If you remember a couple of years ago when EA announced the first person reboot of Syndicate - Paradox Interactive reacted by mentioning Cartel - a game similar to the original Syndicate, meaning a top down strategy experience.
As it turns out the game was announced a little prematurely. Basically Paradox had a design document and a vision and they produced a vertical slice of the game, but ultimately they found it too much of a challenge to update the concept and find a developer capable of doing it justice. In a recent Ask Paradox Everything video - Shams Jorjiani and Fred Wester discussed the project and why it was ultimately not moved forward. They also showed off some of the pre-alpha vertical slice gameplay they were toying with at the time. An interesting look at a game that ultimately did not get made.
Meanwhile, old school Syndicate fans may want to head over to Kickstarter and take a look at Satellite Reign - a game in development at 5 Lives Studios were Syndicate Wars creator Mike Diskett resides. It's doing pretty well with well over 50% of the $350,000 target attained with 18 days to go.