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AusGamers: Welcome back to AusGamers. Once again, we’re out of EA’s Showcase in Vegas. I’m sitting here with Jeff Gamon, who is an Executive Producer on this lovely game, Syndicate. Many of you have been talking on our forums a lot about this, it’s kind of the buzz of the Internet at the moment for obvious reasons -- but I’m going to get into that a little later on.

What I want to talk about to begin with, is the Starbreeze history. I didn’t play Butcher Bay, but I did play the absolutely shit out of The Darkness -- I thought it was one of the best games of that release period.

What’s changed internally for the team at Starbreeze from a technical perspective? Because I just had hands on and that felt so good, but it still felt quite Starbreeze, so I guess let’s just start there. What’s happened internally at the studio in the build up to this?

Jeff Gamon: From a development point of view, we started with the Starbreeze proprietary tech. We established the goal that we wanted to get to in terms of visually -- it’s a very stylised game as you can see. And we just continued to develop that technology as we moved on through the development.



AusGamers: It seems like this type of game could have been produced as its own IP. Obviously Syndicate is a wonderful IP, but what was the decision behind taking Syndicate and applying this particular team and this particular tech in this particular style?

Jeff: There has always been a desire within EA UK to bring Syndicate back and this represents a culmination of the effort that’s been going on for over a decade. When looking for the partner for this particular game, Starbreeze were the ideal partner for us. Because their pedigree and their previous games take great IPs and rather than just making “the game of the movie” or “the game of the book” or whatever, they actually take the essence and the spirit of that IP and turn it into a great game in its own right. So they were the ideal partner for us.

AusGamers: Now for anyone out there that hasn’t played [the original] Syndicate, what have you guys done to broach that introduction to this new world. Obviously this has been tagged as a reboot, but can you run is through that?

Jeff: We set out to recreate the elements or spirit of the original in a new form and as you can see, it’s a first-person shooter. I think that gamers that didn’t play the original won’t be at a disadvantage. The world is very credible; it’s very near-future and will therefor feel very familiar to anyone that picks it up -- whether it’s fans of the original or people coming into the game today.

AusGamers: What was the process in bringing it back to life? Was it sort of “strike while the iron’s hot”? Because there’s been a few games that have very successfully taken classic isometric games, like, Fallout 3 is a really good example. At the same time, science-fiction seems to be the flavour of the last couple of years and really strong IPs around science-fiction seem to be doing quite well and obviously the first-person shooter genre is massive. Was it all of that, or was it a deeper desire?

Jeff: I think it was all of that and I think you correctly said, that gaming evolves. And you take these classic IPs which brought an awful lot to gaming and still have an awful lot to offer. So we evolve that, we move them on and bring them back to the market.



AusGamers: Was there anything in the way of limitations from the core series to bring it to first-person? Or was there anything that actually felt more natural to bring to the first-person space?

Jeff: I think it felt very natural. When you look at the original Syndicate, it was a product of its time and was probably at the bleeding edge of technology at that time. Having that perspective down and all of those guys running about with four agents.

So now, our technology has moved on, our ability to tell stories and create characters has moved on as well and now we actually put you directly into the shoes of one of those agents.

AusGamers: Did you guys consider, bringing it out as a four-player co-op or anything like that?

Jeff: Yeah, we’ve talked mainly about the single-player campaign today, but equal-billing in Syndicate is the four-player co-op which is very evocative of the original. It still has a narrative running through it, but it’s very much mission-based -- there’s a lot of progression and technology researching as well.

AusGamers: Is that story one and the same, or is it separate?

Jeff: It’s a completely separate campaign.

AusGamers: You guys are shooting for a pretty early release next year. How long has the game been in development? Because it seems a bit unusual to spring such a game on everybody at such a short notice.

Jeff: Yeah. The game has been in development a long time -- well over three years. With a small team, we weren’t in any hurry. It was like “ok, this is Syndicate. What can we do?” and the ideas and the white-boxes and the concepts have been too numerous to count really.

Where we’ve arrived is a distillation of all of that effort. Yeah, it is unusual to announce late, but I think it’s quite exciting because we’ve got so much to talk about and so much to share.



AusGamers: Now the demo that I just played had a really amazing balance between basic puzzle-solving, then some complex puzzle-solving and then really awesome level-design and some great combat. I found the AI quite smart to deal with as well -- it’s actually quite refreshing in this day and age.

Can you run us through level-design and utilising the player’s skill-set to actually broach the puzzle elements and the progression and the multi-tiered levels?

Jeff: Yeah, our goal with Syndicate was also to make something that goes beyond just the moniker of FPS. We wanted to make it challenging and not another shooting gallery and the AI -- we believe -- is best of breed. It makes the game really challenging, but not frustrating. It’s not predictable; you can play it your own way.

And the chip-enhanced gameplay mechanics add that extra element to it so you can play it your own way. You can play run and gun or you can play a gun and cover-shooter, the AI will always come and get you. And that was always a goal.

In terms of level design and the puzzle element, I think -- again, this goes back to what Starbreeze do -- it’s not just a shooting gallery; it’s richer than that, there’s action-adventure elements, there’s progression in the game as well -- you can make your own choices about how you want to shape the skills and abilities of your agent.

AusGamers: How much will the game expand in terms of giving player’s choice for tactical recourse? Because it was a small section that I played and I felt like with all the tools that I had and all the world offers you, you could basically approach anything in any way that you see fit.

Jeff: Yeah, I think that there’s points in the level where it is a puzzle and you have to a single solution to it. But any given combat situation, you can do it your way and you can strategise about how you use your particular breaches, because there’s a finite supply of those. You might want to just through it out there just to mix up the action a bit.

But what you find as you progress as a player -- playing Syndicate -- is that you start thinking about how you’re going to use it and how you’re going to save it. So yeah, you play it your way basically.



AusGamers: Ok, so we’ll wrap it up with I guess your rebuttal to all of the naysayers out there and all of the people that just can’t grasp the idea of progressive game development. What would be your ultimate pitch to them to appease their worries and just tell them to chill?

Jeff: Well I think “wait and see”. Try it. We haven’t... the accusation is just “cashing in”. We at EA and Starbreeze love the IP as much as anyone else and we wanted to bring this back in the form of a game which can actually bear the name Syndicate.

AusGamers: Well so far, so good. It really is an amazing experience and I loved every second of it, so best of luck to you guys and I hope everybody turns around and realises that there’s probably a pretty amazing game here.

Jeff: Thank you.

AusGamers: Alright, thanks. Cheers.