A long long time ago, when Bullfrog and the Bitmap Brothers were still king of the hill, a title was released for this quaint system they called the Amiga. It was called Syndicate. Players had one simple goal to achieve - world domination. And they had to do it piecemeal. Each nation had a mission, and success at that mission meant that it fell under your control. In the mission itself, you could control cyborg agents armed with a whole bunch of badass weaponry. A brilliant game, it only fell short in one department - the graphics were extremely low res and pixellated, despite which it got rave reviews from all over. And then, a little while later, the PC conversion was announced - Syndicate Plus. Identical, save for one feature - the graphics were crystal clear this time around. I remember my friend telling me about this Game Cd he had got with his Creative CD kit at a party. He was reeling off the names of the games..."Strike Commander, Ultima 8, Wing Commander 2, Syndicate Plus..." The next thing he knew, he was being shaken by the shoulders like a ragdoll, with me screaming, "What? WHAT?! WHAAAAAT?!?!? GIMME THE DAMN THING NOW!!!"

But seriously, this game brings back fond memories like few other. It truly cuddles the megalomaniac in me. Starting out in a small outfit in Scandinavia, you slowly see your corporation spread and grow, till its stain is finally on every nation in the world.

First of all, there is an elaborate backstory, which I sat and went through the whole txt file to digest. In the future, the world is so fucked up that some people choose to live in a virtual one, with the help of certain neural chip implants. Only while people were in their personal Utopia, they were more open to suggestion. Finally, it got to a point where civilians were nabbed from the street for use in experiments and in certain cases, used as part of the reigning corporation's mercenary army. Sure, right now we've probably seen scores of movies and games which use similar themes, but 10+ years back, I thought this was uber-cool.

Prior to each mission, you pop into the cryo chamber to select your team from the agent roster. Then, you get to buy them the best hardware that you can afford. Time and money also can be spent researching new weaponry, as well as augmentations for your cyborgs. Bionic legs for faster movement, reinforced arms for carrying more items, upgraded optic devices for better aim, etc.

Upto four agents can be controlled in the field from an aerial isometric view. While at first you will only be able to equip them with pea-shooters, shotguns and persuadertrons, eventually you get your hands on a whole bunch of wicked shit, including the minigun (the most heady firing sound ever), flamethrower, sniper, laser, gauss gun (aka rocket launcher) timebomb and personal forcefield. The missions themselves are well thought out, and occasionally feature a few twists to keep you on your feet. The atmosphere is brilliant; there are electronic hoardings, cops patrolling the street, hovercars milling around (which you can shoot at, causing the driver to get out and run like hell, after which you can get in and drive), trains (which you could also board). While in the beginning, discretion is the best way around it, towards the latter half of the game, body counts significantly climb as you continually find yourself having to work your agents against formidable odds.

There's also a dash of micromanagement added, wherein you can choose how much to tax the nations under your control. While more tax would obviously give you more moolah, tax a particular nation too much and they'd get rebellious, forcing you to replay that mission.

Well, obviously there are a few quibbles. First of all, finding the damn thing is near impossible. Would be easier to try download it, I suppose. Also, it's highly unlikely that this game will even run on your system (it's a DOS game, see?) without some system file tweaking, which most people are loath to do. Then, seeing as how it's over a decade old, calling the graphics dated would be sort of an understatement. Also while the concepts themselves were reasonable fresh to most of us then, now most people would probably be jaded in that respect. In fact, it's got most of the baggage of an action/strategy game from another era. Occasional buggy pathfinding, primitive AI, repetitive environments, etc.

But I've played this 3 times from start to finish, and would do it again right now (if I had the damn CD!). It's got that right kind of old-school charm. And the sequel, Syndicate Wars fell far short of expectations. To its credit, the atmosphere was maintained, environments were slightly improved, and made in 3d this time around. But controlling your agents didn't feel intuitive at all, and they were of lower res then SyndPlus! It is a firm rule that sequels must graphically surpass their predecessors, and this one didn't manage that. Granted, the shift from 2d to 3d must have been difficult, but they should have done better. This one, however, has my vote for the Hall of Fame.

Developer: Bullfrog

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: PC, Mac, Consoles that nobody uses anymore.