Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Syndicate Review
Date: Wed Jul 14 23:12:02 1993

OK, this is for everyone who has E-mailed me wanting to know more,
and those who haven't who also want to know.


Syndicate comes on 5 1.44 3.5 inch disks, it is 12 M , and uses the same
compression/installation software as space hulk does (Volume names
with spaces etc)
It requires 594K conventional RAM, and 3 M EMS.
The intro is superb, incorporating the the same style seen in
the game (it is 3.5 M long), Rayshaded and quite smooth (although a tad
slow)
MY computer is a 486/33 with 8M RAm and an ET-4000 video card (ISA).
The games starts with a menu, where you can choose the name and
icon/ colour of your country--fairly minor details, but nice.
Load/save game options for ten games, and a restart game option.
Once you begin mission, you are presented with a map of the world.
The Countries are different, they are territories governed by
Syndicates (Cyberpunk type Multi-national Corps.)
They are slightly different to what we are familiar with, eg
Australia consists of 3 territories incorporating NZ.
(The NSW mission requires the complete elimination of the
corrupt Police force--Quite topical really...)
Once owned a country can have its Tax levels adjusted to provide
income, but the social status must be maintained.
This ranges from Very Happy to Rebellious. Once rebellious, the
mission must be replayed. Missions/Territories can only be played
if you own an adjacent territory.
After a mission is selected, a mission briefing is given,
detailing the background and objective. Hints and tips
(which are required reading) have to be bought. 
A map of the area can have its detail increased for
more money too. It looks like the Space-Hulk map on the
action screen.

After this, come the player modification/ equipment screen.
This is where you equip your players, select team members
and invest in research.
The players start out basic, and you have the ability to add
cyborg body parts. These are:
Brain: respsonds faster to given situation
Eyes: sees better
Heart: Drugs have longer effect
Legs faster movement
Arms: less encumberance
Chest: Take more damage + self destruct

REsearch is nicely done. It shows a graph of the projected
completetion vs time. Completeion time can be speed up by
injecting more funds. Without it you can't get chunky weapons and mods.

Weapons consist of:
Pistol: basic
Shotgun: nice pump action sound
Persuadeatron: 'Persuades' characters to follow you- needed for some missions
Uzi-
Mini-gun: So much fun....
Long RAnge Rifle: good for sniping with
Laser: Very Deadly and accurate
Flamethrower: Short range, must fun to use on crowds - watch 'em burn & scream.
Guass Gun: Missile launcher, effect like flamethrower.

Misc items consist of medpaks, shields, ID cards, and scanners( which dont seem
to work)

Now come the action: In 640*400*16 colours, 2/3 of the screen is for the game area
and the rest for character status, and scanner.
Cyborgs are controlled individually or as a group by selecting them, and
clicking on the map where you want to go.
Each cyborg has four meters: Health, Intelligence (alertness), Adrenallin (for speed), and Perception ( accuaracy). setting IPA levels to max makes for a sort-of
Super cyborg, but how long this lasts depends on what level of mods he has.

The cities are all different, and are in a 3D isometric view, coming from
Bullfrog, who love this viewpoint, they are very detailed.
Mission usually range from assinations, to eliminations, to rescues and kidnapps.
With the assinations, you have to direct your team to a point on the map,
indicated by a radar type blip (hard to explain)- but original (I think)

The game is fun, missions challenging, but It ended to soon. It has some 
great sounds, and end of mission animations (like the intro).
It is very polished and high quality, and well worth playing.
One problems I encountered was that I did not exit properly,
the last saved game would be corrupt (using smartdrv).
Also, some of the equipment available did not do anything:
This was the ID card- police still shot me (how do you use it)
and the scanner, which didn't seem nessecary (is it?)

Adam


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