Satellite Reign (PC) Second Opinion Review

Satellite Reign essentially presents the following quest: imagine a future world, now mix in Grand Theft Auto, some squad tactics, and some role-playing elements. It's an interesting direction and mix, but while for certain gamers it will be a wonderful experience, others will be lost in the massive amount of options and lack of direction. It's controlled in a 3D isometric camera where the characters can be ordered; characters get "build up" over the course of this adventure, and with the class system on which they fall into. There are types like 'Soldier' who learn a few combat skills, get higher HP and so on, then a type that can hack into security systems, or take control of civilians.

The amount of customization possible is pretty cool on some levels but limiting in others. There are different skills for each class, which makes sense, but there are only a few, leaving the feeling that there's not any practical difference between multiple soldiers, or that a certain squad member is nothing more than a walking key.

There are augments that can be applied on the agents to give them further bonuses, but a strange problem is that when characters get be customized to any real depth, they come with a random appearance and the name 'Hacker' which makes it hard to connect to them, even if they level-up. There is a lot of apparent depth here, in that weapons have multiple stats, there are upgrade options, distance fall off for damage, and so on, but combat occurs somewhat chaotically and all that generally matters is having the biggest gun generally which makes all this depth wasted which is unfortunate.

The game world deserves some commentary, because it is where all the time will be is spent. The atmosphere is very good, with its floating cars, dark alleys, people strung out on the corner, police patrols, and so on - it all feels pretty cool. Furthermore, the ads for various products, and the tall, emotionless skyscrapers dot the streets, giving an oppressive vibe to the whole thing. In conclusion: a good job done here.

The issue is, and this ties into the lack of giving agents names or changing how they look, that players don't feel like a part of the game. Sure, they control their guys, but these are just meaningless faces (plus replaceable), the point being to be able to easily replace agents at re-spawn locations - but it misses a huge opportunity.

This is mixed with a story told in 'log' style format of randomly getting updates on quests or what is happening. It creates a disjointed feel, because this world looks alive, but cannot be interacted with. The civilians can't be talked to, and the playable characters don't talk, or share their fears and dreams, they just mechanically run forward and open doors or shoot people.

Some may only crave a title where they control some people that level-up and walk around a world, and to some extent this does that pretty good. But on the whole, while there is a high level of complexity suggesting a deep world/back story, the feeling never comes to fruition because it's like watching what is happening on screen, compared to being a part of it.