Syndicate Plus™

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.

Probably biased... Who cares. I love this. Used to play it on my DX2 486 Pc a few decades back. Bought it today, started off with the first two missions. its such a great game, Bullfrog was WAY ahead of their time here. Its basically a looter shooter, squad based isometric RPG. Go bananas and kill everyone, or just off weaponized individuals while clearing missions and steal their weapons and use for future weapon research/ sales. This game is soo good and i love it as much today as i did back then which does not go for many games. But for the name of lords and such, why.... why is there no remake/ reimaging of this... Im not even considering the 2012 game cause it has nothing to do with this brilliant game.

Scrolling thru gog and what do I see, I had to stop and pay respect to this game with a review. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent playing this on my trusty Compaq Deskpro 466. In a dark room with the volume cranked. You control 4 cyborgs, you can move as a group or spread them out to cover separate positions or cover multiple objective/targets. I remember just exploring the city and taking in the atmosphere.. with the background music droning on. do de do, do de do.. do de do de do de do de... wona-na-na-na.. wona-na-na-na.... Then the fight music kicks in and you juice up all your cyborgs for ass kickery.. unleash the miniguns! another fun thing was to use a persuadatron and recruit the entire city into one big mob *evil laughter* This game made me a fan of bullfrog and they are sorely missed. American Revolt is incredibly hard btw.. it's just brutal. This is not a fast pace shooter game, the action can be intense when it kicks off but it's more strategy and most of the time you're just moving into position or planing your attack. If the screen shots interest you grab it, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the game play.

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.

Back in the mid 90's, when Syndicate Plus was still newish, I would be rewarded with half an hour to an hour of gametime on my math tutor's PC if I completed the lessons to his satisfaction. As if my tutor's mother bringing us piping hot servings of lemon honey tea weren't enough of an incentive! It's dated now, granted, but if you're willing to play it for the nostalgia factor, without being too judgemental, you will come away appreciating what developers were able to do with what little they had. I received it for free during a giveaway, so I can't complain, but if I were to choose between this and Syndicate Wars, I would go for the latter. It's not much older but for me it feels like a generational instead of intergenerational leap.