I’m not automatically offended by remakes, partly because I understand the impulse -- not just the built-in financial advantage to using a recognized brand, but the creative desire to grab the keys to a franchise you love and take it for a spin. This is how I would’ve done it! I get that. I suspect a lot of people do.

Directed by J.J. Abrams.

But when developers take cherished games from two decades ago and change the story, the ideas, the characters, even the genre, loyal fans tend to go slightly ballistic. I’m thinking of XCOM, the X-COM: UFO Defense remake that re-casts a beloved real-time strategy game as --  horror of horrors -- a first-person shooter. Personally, I liked the teaser trailer. It nicely caught X-COM's “humans-are-hopelessly-outmatched” vibe and showed off some interesting threats. Purists, on the other hand, took umbrage. X-COM wasn’t a shooter. This wasn’t X-COM.

With that in mind, I walked into a hands-on preview of the new Syndicate...another isometric, real-time strategy game from the early ‘90s translated into a 21st-century shooter (due next month on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC). And hitting a revered title with a major design shift like that doesn’t bother me one bit...so long as they get the translation right.

Developer Starbreeze Studios (The Darkness, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) threw us into Syndicate’s co-op mode, which brings back four-Agent squads of militarized cyborgs on a loosely narrated nine-mission tour to build up the Wulf-Western syndicate through the always-reliable avenue of corporate warfare. You’ll steal, assassinate, kidnap, destroy...all the classics that fans remember.

Only you don't calmly direct a team from your god chair. You’re in the trenches, getting shot. You’re working together or dying.

So yes, as a run-and-gun FPS, it caters to a very different kind of player than the 1993 game did. That alone cannot and does not invalidate the entire effort. But if this thing wants to wear the name, it’s got to feel like Syndicate even if it doesn’t exactly play like Syndicate.

Mission #3: Peacefully remove Occupy protesters from the Port of Oakland.

All the right props return -- guass guns, coil rifles, miniguns, thermite guns. The series’ signature Persuadertron mind-control device (useful for turning enemy scientists into new hires) does not. Instead, "breaching" takes over as the new central mechanic, building on 1993 Syndicate's idea that everyone and everything carries a microchip that Agents can exploit at will. The "Allegiance" breach does your brainwashing now. You can also hack doors, enemy guns, enemy brains, yourself, or your own teammates. Catch sight of an amigo with a medical icon hovering over them, and it quickly becomes second nature to breach him/her and repair their health bar.

And here's where strategy comes back into the mix.

Our first mission took us to Western Europe to remove a once-friendly colonel who'd gone rogue...the exact same task Agents handled in the first Syndicate's opening level. But here's the thing about the co-op bosses: You need a plan. Colonel Gabron, a minigun-toting tank, wiped our entire team three times before we got wise. You see, you've got to get in close and breach a boss' defenses before you can even scratch his armor. Once you get in close, you receive a face-full of bullets. Unless you have a plan.

I hung back to buff teammates with remote-heal hacks (downed players must be revived at point-blank range, which takes longer) and snipe the good colonel's support troops while someone else drew his fire so the others could hack his armor.

It almost felt like a World of Warcraft fight -- buffing teammates, drawing agro, opening the door for damage-per-second players. Nothing else worked until we divised a strategy and used it. That's not a requirement or even a consideration in most shooters, and it bumped this Syndicate up a little closer to its namesake in style and execution.

Does the Corporate Assassin position come with a 401K and stock options?

You can knock it down in other ways. Downed teammates just stand there, slumped over like depressed mannequins slowly shuffling for cover while shouting "I NEED A REBOOT!" That's a meme-to-be, right there. I'd call the shooting and level design fun but not inspired, and the graphics are on par with last year's cyborg-a-thon, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (in a different color palette), which struck me as the weakest part of that game.

But don't try to tell me this isn't Syndicate.

Even though they're new to the franchise, the breach mechanics bring Syndicate's cynical philosophy and tactical approach forward into what would otherwise be a fairly standard shooter. That makes the difference. It might not be enough to elevate the full game above a crowded genre, but it did solidify this as a real interpretation of the old series. They don't need to remake everything into yet another first-person shooter, but I find nothing wrong with updating an elder statesman to reflect how a lot of people game now.

So I'm interested to see where Syndicate's story missions go. I'm looking forward to a first-person XCOM as much as others giddily await the all-new XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which hews far closer to the isometric RTS classic. Trust me...we've got room for both.