Syndicate (Second Review)


Title		Syndicate (Second Review)
Game Type	Combat simulation
Players		1
Compatibility	All
Submission	Andrew Korn, CU Amiga Magazine

Review
Syndicate is a game of bloodthirsty mayhem and brainbending strategy. Set in
a world of pure William Gibson Cyberpunk, Syndicate portrays the war between
the corporations fighting for control for a future earth. Taking on the role
of a syndicate of your choice, you must perform a series of tasks to subdue
the major population centres one by one until you have driven the forces of
the rival corporations out of their final bolt holes.
The missions consist of a fairly limited set of tasks, variations on a theme.
Choosing up to four agents, you have to subdue the local resistance, capture
VIPs or best of all go on a combat sweep where you just blow the heck out
of everything that moves, and quite a lot that doesnt. To add variety, the
range of weapons and cybernetic add-ons improves as the game goes on. You
can allocate resources to develop your technology faster, and it is worth
doing this if only to get you hands on a Gauss gun as soon as possible.
Played in a lovely isometric pseudo 3-D, Syndicate was a real graphic tour
de force at the time of its release. A busy network of streets filled with
pedestrians, vehicles and enemy agents is your battleground. Digital street
signs advertise the latest products as your agents battle it out with the
forces of the enemy beneath. Buildings can be entered, cars driven around,
and occasional parts of the environment can be ignited by the clumsy or those
of a pyromaniac bent.
Syndicate is a rather bloodthirsty game, the Grand Theft Auto of its day. It is
almost impossible to resist the temptation to use your flame thrower on large
crowds the first time you get it, and the devistation caused by the missile -
like gauss gun is a joy to behold. Syndicate revels in the nihilism of the
cyberpunk genre that inspired it, and unless you are of more sensitive tastes
than me, you'll revel in plying it.








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