. Bison, while Jin and Ogre join the Tekken side. With these last four, the game’s total combatant count clocks in at 38.

While console gamers can grab a copy on March 6, PC gamers will have to wait a little longer, though not too long, as the Windows version has officially been dated for May 11. Fingers crossed Street Fighter X Tekken is ported as deftly as Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

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Street Fighter X Tekken delivers the ultimate tag team match up featuring 38 iconic characters from each franchise – one of the most robust character line ups in fighting game history! With the addition of new gameplay mechanics, the acclaimed fighting engine from Street Fighter IV has been refined to suit the needs of both Street Fighter and Tekken players alike. The power-packed game also sees the introduction of the innovative Gem system, a strategic new way to customize and enhance the fighting experience!

Official Site: Capcom-Unity.com

Prototype 2 will be receiving the collector’s edition treatment when it ships out on April 24. The recently announced Radnet Edition, which comprises the initial launch copies, will make up a portion of what’s included with the Blackwatch Collector’s Edition. The limited $79.99 set will also come with a hardbound art book; a copy of the Dark Horse digital comic Prototype: The Labyrinth; the official soundtrack; free access to the first DLC Pack, Colossal Mayhem, due out in May; and a 20% discount voucher at the Merchandise Store.

Prototype 2 will be available for the 360, PC, and PS3.

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Official Site: PrototypeGame.com