Syndicate Wars Appreciation Thread

[squ1ffy]

Syndicate Wars on the PC...what a game.

You controlled 4 'Agents' - essentially cyborgs who were fucking hard. You wandered round a 'cyber punk' city fulfilling various objectives - kill all the bad guys, rescue and protect scientists, destroy a building etc.

There was so much about that that was amazing and (looking back) well ahead of it's time:

It really felt like a living city. Lots of traffic, masses of people.

You could do what the hell you wanted. Destroy load of cars? Bomb and totally destroy a building? Kill hundreds of innocent civilians? 'Indoctriate' civilians, get them to pick up loads of weapons from the bodies of the bad guys and have your own army? Yes sir!

The weapons were awesome. Miniature nukes. Satellite bombing. Very hardcore rocket launchers. Fantastic long range rifle that turned people into pink spray. The best was the absurd 'plasma lance' that you could only get on the last level that chewed through everything. What was cool was mixing the weapons over the 4 agents under your control and having a well rounded mini army.

You could pick up the weapons of any baddies you'd killed, and they often were better armed that you. Ah, the joys of seeing you first enemy with a roket launcher, killing him and them using his own weapon against his mates! Brilliant.

The agents had a Halo-stylee recharging shield which worked really well at keeping the tension high.

The carnage was just unbelievable. At the end of the level there were literally countless hundreds of dead enemies and lots of destroyed buildings. You could set off a chain of destruction - shoot down a flying car that crashes into a building which then collapese and destroys a load of parked cars near it...(and kills a load of civilians!).

You could research new weapons and better agent hardware (better legs for faster running, better arms for more weapon accuracy etc). This really was great and you were so excited when the research was done and you got a new toy. You could find and capture more scientists to make the research faster, and pay more money to speed it up (getting money by destoying banks!). This added a whole new depth to the game.

Wow, it really was a great game. I really, really want a sequel with a full GTA3 style city!

[DJ Sack]

I never got into it, admitadly i only tried it once, but i got stuck on a mission where you had to steal a car and drive it to somewhere, but all the car would do was go round the block and not do anything else. Maybe i should really go back to it as it does look really good.

[Juria]

YOU HAVE NEW MAIL!

Mibbigub!

Ooozi!

Shohhguhn!

I love the soundeffects on this game

I get told which classic old games to play by friends, I also REALLY like Jagged Alliance.. I wish there was a modern equivalent of that

[BossSaru]

It also proved that flamethrowers are sick and fun in any game.

[meanface]

The razor wire was cool. When I grabbed my Playstation out of staorage, I took 10 games, and SW was one of them

[squ1ffy]

What was the PS version like? I've never seen it. Did the controls work?

I think the PC one was probably a couple of years ahead of its time, would have been better if it had been out in the 3dfx era. I imagine the PS version looked pretty good in comparison.

[Mr. Pin?]

Great game, but I felt it was too hard in places, with a lot of trial and error involved. I didn't have a manual, so finally working out how the Persuadatron worked was a great moment for me. Your little army would start off with a couple of civilians, add a few cops here and there, and then enemy agents would be powerless before it. You could then complete the mission with a couple of new team members, usually more advanced than your own.

I remember finding the agent equip screen very relaxing, too...

[Sabreman]

I never got a chance to play Synidicate Wars, but I played the heck out of Syndicate on the Amiga. Cracking stuff, and really very amoral.

[fasteasyfree]

Syndicate Wars remains one of my fave games of all time. The missions were awesome, the weapons unbelievable, the enemies tough as nails. In some places the difficulty could drive you insane, but it had such an appeal that you would stick with it until you cracked it.

Upgrading you Agents as the game progresses gives you such a buzz. When you start the game, the Agents are crap, basically. They are only slightly stronger than the cyber-punks. But when you approach the end of the game, Christ are they hard. I upgraded mine to the max, and they could literally be next to a nuke-grenade as it was going off, and it would maybe take an eigth of your shields away. You could be in collapsing buildings and they wouldn't even phase you.

The missions were structured in such a way that there would always be more than one way to complete them. Do you sneak in the front way, cloaked as a civilian, or do you nuke the gate and flatten the fuckers? Would it be better to walk, or do you jump on the train? Or do you nick a taxi? Or do you find one of the flying cars (Think fifth element) and go over the top of them?

Shame all my machines are too fast to run it

[Fry Crayola]

I've both the PC and PSone versions. Call me strange, but I've never got into the PC version. Perhaps because by the time I got it I was 17 missions into the PSone version and didn't feel like doing it again...

The PSone version works great. Instead of point and click, you control one agent at a time. You still get four, you can split them up into groups as you please and get them to follow who you control, and you can switch control to anyone at any time. It's perhaps a slower pace but they will attack independently so you can leave them alone defending an area and expect them to still be alive soon after (though they don't hide to recharge).

One memorable level, still my favourite, saw me take one single agent, armed with a sniper rifle, dismantling a New Epoch base single handedly. Making my way around, picking off the enemy one by one, then getting my mates in with the miniguns to clean up the mess.

Amassing an army was great too, you just loved using the persuadatron/indoctrinator to bring people to "your" side, tooling them up with the weapons of fallen enemies, then marching toward your foes, destruction following.

Love it.

Also, just like Cannon Fodder, you really care about those agents. When one dies, it hurts (and he usually died, trapped in the debris of a collapsing building...). You've built him up so well, he didn't have to die, did he?

[fasteasyfree]

Oh, and I forgot to mention the first time that you go up against those spider-things. You know, the really fucking hard robots. They literally scared the shit out of me. Until I upgraded my agents and squashed the fuckers

[JPickford (retired mod)]

In what way is this game 'underrated' ?

I've never heard anything but praise for it.

Not that I've played it myself.

[fasteasyfree]

Amassing an army was great too, you just loved using the persuadatron/indoctrinator to bring people to "your" side, tooling them up with the weapons of fallen enemies, then marching toward your foes, destruction following.

That was one of the best parts of the game. Run through a huge group of civilians with it, then take them back to the area where you mowed down all the cyber-punks. They'd pick up all the weapons and you get an evil glint in your eye. Even if one died, another one would take their place, picking up their gun and continuing on.

another good part about the game was locating the banks. Boom.

[fasteasyfree]

Not that I've played it myself.

You should be ashamed. I demand you pick up a copy, and then buy an old p133 system to play it on.

[squ1ffy]

In what way is this game 'underrated' ?

I've never heard anything but praise for it.

Not that I've played it myself.

A game can still be underrated even when it is praised by those that play it.

Games like System Shock 2 - it was loved by the critics and ignored by games buyers, and so has become 'underrated'.

I don't think enough people played SWars and it doesn't have the profile that it deserves. There certainly seems to be no clamour for a sequel which is a real shame. Imagine what you could do with today's technology. It would also touch the right nerve with the current love of open ended gameplay, as Fasteasyfree mentioned.

Oh, and about the game being too quick for current PCs - I heard you can get a program that slows down your computer so you can play games that usually run too quick - anyone know what it's called?

[fasteasyfree]

I've heard of this too. I'm just going to run it in VMware though.

[Sabreman]

It's released as abandonware:

http://underdogs.cjb.net/

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Hmm, I had the PS1 version, but it never really clicked. It felt too 'loose' and the controls were too forced for the standard PS1-controller.

I did manage to put some time into it. Sort of nice, but it ahd more pontential than I got out of it. I think a remake would be in order.

[valkyrie999]

there are easier things than vmware to run old dos games,

littles progies to use a fixed percentage of your cpu.

[fasteasyfree]

there are easier things than vmware to run old dos games,

littles progies to use a fixed percentage of your cpu.

I know. But I like being awkward.

All old DOS games fux0r up my display though. When I exit the game, all the colours are gone and it looks more like static.

[fasteasyfree]

It's released as abandonware:

http://underdogs.cjb.net/

Cheers for that mate

My original CD is a bit knackered.

[MK-1601]

Syndicate was better.

[fasteasyfree]

Syndicate was better.

Never played it. I'm going to indulge myself and play a game of SW while munching a Seedy Sanchez pot noodle. Mmmm.

[kamrantaz]

but it wasnt underrated.

It was universally hailed as a masterpiece by critics and the public. It also sold SHITLOADS!

The only strange thing is that EA didnt release anymore version after buying bullfrog.

Just what was the point in buying them and then getting them to produce conversions of Quake 3 for PS2? Thats like MS buying Rare and not using them to make anything of any use.

[fasteasyfree]

but it wasnt underrated.

It was universally hailed as a masterpiece by critics and the public. It also sold SHITLOADS!

The only strange thing is that EA didnt release anymore version after buying bullfrog.

Just what was the point in buying them and then getting them to produce conversions of Quake 3 for PS2? Thats like MS buying Rare and not using them to make anything of any use.

Most of the dev. team left.

[Cyhwuhx]

Just what was the point in buying them and then getting them to produce conversions of Quake 3 for PS2? Thats like MS buying Rare and not using them to make anything of any use.

.::: Oooooooooh... so...... tempting.....

[ryodi]

I really enjoyed it when I played it briefly although it crippled my 486 computer which I was suprised it actually ran on. If anyone is interested in getting it, Gamestation have it second hand for £3.99

[fasteasyfree]

You haven't been paying attention have you?

You can get it for FREE.

[squ1ffy]

but it wasnt underrated.

It was universally hailed as a masterpiece by critics and the public. It also sold SHITLOADS!

The only strange thing is that EA didnt release anymore version after buying bullfrog.

Just what was the point in buying them and then getting them to produce conversions of Quake 3 for PS2? Thats like MS buying Rare and not using them to make anything of any use.

That's the first I've heard that it sold well. It is on the underdogs wesite ( www.the-underdogs.org) for underrated games. If so that pleases me as it deserves to. Did it chart on the PS?

But it's not a game that seems to have been remembered much over the years. I want a sequel god damn it!

[kamrantaz]

I remember the world going wild in 1995 over this game. Was i imagining it?