There's no reason to buy this over the original Frozen Synapse. The menus and UI are all designed to be used with a gamepad, and arent very mouse friendly. I don't think there's any new content either, I've not seen any. No new units, No new dynamics to the gameplay or the maps / stages. You figure they could do something like add multiple floors to buildings and stairs to make the gameplay a bit more interesting but they just somehow couldnt come up with any new ways to improve the gameplay. The soldiers look like dumb G.I. Joe villians in this version too for some reason.

Buy the original Frozen Synapse and enjoy it.

I may be a bit biased, but I'm a big fan of Frozen Synapse and am biased toward liking Prime as well.

With that said, given the 50 percent off coupon, and two copies of the game, it is more than worth the price for anyone who is a fan of the original.

The primary improvements, in my opinion are this:

• Units have "weight;" a feel that they are actually impacted by gravity. In other words, when you turn, it isn't some 180 degree in a millisecond trick. You have to actually turn. This requires more planning and thought for checks, rounding corners, etc.
  
  
• In the original synapse (with the Red DLC, actually) were mutators. FS Prime has smartly integrated the Focus Aim and Double Kill ones. WIth Focus Aim (called Sweeping Aim in Prime, if I recollect correctly), every unit can choose whether to aim in the classic sense (facing in a direction and continuing to do so until orders change), or in the Focus fashion, which locks the aim to a single point rather than a direction, thus allowing units to move and remain aimed at the dictated point. This is a far better way of handling this feature than making it all or nothing as it was in the original. As for Double Kill, it is now the standard. All things being equal, two units squaring off will both die if there is no particular advantage.
  
  
• Balancing the power of weapons: In FS, shotguns were unbeatable if coming around a corner against an MG. Not so much now. Now any unit will defeat any other unit, or both will perish, in more realistic fashion. If I'm an MG unit and I'm sitting in a room pointing at the door, and a shotgun rounds the corner, I am going to get the jump on him with my trigger, one would think. Now that is the case. I don't have to square off, look down my scope, etc. at that short range, so it only makes sense that I'd fire quickly from the hip and head home for glory. This does not mean that shotties aren't more deadly at close range, faster moving, etc.; they are. Now range just isn't the only factor.
  
  
• Match creation has become much more straight forward. There are preset squad setups, as well as the expected random and player defined ones. Maps are easy to resize, and the amount of cover, windows, doors, and state of the walls on a map are all easily definable. Changes to these elements are reflected in a quick loading preview.
  
  
• No more Global Elo! This is, unfortunately, both good and bad. The Elo system is brutal on high ranked players, and morever, nobody on the planet Earth fully understands how it calculates. However, while Prime keeps things much simpler, the one downside is that it is based purely on points from all matches played. So, the unemployed guy who plays all day, if good enough to win more than lose, will likely be king of the hill into eternity.

There are a number of very nice details and changes, and this review is long enough already I suspect. There are some bugs as well, but from my very brief experience so far, Double Eleven is listening to the community and attempting to address all feedback, concerns, and issues. Unlike Mode7, they seem to actually act on their words. I hope it stays that way and the various bugs get fixed in a timely fashion.

The final buy or don't buy is really very simple:
If you love Synapse and want the same game in a slightly updated and interesting fashion, this is a must, especially at the $10 for two copies price right now (until Nov. 21, 2014).

If you are not a real fan of the original game, and the reason is not because of the top-down only, dullish, graphics, then you won't want to spend your money on this either.

I personally enjoy it, and even though point rankings aren't that important, given the hope for upcoming patches, I'd have to offer up a 7.5 out of 10, maybe even an 8.

Very bad when compared to previous Frozen Synapse.

UI is awful, unintuitive and apparently they directly ported this UI from console counterpart. In other words, you're gonna have a bad time playing with KB/M - of which surprisingly good for Frozen Synapse.

The soundtrack is the same like before, so don't get the OST DLC, you're going to be disappointed.

I really, really want to give a heartfelt recommendation, but can't. This game is lacking in every aspect.

If you really want to play TBS, go with Frozen Synapse + Red DLC.

Want a graphical stylish tactical squad turnbased game? Continue reading!..

Gamemodes included with the game is: A singleplayer campaign, Multiplayer and Skirmish.

So what about the story? Well you are a hired elite soldier for the rebels. your goal is to overthrow a powerfull coperation.The story progress through a city map screen where you can click to progress or hear what characters have to say through potraits with a text window.

You controll a team of elite soldiers and you need to outsmart the Ai on the battlefield. You must plan carefully every move for your soldiers. If it goes wrong? Restart and change tactics. The Ai will and can change tactics on the battlefield. (Note! I recommend playing through the 2 tutorials so you get a hang of the game and mechanics before starting a game.)

Gfx, interface and levels ingame is clean and stylish. Levels are clever and tactical and fun to play, They will surely give you a challenge but they can be beaten. Iam counting myself as newbie tactical but i havent found a level yet that have been unbeatable. My only complain is the campaign wich is a big city map wich you click to progress your game. Nothing wrong with the map but you can only read what characters want to say but not really talk to them. Also you can not setup your team weapons and outfitt, those are premade for each missions instead.

The sound effects are good and music does what it should. Some speech for the text screens would have been nice.

When you have beaten campaign you can play skirmish. I think the game will be enjoyable for a longtime in skirmish because you can change almost every aspect of the rules, soldiers weapons and generated maps or why not use the pre-generated maps with other settings.

The game also includes multiplayer. And i can imagine myself the game can be alot of fun with friends for a laugh or two. Sadly i wont include a multiplayer review due to litle time online.

GFx 8,5/10
SFx 7,0/10 (Music included)
Interface and game mechanics 9/10 (Slick, stylish and clean. Great controlls)
Story 5,0-10 (Story feels like last thought, its not bad but feels a bit cheap with no animated story that is progressing through campaign.)

So do i recommend this game? YES!.. Price is a bit high so buy it on sale. Its a game every tactical gamer should have in library.

End notes!
I have read that some reviewers complaining about Ai and windows? Just have a guard and have him sweep it and he will kill what comes in front of it. And if you want to move in front of window just click knee and then dash to not to be seen. It was fully explained in the tutorial howto do it. I have done it in my missions and it worked alltimes. Sometimes i did misstakes and the Ai got the upper hand but just restart untill you know what you did wrong in frist place. Or better press space so the timeframe can show what will happen if you end turn. It will only show seconds but it will give a glimps view what can happen. Use it often and wisely. ;)

As allways english is not my main language. But i have tried my best to get it readable. Cheers

This is a remake of the original Frozen Synapse made by a completely different development house. It mimicks the original like a child and completely ruins the intuitive control scheme of the original. This is not made by Mode 7, it is not an improvement. Play the original.

ok, i have no clue where to start. The game looks interesting but it has a very bad and cheating AI. Seriously, campaign is just bad. No matter what you doing, no matter of the difficulty (if there is a difficulty at all, dont remember that there was any at start of the campaign or not, cant change it later anyway) the AI will allways know your moves and counter it. If you try to surprise the AI, move to a window which the AI targeting allways the AI shoot first so you die and you have no chance to kill them. On the other side, if AI doing the same, no matter if your unit targetting the window, the AI unit will just walk there, shoot first and eventually they kill even 2 of your units while your units targeting that window. The only chance to finish campaign missions if you manage to dominate the map on your very first turn, because the movement of AI in the first turn is constant, they doing the same.

Multiplayer part of the game at least dont have cheater AI, but its dead, so if you want to buy it for that, then you can just forget it.

I also love, that if you need eliminate all AI units on a map, they just stand at the same positions and they dont try to attack you, they dont move to your line of sights. BUT if you start to move so you can get to their back, no matter if you move behind walls, they will react for you movement even if you sneaking. The AI has wallhack, dont believe it? just play it and you will see, but then dont blame me that i not warned you to not buy this game.

I'm going split this review into two parts: First I will talk about the game, then I will compare it to its.. um predeccesor I guess? I have played the first one and so far from what I have seen the core gameplay and campaign havent varied from it, so I will just take my experience from there over here in matters of which I am sure have not changed.

The game is brutal stragety. No RNG. If you lose its not the computers or the games fault, just yours. Matches against the computer ar fair, the AI doesnt "cheat" and matches in multiplayer are always an interesting experience. The tutorial gives you the basics, but some things you have to figure out on your own. Playing against pros usually teaches you some new tricks, even if you have been in the game for a while. So how does this game work? You have a bunch of different units, all with unique skills (Sniper good at long range, shotgun good at short range, rocket guy goes BOOM! and so on). You give orders to these units, for example move there while aiming there. You can also give orders to the enemy units. Then you simulate what WOULD happen if the enemy moves exactly the way you expect it to. You can simulate and give orders to infinity until you are happy. Then you click on the button to actually activate your actions and once the enemy has done this as well (auto against AI) you see the actual results. The closer it is to what you expected and planned for, the more damage you usually do. You win if you kill all enemies or capture certain things, depending on which mode you are playing. All the modes also have a "Light" and "Dark" version. In Light you see the enemy units. In Dark you see them at the beginning and then after that you can only guess where they are (which can get your heart pumpin if its coming down to an all or nothing one on one hunt). The music is nice, I personally can't agree with the "OMG SO AWESOME!" that the others rate it though, it fits the futuristic style of the game though. The looks are also futuristic, but...I dont know why, but I kind of dislike the way the game looks. Its very subtle and experience will of course vary with others. There is a pretty lenghty campaign with a story that has rather confused me more than anything else so far, but I guess if I read every single text I probably would understand more of it, since the game gives a LOT of background information about its world. The campaign also contains some gameplay features that arent in the multiplayer, for whatever reason. Since the multiplayer matches are turn-based it sometimes takes weeks to finish a match because the opponent goes offline. Once you are in the game and while you are in the game you will be told if in one of the games you are playing a new turn has occured. The controls with the keyboard are a bit clumsy and I would reccomend using the mouse and maybe one or two keyboard buttons for functions that you use often. All in all, if you like a game that is really nothing more than simple strategy I can totally reccomend this.

Now to the comparison:
The game looks a lot different. While I dont like the new looks I like them more than the old ones. Sometimes the old looks were just TOO simplistic for my taste and left room for interpretation. With the new looks I know exactly whats going and to going to go on. There is also a killcam now, which is fun to watch so far, expecially since in the old game I sometimes had "how the hell did that kill me?" moments. the controls are...worse? better? I cant tell. I think they could have been done better in both games. I have to say that it is a lot easyer to give orders while waiting though. The best addition really is the new order. You can tell your unit to always look at a certain spot even when moving. So now you dont have to change the field of view every few steps, which in my opinion was a much needed update. One thing, that I am wondering though: where did the riotshielders go? I never figured out how to use them in the old game anyway, but they could have at least used them here as well, without DLC. I havent quite figured out the new arena mode yet, so far it just seems like a normal match on a pretty large map to me. One thing I am uncapable of finding is the chat in multiplayer. If they removed: MY GOD WHY? If they didnt: where is it? A change of look that I am liking is the.. I'm just going to call it interface, of the campaign. Where you view background information and talk to people. I just..looks better in my opinion. Now to the main question: "Should I buy it if I already own the original?" Cant answer that one, I know I am glad I did it, but that is, hoping, that there will a couple of updates on this game.

UPDATE:
played again after a while and from I have seen the multiplayer is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dead. so if ya buy it, do it for local play and singeplay

"A Reimagined Frozen Synapse Experience"

Not sure what was wrong with the original Frozen synapse but this is the first game remade with updated visuals and models , while it does look better than the first game. The Reimaging brought in a ton of bugs and issues , It also lacks the expansion dlc the first game had.

The mechanics are pretty similar to the first game , The devs are fixing the bugs and issues but was hoping for more sweeping changes.

Its not a terrible game but i would recommend getting if you have played the first game and liked it.

Good
- Better visuals give a feeling that you are fighting in a realstic location
- Retains most mechanism of the first game and adds some
- Kill cam

Bad
- Imperfect ui its not as smooth and fast to do stuff as before
- Bugs
- no new content
expect to find bugs like this
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=344644396

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ UI, clunky controls, very minor gameplay tweaks that do not merit the pricetag.

Just stick with the original.

I have very mixed feelings. It's a fine game, turn-based, tactical, futuristic and stuff. But it's nothing new for the gameplay. I recommend this game if you haven't played the original or prefer newer graphics or have a device with touchscreen.
It's 7.5/10 as standalone,
It's 6/10 as "HD"-ish remake.
P.S. Oh, I forgot. After 4,5 hours of playing there are two things that I really like in this remake: optimized outcome calculation (MUCH faster) and grenade's bouncing physics.