Result : 8 - Bizarre, bloody and addictive.
 | Graphics: 7 - Slightly blocky Blade Runnerish. |
| FMV : 7 - see above. |
| Sound : 8 - Digitised voices and big bangs, sweet! |
| Music : 7 - Very moody. |
| A.I. : 8 - Realistic cities and nasty enemies. |
| Lifespan : 8 - Loads of huge levels. |
| Gameplay : 9 - Unique and absorbing. |
| Adrenaline : 9 - Just your 4 musketeers against the world... |
Syndicate Wars is such a brutal game, this is the type of stuff those US mothers should banning. This game is set 100 odd years after the first one. I gather the first game, Syndicate, had some big corperation trying to compete for dominance in the world market. Things have now developed so that this Corperation dominates people, right down to the point of putting chips into everyone to "stabilise" them. This means that people are given a small amount of free will, but Corp officials can control them by use of a Pursuadertron and their embedded chips. This has led to market dominance and a stable government. Until now. There are two other factions, the Church of the New Epoch, which was formed by high-tech scientists, and people breaking thier chips programming, and becoming "Unguided". The Church is spreading a tech-virus that, I think, turns people into unguided, and many choose to join the church. If you play as the Corp, you get to hunt down or re-pursuade these rebels. You control four Agents, these are organic-cyborg type entities which are under your direct control (via your TV and playstation). They do nothing unless you make them do so, or you manipulate the drug systems built into them that makes them either psychotic maniacs (beserkly killing EVERYTHING in sight), or paranoid delusionals (greater perception, attacking anyone carrying a weapon). Later you get cyborg brain-software that gives them slight autonomy, they then return fire and avoid obsticales better etc.
You get stacks of funky weapons for your agents, leading to a paper-siccors-stone weapon selections against the enemy (if you use flamers, I shall use a long range rifle, minigun rush vs pursuadertrons). Also there are various ungrades for your cyborgs to make them run and shoot better, give them greater stamina and damage abosrbtion. You can only give them so many drug doses before they start to need more for the same effect, and the upgrades help with this too. The enemy get different and equally deadly equipment, loot their dead bodies, and you can develop them yourself (and use the ones you pick up). Ahhh bodies, time I addressed this point. Apart from the (wussy) police turning up, there is nothing stopping you from gunning down civillians and police, blowing up banks (and robbing them), car-jacking, or pursuading huge armies of office worker/cannon fodder - I like this Idea, you utilise them as "ablative armour" :-> All very Grand Theft Auto, although this was released well before , and being in a 3D landscape it works so much better.
Sound is wonderful, the Suits screaming as you flame them, the rattle of your miniguns! Graphically it isn't quite up to todays games, and apart from some slight problems with seeing through buildings, does the job very well. It has some very nice moody background music, and makes you feel all very Blade Runner-esque as your agents as they run around madly in the techno cyberpunk envrionment.
I like this game, I have to finish it yet, but would so love to see a redone modern version. Whole cities to explore, while keeping the AI and real-world feel to things, better vehicle usage, and maybe a first-person mode. I can only imagine the carnage of deathmatches while using mini-armies of gunned up office workers... Not a mindless shooter, you really need some tactical thinking, with all the adreneline blasting of Robotron and bits of GTA. Yes Sir, I like it!
ALL WEAPONS
During the intro enter Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, X, Circle. You'll hear a gunshot
if you've entered everything accordingly.
NBA In The Zone: ALLEY-OOP
To Alley-oop, hold X and Square while your ball carrier is in the point (i.e. about to
score). Note: another player needs to be close by to pull off the move successfully.
INFINITE CLONE ENERGY SHIELD
When you have researched chromotaps and clone shields, buy one of each for your
agents, making sure they are next to each other on your weapon select bar. Start
the mission and select your clone shields, then select your chromotaps. you
should now have infinite power for your clone shields as long as you have your
chromotaps selected. Simply repeat the process to reactivate the cheat if you
change weapons.
SKIN CHEAT
1. On the last level Option screen, go to Cryovat.
2. Make sure all of your people have got Level 3 in everything, including you
reserves.
3. Click on ´All Agents´ and then on one of your reserves. You should now only
be able to buy the three body modifications, so buy him/her Level 3. Do this for
all your reserves in turn (go back to ´All Agents´ then another person) until
they have all been done, but not for your main team.
4. Now click on number 1 and you´ll have one of the improved skin types. the
type of skin you get depends on the number of reserves you have.
LOTS OF MONEY
Enter your name as TOTHETOP. This will give you lots of money and makes the game
a bit easier.
