Mike Diskett, the creator of Syndicate Wars and industry vet, has been waiting for a true Syndicate successor to the series he worked on 15 years ago: and yet, when the new Syndicate FPS came out, he and other fans were disappointed. And so he's gathered four other industry vets to create Satellite Reign, the true spiritual successor to the Syndicate series.

Satellite Reign is a the type of cyberpunk dystopian world we've all enjoyed in movies and games before: a world controlled by megacorporations, streets patrolled by corporate mercenaries, corruption and oppression everywhere. As they put it, "democracy to the highest bidder." But how 5 Lives Studios approaches this world is how they intend to wow gamers.

What 5 Lives Studios want to do is create a completely unscripted world, but a living, breathing, bustling city, with people who live and work by day, and criminal organizations that run the streets by night. The entire world is meant to be designed around emergent gameplay, with civilians, police and corporate soldiers reacting uniquely to your actions. What you want to do in this world is up to you: free the masses from financial and political slavery, or take control for yourself?

Satellite Reign is based around real-time, class-based strategy gameplay, with each of the four agents on your team having a distinct set of unique abilities. You will be able to customize your team with complete freedom, so that--as 5 Lives intend--you can create strategies and scenarios that even they can't anticipate. You'll be able to tackle enemies however you choose: head-on, with brute force? Sabotage through stealthily hacking into their facilities and manipulating their infrastructure? Stealing money from banks to advance your technology? Kidnapping or bribing scientists for their knowledge? Augmenting your agents, while exploiting the augments of others? Espionage? Propaganda? Whatever goals and objectives you choose to follow, you'll be able to do it however you like, without being "spoon-fed one mission after another."

To make Satellite Reign happen, 5 Lives Studios are asking for £350,000, of which they've raised £62,297 by the time of this post. Check out the Kickstarter Campaign trailer below for a closer look at what the game offers, and the concept art that follows for an idea of how the game will look. The project is being designed with the Unity Engine, and is currently set to release to the PC, Mac, and Linux. For more details on rewards and some reactions to the project from other developers (from Media Molecule and Bungie), and of course to support the project, check out the Satellite Reign Kickstarter Page.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/5livesstudios/satellite-reign/widget/video.html