Syndicate Wars

Ahhh, good old syndicate wars! This game is awesome. The game play involves you controlling your syndicate agents on the streets taking out the bad guys and the basic aim of the game is to complete missions which if completed allows you control of a province in your quest to world domination. Bionic developments enhance your syndicate agents’ ability and resistance to enemy fire. Then, of course, there’s the weapons; ranging from the age old pistol, rifle, shotgun through to the mighty minigun, sniper, laser, and the fantastic flamethrower!! provides an added dimension of tactics and arsenal escalation.

Some of the best bits of this game are the ability to use your “persuadatron” device to recruit street strolling civilians, local authorities and eventually enemy syndicate agents. Seeing the mass gather and all climb into a vehicle together is pretty amusing.
Overall this game is addictive and once the general controls are worked out, relatively easy to play. If you can access some cheat codes to this game it adds a whole new dimension of annihilation!! I still remember sleeping over a friend’s house in grade 5 and playing syndicate wars all night. As you take certain parts of the world it allows you to attack other provinces and continue on your path to domination. Some of the missions are easy and some not so much, requiring tactical analysis and various weapon combinations to complete the mission with the least amount of casualties.
Some of the timeless memories created by this game are; the shouts from the local authorities of “police!! Put down your weapon!” if your syndicate agents walk the street with guns revealed, followed closely by a shoot out in the street; seeing your bionically enhanced agents go flying from a car explosion and walk away while the rest of the people in the proximity aren’t so lucky; and the well choreographed assault on an enemy unit.
Having 4 agents out on the mission adds fun to the game as you can control them collectively or control them individually as you see fit. Sometime a cautious approach works well and the overkill approach can be more fun sometimes. A radar in the top corner of the screen lets you know what threats exist and also helps give a general understanding of the terrain. Overall I would say this game is a 9/10 and should definitely be on the list of advanced-for-their-time pc games.