Syndicate Wars - Bullfrog

             Reviewed by James Judge on a P120

It's far in the future and the world is controlled by this
syndicate of giant corporations who, in turn, control the world
and its inhabitants. Life's OK and citizens are left more or less
alone.  However, a threat to the Syndicate has turned up in the
form of the Church Of The New Epoch. These guys want to install
their own reign of terrorism in place of the Syndicate, taking
over their mega-computers and converting all of the world's
inhabitants into mindless zombie-freaks. All done under the
pretence of religion.

This is the basic outline of the plot behind this awesome game. In
it you play either the Syndicate or the Church and must embark on
numerous missions (about twenty per side) to secure world
dominance.

A few years ago on the Amiga and Atari the original Syndicate came
out and set a new precedent for 3D isometric games, and
shoot-'em-ups as a whole. There was a whole strategy side to the
game as well as the hands-on action with plenty of blood, guts and
the maiming of innocents. Oh, and the explosions were cool too.
Syndicate Wars, as you may have guessed, follows on from this, but
improves the gameplay soooooo much.

You start the game viewing your operations desk, from which you
control your squad of soldiers, what they carry as well as the
research your scientists are embarking on. Also you get messages
flashing up, telling you where the problem spots are in the world
for your organisation and, basically, telling you what to do and
what the rewards will be. This is a shoot-'em-up at heart, but
with so much strategy in and out of the action zones, it starts to
define its own genre with frightening intensity.

To start with you have four agents who are equipped with the basic
weapons of your faction. You also get a mission to go on.  You
also have a limited budget with which to finance research.  After
kitting out your agents with extra weaponry and items you then
embark on the mission that has been given to you, and God help
you.

After your four agents have been deployed the view will switch to
a 3D isometric view of the city that you're in (from the multitude
of trans-global cities available to you) and you will start to
control your cybernetic agents hands-on. You will have a number of
set targets to accomplish and the whole city to accomplish them
in.  You control the agents with the mouse and everything is
simple - go to their inventory and select a weapon and then start
clicking madly around the screen to open up the firing. Excellent.
To make them walk anywhere just click on the desired destination.
To make them run, double click. Simplicity itself.

You then trawl around the city, leaving a trail of destruction
behind you, completing your objectives which could be anything
from killing all of the opposition present to guarding a scientist
and 'converting' others to join your cause.

A problem with the first game was that the view wasn't rotatable.
This meant that things happened behind buildings that you could
not see. Bullfrog have gotten around this by introducing a
rotational view. This adds an extra complexity to the game,
however, as you must control your agents continuously using your
mouse hand while the other uses the ten view-keys on the keyboard
to give you the best view possible. Naturally you'll be
continually tweaking your viewpoint as agents wander behind
buildings and vehicles. However, it soon become second nature to
have both hands on the go at once with the screen always moving
and your agents moving within that frame. It looks confusing to
the casual observer, but to the player there is logic there.

The game can be approached as a simple shoot-'em-up, and for the
first few missions it certainly is. However, once new weapons have
been developed and new pieces of kit have been made available and
the opponents have become more cunning and numerous (as well as
harder) and your mission objectives have become increasingly
complex you soon realise that brawn alone will not win the game.

You have to study the map of the city carefully, planning where
you will attack from, what you will attack first and what is best
just to plain avoid. Later missions necessitate the 'borrowing' of
vehicles as well as the destruction of buildings and creating a
huge army of faithful followers who will trail after you, picking
up any weapon and then firing at the enemy. You can take to the
skies in hover-cars and catch trains in some cities. In other
areas only certain weapons will be effective, or you'll have a
time-limit in which to complete a mission. You'll need to split
your team, covering lots of ground and doing things with each
agent almost simultaneously. You'll need to protect certain key
members in the mission, while retrieving important documents and
the like from the enemy. While all of this is going on you can
also be harassing the local police and robbing banks to build up
your cash reserves.  Or you can take some time out and just go on
a killing spree in a busy street.

Even with the fully rotational screen the graphics are good. For a
reasonable frame rate you'll need to have it in VGA mode which,
though blocky, still looks good. If you've got a P200 with a
top-notch graphics card then the SVGA option could be yours which
looks good, but a P166 or below has a frame rate two thirds of
what it should be for smooth playing. The only problem in the
graphic department is that sometimes rotating the screen leaves
some buildings looking exceptionally strange, as if they have been
drawn incorrectly. However, making up for this, the explosions are
awesome - especially when you get some nuclear weaponry, and the
best gun in the game looks truly magnificent - it's laser fire and
other bits (you'll have to see it to understand, really) are
superb.

Sonically the game is proficient too with nice sounds and spot
effects (the great soundbite at the train stations "Mind your
step.  Falling will be fatal." plays in a soothing female voice)
and the guns sound as if there is real meat behind them.

The game also has a multi-player option which will work over a
network with up to four (I think) players. You each take on a
pre-equipped team (the kit is decided on by the players as a
whole) and then choose a city in which to do battle. The person
with the most kills wins the game. Every time your team is wiped
out they start again. There are a few down-points to this aspect
of the game, though. Firstly strategy plays much less of a part
and the game develops into a free-for-all blood bath. Secondly
there are AI opponents to worry about, which are good enough to
completely overwhelm weaker players. Finally the cities are pretty
big and finding four enemy agents quickly in a sprawling
metropolis is difficult, so the more players the better, otherwise
you'll be playing against the computer AI for most of the time.
Still, for a quick blast it's fast and frantic and still excellent
fun.

Overall this game is brilliant. It has the right mixture of action
and strategy to make it appealing to both the hyper-active ten
year old in us, as well as the slightly quieter thirty-something
who prefers all things cerebral. The plot unfolds quickly and
well, giving you a sense of purpose and place, and is well
executed within individual missions. The graphics are great -
moody and dark, but with great explosions and in full 3D (sort of)
too - even in VGA mode. The sound complements the visual side of
things to perfection. The sense of freedom within missions is huge
too. In some missions you know you've got to be somewhere at a
specific time, but in others you can do whatever the hell you want
as long as you get the mission completed. The range of weaponry
and kit is large enough to give you plenty of options on how you
will go about the game, and you can tailor your team to suit your
playing style.

In all a truly awesome game that will keep you going for ages -
I'm about 3/4 of the way through and it has taken me a few days of
solid playing to get this far; and I've just met a complete and
utter brick wall. Doh!

To some up - this is the only game in which I've had my computer
alter-egos running away from an enemy who has been set on fire (by
me) and screaming their head off (literally). Now, that's got to
count for something, hasn't it??


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