Syndicate Plus™

TROLLS! People in here are really good trolls.This game doesn't need EA Origins or any other third party software except dosbox which comes with the game. So quit talking shit about this diamond. DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR. BUY THIS GAME! One of the best things ever happened to gaming industry. Peter Molyneux is a god!

Very brutal game, great fun and brilliantly executed by Bullfrog, which by then had become a by-word for "quality releases". Can't wait to play it again! Yes a lot of people will have remembered playing this on a 386 or 486 but the Amiga version was first. And actually a lot of tricks had to be used to to make it look like more than 16 colours were used (just 16!) in "dithered" modes for the higher resolution on the PC version. Just goes to show how what a poor spec creature a "PC" was back then... Not any more, how times have changed ;-)

If you like Cyberpunk aesthetics and real time action games, give Syndicate a shot. It is a fun action game, and upgrading your agents and trying out new weapons will very likely keep you entertained for a while. The graphics still look pretty cool. It's unlikely that you don't at least get your moneys worth out of it, especially if you buy it while on sale. But if you expect any tactical or strategical depth, e.g. XCOM meets Cyberpunk, you might be disappointed. Running around shooting stuff is pretty much what this is about. There's not much strategic choice except for the order in which you play some missions, and there is little interaction between the missions and the strategy part of the game (want more money or that research finished before a mission? You just wait.). Also, KI and pathfinding are pretty bad even for an early 90s game.

I make no secret of my respect for Bullfrog. In an industry dominated with "me too" companies today it's hard not to look back at the 90's of video games, where genres were still being invented and finding footing in a brave new world. Syndicate is a game like no other to come before it, and few that have come after. Distilled, Syndicate is a game of real time tactics with some overworld management. Set in a dystopian, coprocratic world you are a marketing director for the declining Eurocorp- it is your task to manage a team of cybernetic agents as they perform missions in areas around the world, securing equipment, assassinating officials, brainwashing scientists and waging war with other corporations. All the while you must manage the members of your team, research new equipment and manage funding and taxation of your territories. It sounds complicated on paper but as with all Bullfrog games, low level management and details are ignored or missing- while this means Syndicate is not a deep or terribly hands-on experience (JA2 fans may be put off), it concentrates on the enjoyable parts of the experience. The main portion of the game is missions, and the mechanics of the combat are uncomplicated. You can control one of four, or your entire group of agents, but the are also far more autonomous than in most games. By controlling drugs in the blood stream you can increase their speed, firing accuracy and self-reliance so in a cohesive group your agents can manage themselves quite well. Your main role in combat is tactical- do you send in a team of minigun wielding supersoldiers to storm the prison complex, or do you position snipers across the street to take out guards? Do you keep your enemies at a distance with rifles, ambush them from within the back alleys or attempt to persuade them? These choices will influence the composition of your team and their equipment, as well as the enhancements you decide to install in them as the game progresses. You probably won't remember the slightly anaemic funding management, the largely absent story or the similar nature of some missions. But the fantastic atmosphere the game produces makes you feel like the director of a powerful company. The sometimes shockingly high number of civilian casualties will make you feel morally ambiguous, and the cohesive, effective game play will make you feel in control. It's so disappointing to see the 2012 "sequel" to Syndicate as a Deus Ex inspired FPS. In 2012 the license seems to be following the bandwagon, riding the IP of a company that used to ride its own bandwagons. In 1993 Syndicate was a defining game, a style of game never made before in a way that had never been tried before. Today, Syndicate is still revolutionary, and worth the time of any gamer worth his salt. I should note I played the Macintosh version- having spent time with the DOS version I wholeheartedly recommend the Macintosh in preference due to it's higher resolution graphics and better sound (the core of the game is much the same). The Mac version is however much harder to obtain.

Firstly, I just want to say thank you for GOG for listing this 1992 game in 2024 and allowing me to relive my youth. It was a fiver, a bit steep for a DOS game that's 32 years old lol! (if your having problems with graphic settings scroll to end of this review). But its ok, at least I don't need to relearn DOS commands to play it, so I can live with that. The question is, is it still worth it in 2024 the answer is -yes! I cant believe this Cyberpunk RTS squad based game has held my attention longer than some recent triple A games. I'm only 5 missions in and loving building up my squad with bionic upgrades and weapons and it even has a research function. Yes both the menus and in game controls show their age and are clunky, but wow the intro and the game itself are way ahead of its time. So, why do you ask I haven't given it 5 stars, well, its not the game itself, but GOG if you're going to host a DOS game on your platform it should some preconfigured. What I mean is this game runs on the freeware DOSBOX (included in the install folder), but I had to access the GOG settings (Additional Executables / Graphic Mode Setup) to play around with the DOSBOX graphics options for about 30 mins before I could play it. The resolution is limited to 1920x1080 in the DOSBOX wizard (I'll include optimum Win settings below), and I had to downsize my screen resolution so I wasn't playing on a tiny Gameboy screen. Even now the graphic settings aren't ideal, I have to play in windowed, as Fullscreen will skew to the left and not centre on the screen. If you are going to sell a game like this you should enable it to launch in full screen scaled and thoroughly test it. You should also have a message before launching to configure the graphics and have HD resolutions in there. Optimal settings for Windows: firstly reduce screen your monitor resolution to 1920x1080, then in the GOG Settings as above to: Basic settings: DDraw, uncheck fullscreen / Advanced Settings: untick Keep Aspect Ratio,