Satellite Reign: spiritual successor to Syndicate Wars now on Kickstarter

What a surprise. Last month's impossibly cryptic teaser about a spiritual successor to a "Bullfrog masterpiece", headed up by the lead designer of Syndicate Wars, has been revealed as a spiritual successor to Syndicate Wars. Satellite Reign is now live on Kickstarter , and is taking pledges towards this new spin on the real-time, class-based tactical classic.

"You control a team of four agents," write 5 Lives Studios, "each with distinct and unique abilities, collectively battling for control of a fully simulated, living cyberpunk city."

"The game world is designed to facilitate emergent gameplay, giving you the tools and freedom to play how you want to play, so you can create strategies and scenarios that not even we had anticipated!"

Sounds promising. Also interesting is the way the game is handing civilians - making them a tool in your arsenal to inspire towards rebellion, or straight up mind-control as a "meat shield".

A big, real-time tactical sandbox of cyberpunk rebellion and mega-corporations. I'd guess this one has a pretty good chance of meeting its £350,000 target.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.