Syndicate – Bullfrog’s Old 16-bit Masterpiece Gets a Makeover

Game on: Syndicate – previewGamers with the urge to fire guns in an apocalyptic or dystopian future aren’t exactly short of options. They can, to name just a few big franchises: bust caps in the irradiated asses of Fallout’s post-nuclear ghouls; tear Mass Effect’s space-faring mercenaries new ones; pump Deus Ex’s digitally-enhanced terrorists full of cyber-lead and mow down weird insect-zombie-aliens in Gears of War. Clearly, shooters-in-nightmare-futures aren’t exactly in short supply. So launching a newcomer in a marketplace this crowded is a very bold move indeed. Lucky for Syndicate (PS3/Xbox 360/PC) that it’s not a newcomer then. In fact it’s older than any of the above. It’s 19 years since developers Bullfrog released the original Syndicate for home computers on the MS-DOS operating system (essentially Windows before the windows) and 16 years since sequel Syndicate Wars for MS-DOS and the original Playstation, the last instalment in the franchise until now. The originals were, like much of Bullfrog’s output, classics – bold, innovative games full of very cool, very new ideas. In the original Syndicate – as in the reboot – the player takes on the role of a microchip-enhanced super-agent working for one of the many shady corporations doing battle for world domination. In this dark tomorrow every man, woman and child has had a computer chip (and clunky metaphor for consumerism) implanted in their brain by their parent corporation. As your syndicate’s dirty enforcer you have the power to hack in to these chips, mess around and, if the situation demands it, blow the chip and the brain around it to smithereens. Making your messy way through missions with a team of up to four agents you bribe, blackmail, kidnap and brain-explode your way to full-scale corporate global dominance. In essence, it is a mafia game re-imagined by a drunk, psychotic William Gibson. Now, having been badgered out of retirement by a new developer like a cyberpunk Paul Scholes, the franchise has undergone a radical makeover.