Always upgrade the first agent's cybernetics so he takes point and soaks up the damage, use another agent for persuading or persuade a crowd - they'll pick up weapons & help out (just have them walk over it). If I remember correctly, persuade 5 civilians to persuade police and 5 policemen to persuade and keep enemy agents. Some of them will have level 1 or 2 cybernetics. Good times :)
The persuadatron was the most powerful gun in the game. The number of people you had following you determined the amount of influence you exhibited. Get enough civilians and eventually you could persuade punks and police. Persuaded people would arm themselves if you walked them over guns lying on the ground, and would fire on anyone you fired on. Getting a massive army, armed to the teeth made some missions a breeze and a lot of fun. The best part, you could fit everyone into one car...
The rotatable 3d view and fully destructable environment was ground breaking for it's time. With a 100mz processor my computer used to run very slowly whenever something exploded. It was working pretty hard just to do that 640X480 rez.
I remember when I first played the demo I had my guys running out of the building with the scientist to get to the car I had parked out the front. The Zealots flew in but I had the Electron Mace too and made short work of them. Then in an unrepeatable moment of hardware straining slow-motion they careened into the pyramid as the bomb I left inside earlier exploded simultaneously. My getaway car driving triumphantly away from the shockwave as I fist pumped.
Great Video! Always put Persuadertron on Agent 4 because the way "Select All Agents" Works. You should´ve used your Drugs a bit more and activated your shield at the end :-) i love this game, esp. the body modification feature. I remember i once gave L3 Legs and Body to a clone, simply to have it make a suicide attack on the target that was swarmed by enemy troops. Good times...
oh this is where Electron Mace is from - my cousin's xbox360 profile is "Electron Mace" and i always wondered where he got a cool name like that and hed never tell me - i guessed it was from the movie demolition man - those stun batons they got but he said no
I loved this game up to the mission in Hawaii/Honolulu which still haunts me to this day. Oh and the second to last mission for the Coroporation. Still an awesome game though. Way ahead of its time.
This game has been tweaked by gog.com to run on current operating systems i.e. Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) and Mac OS X (10.6.8 or newer) - there is 9 hours left in the sale to get it at 80% off for $1.49. Gog.com also has a 30 day money back compatibility guarantee. It is legal to burn this games .exe files to permanent installable media as well.
I had this game, but I played very little of it. The levels felt very hard to complete. I think I advanced two or three levels on both factions. I remember the combat being very click-ish, all resumed to whoever fires first and has more guns aimed each other. 16 to 17 years ago mind you. also, at the time, the intro made no sense to me. now it does, beautifully =) every thing clears in time.
awesome video. very informative. i remember wanting this game sooo bad when i was a little kid, but alas i never got it. makes me cry. here's to hoping gog will sign with EA some time soon
This was the first true Cyberpunk game I came upon. Was difficult to understand at first but became addictive in gameplay. A shame it was not built upon.
@jangirke sorry, they were the third faction but did't made it into the final version. To play them- that's possible- you have to unlock every single mission by hand, there are guides in the web. But there is no campaign for them in the game. I speak to you as a person that finished both campaigns. :)
Nice video Blog.... I still have this game and the Colombian Version of it, lol, yes, the Colombian Version.. I think it was the same version that they released in Spain, Still remember a little Colombian Logo.. back then in 96 i think
For everyone thinking of buying this game, DO IT! it is one of the best games of all time! He also have the graphics on low detail so it looks a lot better than it does here :-)
In fact I believe the two were closley related - GTA was initially going to be an isometric 3D game, syndicate style, but when the makers saw a demo of syndicate running, they realised that the games were too simmilar - thats why the first 2 Grand Theft Auto games were top down - to avoid comparison with syndicate! You learn something new every day! :)
I played this demo mission so many times, not sure if I ever managed to finish it though, I think I used to get gunned down by the flying craft at the end Played the full game years and years later but never got past the mission where you play the retro solo agent
I hope that no-one involved in Satellite Reign had anything to do with the decision not to allow players to save the game between the last three missions of Syndicate Wars. That freaking broke my heart.
omg, i really love this game, i have been searching it for long time. I used to play it alot when i was still little...eheheh anyway where can i download this game again? does it still work on winXP?
Starbreeze is making a Syndicate game. They made Riddick and The Darkness (both FPS). Before those they made 3rd person action games. Syndicate can only be a point and click game like it was back then, or a shooter. And what do people like right about now? Shooters, so that's what it's gonna be. And Starbreeze have produced successful first person games, making it an FPS.
@nuroe1 I just played it under XP with sound and all the stuff. Works perfectly under DosBox. For the music: I just ripped the CD's audio tracks as mp3s and played them in Winamp while playing.
I really only had the chance to play the SNES version. I played the PS version when it came out, but only as a rental and couldn't afford (or later find) the game to really invest the amount of time I wanted into it.
I thought I had played this game. Looks absolutely amazing for the time. I guess it was just the original I played. Anyway, thanks for the vid, very cool stuff.
i have the original game and have dosbox but is there any option in the dosbox to reduce the FPS? i want to play it again but i cant cause the game run too fast:(((
ohh man I so rember this game, many great times playing it. I rember one mission where you had to sneak on tp a dump truck to get into a building and then blow it up .. but have to get out befor it does :D I so need to get this game again .. anyone know where I can get it from.. shareware maybe?
They are making a game called "Satellite Reign" when I saw it I had to thinkn of Syndicate Wars and watched this vcideo. Check it out its currently early acces in steam.
just wondering what you are using to run this? ive had it running with dosbox but im unsure what to set the cpu cycles to so its the correct speed, plus whenever i do set that it seems to reset them every level change
The Devs admitted in one of the interviews that the 3d graphics was really primitive and going from 2d to 3d was not a good idea, because it lost a lot of detail.
If anyone enjoy the PSX version of Syndicate Wars like I did, my friend and I are about to submit a in depth FAQ at GameFAQS for this game. There is currently only one written FAQ for the PSX version already there, but the one I been working on is MUCH better. Do you have a lot knowledge or questions about the PSX version? Please send a PM to me and I'll like to hear it.
I loved Syndicate on the Amiga (and the American missions). I've never had a PC that can run the DOSbox version (1.9 gig and its not enough to play these old games! Oh, the irony..) - so got the Playstation version.. Its ok but feels more like an action game (with the pad), you also don't have as much control over your weapons as a mouse driven game (instead of shooting where the mouse is pointing your men just shoot in the general direction - it feels a bit loose in comparison).
The difficulty curve in this game is all over the place, which is my only real complaint. One minute, you're mowing down enemies without taking a scratch - the next, one guy with an electron mace flattens your entire crew.
@SuckItLily I thought project Redlime wasn't 100% confirmed if it was a Syndicate game or not yet? Where did you read that because i have been trying to dig more info up on it. Your right on the FPS thing though. I'm thinking a FPS in a GTA style sandbox environment.
@nuroe1 The game is easily enough found on Amazon or ebay. I am on a mac and and running it through a program called 'bullfrog'. Since games like this have a cult following, any problems you may encounter could probably be solved by just going online and looking up a forum. Get this game mate, i promise you that you will enjoy it!
I loved the The Church of the New Epoch, I always liked playing as them. At first I thought they were the supposed 'good guys' that wanted to take down Ero Corp Syndicate. Due that in the beginning you feel that the Church was out to show the people what the Syndicate really is, later on however. To take one life is sin. To take a thousand is religion. Bravery will take you into the most dangerous of places. Overwhelming firepower will see you safely through them. - The Book of Cataclysm.
Stats, weapons, if you managed to blindside your enemies, if you're using drugs or shields, there's a lot to it and it definitely doesn't feel arbitrary or out of your hands
@NewcastleGrind Shortly after as I made it back to base, a 2nd flying car swooped in and gunned my boys down before they got in the door. A poetic end to a perfect 10min of gameplay.
I have the PSP version and you can only save between missions. But you can always just turn your PSP off to "save state". The controls for the PSP version are good. Just use Setup 2, not the default since it thinks you have two thumbs on your left hand lol.
I remember my dad used to play the original Syndicate a lot. I never really understood it cos I was about 7 or something, but I've always thought that group of cyber agents were some of the coolest motherfuckers around. Im a Deus Ex fan aswell, and this game DEFINITELY has a similar vibe to it. CLASSIC, I might buy this on PSN cos its only 2 quid, but I hope the graphics ain't too bad compared to the PC version
Don't know how I got here in 2024, but this was a fun watch. There's not much recent coverage of stuff like this, it seems.
Very good! Reminds me how much I miss Syndicate Wars. We need another one, nao!
My boys and I played this on ps1 with multi tap 4 players..we loved it !!! Was our favorite game
@Valter Marinkovic it was so fun. Playing with 3 other people, completely controlling your character. Not the point and click . Some amazing memories
Always upgrade the first agent's cybernetics so he takes point and soaks up the damage, use another agent for persuading or persuade a crowd - they'll pick up weapons & help out (just have them walk over it). If I remember correctly, persuade 5 civilians to persuade police and 5 policemen to persuade and keep enemy agents. Some of them will have level 1 or 2 cybernetics. Good times :)
This is my favorite game of all time. I always wondered where Grand Theft Auto got their ideas from.
great walkthrough. you are a very good explainer. thanks for posting this. i love this game still after over 15 years have passed.
This game will forever be in my heart.. thank you for posting.
The persuadatron was the most powerful gun in the game. The number of people you had following you determined the amount of influence you exhibited. Get enough civilians and eventually you could persuade punks and police. Persuaded people would arm themselves if you walked them over guns lying on the ground, and would fire on anyone you fired on. Getting a massive army, armed to the teeth made some missions a breeze and a lot of fun. The best part, you could fit everyone into one car...
The rotatable 3d view and fully destructable environment was ground breaking for it's time. With a 100mz processor my computer used to run very slowly whenever something exploded. It was working pretty hard just to do that 640X480 rez.
Bullfrog was freaking awesome. Someone should make a remake of this fantastic game. Badass ideas, sound, weapons, dystopian atmosphere, everything.
man, still looks good after all these years. The load-out screens look better than a lot of much newer games.
Brings me back ;-) Love this game! Found it on PSN!!
My favorite quote from the commentary: "Now, we've got four miniguns, and that should see us th- yes it does."
Great stuff man. :)
I remember when I first played the demo I had my guys running out of the building with the scientist to get to the car I had parked out the front. The Zealots flew in but I had the Electron Mace too and made short work of them.
Then in an unrepeatable moment of hardware straining slow-motion they careened into the pyramid as the bomb I left inside earlier exploded simultaneously. My getaway car driving triumphantly away from the shockwave as I fist pumped.
The best menu presentation and animation in a game ever.
As far as I can see it's been successful. I cannot wait for the results!
Wow, this game looks really awesome, I really like the graphics too, you can tell they'd have been really impressive back in the day
Crazy to see videos uploaded 15 years ago
Great Video!
Always put Persuadertron on Agent 4 because the way "Select All Agents" Works. You should´ve used your Drugs a bit more and activated your shield at the end :-) i love this game, esp. the body modification feature. I remember i once gave L3 Legs and Body to a clone, simply to have it make a suicide attack on the target that was swarmed by enemy troops. Good times...
oh this is where Electron Mace is from - my cousin's xbox360 profile is "Electron Mace" and i always wondered where he got a cool name like that and hed never tell me - i guessed it was from the movie demolition man - those stun batons they got but he said no
I loved this game up to the mission in Hawaii/Honolulu which still haunts me to this day. Oh and the second to last mission for the Coroporation.
Still an awesome game though. Way ahead of its time.
This game has been tweaked by gog.com to run on current operating systems i.e. Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) and Mac OS X (10.6.8 or newer) - there is 9 hours left in the sale to get it at 80% off for $1.49. Gog.com also has a 30 day money back compatibility guarantee. It is legal to burn this games .exe files to permanent installable media as well.
Great vid! I loved the first Syndicate game but never got in to the second one.
I had this game, but I played very little of it. The levels felt very hard to complete. I think I advanced two or three levels on both factions. I remember the combat being very click-ish, all resumed to whoever fires first and has more guns aimed each other.
16 to 17 years ago mind you.
also, at the time, the intro made no sense to me. now it does, beautifully =)
every thing clears in time.
cool
awesome video. very informative. i remember wanting this game sooo bad when i was a little kid, but alas i never got it. makes me cry. here's to hoping gog will sign with EA some time soon
Syndicate is one of the greatest games of all time and though this game is not as good it is still brilliant!!!
I still have this game in a drawer, I think i'll install it on my laptop !
Baldur's Gate style gameplay in a Blade Runner setting? AWESOME.
This game gave me some of the best gaming-experiences ever!!! =)
This was the first true Cyberpunk game I came upon. Was difficult to understand at first but became addictive in gameplay. A shame it was not built upon.
Very nice commentary!
that laugh at 8:09
it's now available on GOG. an instabuy if i ever saw one.
@jangirke sorry, they were the third faction but did't made it into the final version. To play them- that's possible- you have to unlock every single mission by hand, there are guides in the web. But there is no campaign for them in the game. I speak to you as a person that finished both campaigns. :)
this game is sick!, havnt played the new one yet but it looks like it kicks ass!
Nice video Blog.... I still have this game and the Colombian Version of it, lol, yes, the Colombian Version.. I think it was the same version that they released in Spain, Still remember a little Colombian Logo.. back then in 96 i think
For everyone thinking of buying this game, DO IT! it is one of the best games of all time! He also have the graphics on low detail so it looks a lot better than it does here :-)
Thats great game. Awsome work!
@filostyliZticZ Yes, rows and rows of triggerwire and LR Rifles were a staple for me in later levels.
excellent commentary
@tkhushrenada I had trouble with honolulu too.
but I learnt to just spam the trigger wire on the roads, and lure them in haha
In fact I believe the two were closley related - GTA was initially going to be an isometric 3D game, syndicate style, but when the makers saw a demo of syndicate running, they realised that the games were too simmilar - thats why the first 2 Grand Theft Auto games were top down - to avoid comparison with syndicate! You learn something new every day! :)
Syndicate was great... Syndicate Wars was alright...
If you can get a copy of the original CD, this game is easy to get running using DOSBOX.
I want to play this again but on pc how would i go about getting and it getting it too play with sound as well?
oh memories.... satellite rain is my favourite!
I played this demo mission so many times, not sure if I ever managed to finish it though, I think I used to get gunned down by the flying craft at the end
Played the full game years and years later but never got past the mission where you play the retro solo agent
I hope that no-one involved in Satellite Reign had anything to do with the decision not to allow players to save the game between the last three missions of Syndicate Wars. That freaking broke my heart.
omg, i really love this game, i have been searching it for long time. I used to play it alot when i was still little...eheheh
anyway where can i download this game again? does it still work on winXP?
Starbreeze is making a Syndicate game. They made Riddick and The Darkness (both FPS). Before those they made 3rd person action games.
Syndicate can only be a point and click game like it was back then, or a shooter. And what do people like right about now? Shooters, so that's what it's gonna be. And Starbreeze have produced successful first person games, making it an FPS.
I've finished Syndicate SNES, never heard of this !! NEED TO PLAY THIS ! lol. When the bank exploded I was like "damn.... !!"
Mike Diskett is possibly reviving Syndicate Wars in a new way through Kickstarter. Satellite Reign is the search words.
You should to a walk through video on "Satellite Reign" I really like to see what are your thoughts on it.
@filostyliZticZ Rows and rows of razorwire at a chokepoint and LR rifles were a staple of mine at later levels ;)
@nuroe1
I just played it under XP with sound and all the stuff. Works perfectly under DosBox. For the music: I just ripped the CD's audio tracks as mp3s and played them in Winamp while playing.
actually, you can, if u have grouped hte units... if u right click on the gun... all the gruoped agents will select or deselect their weapons~
I can't get the guns & body parts to appear in the game (when buy'n & sell'n). I hear the 'scan' sound, but it just repeats.
I really only had the chance to play the SNES version.
I played the PS version when it came out, but only as a rental and couldn't afford (or later find) the game to really invest the amount of time I wanted into it.
I thought I had played this game. Looks absolutely amazing for the time. I guess it was just the original I played. Anyway, thanks for the vid, very cool stuff.
me 2 and same with everyone else who wasn't superhuman, geez playing the church was so incredibly difficult
Great review, which do you prefer, the original or this?
i have the original game and have dosbox but is there any option in the dosbox to reduce the FPS? i want to play it again but i cant cause the game run too fast:(((
Wow! This game was amazing, even now it wouldnt look out of place.
Then sniper rifles were fantastic!
This game is the bomb. Spent many a good hour playing this play station and before that the Amega. Don't make games like this anymore.
ohh man I so rember this game, many great times playing it. I rember one mission where you had to sneak on tp a dump truck to get into a building and then blow it up .. but have to get out befor it does :D
I so need to get this game again .. anyone know where I can get it from.. shareware maybe?
They are making a game called "Satellite Reign" when I saw it I had to thinkn of Syndicate Wars and watched this vcideo. Check it out its currently early acces in steam.
Awesome!
nice retro review
just wondering what you are using to run this?
ive had it running with dosbox but im unsure what to set the cpu cycles to so its the correct speed, plus whenever i do set that it seems to reset them every level change
@OBSysteme Ultra fast on a modern day system on low detail settings. High detail makes the game a lot more manageable and prettier.
good old memories.
The Devs admitted in one of the interviews that the 3d graphics was really primitive and going from 2d to 3d was not a good idea, because it lost a lot of detail.
ive been wondering for years where is the remake?
If anyone enjoy the PSX version of Syndicate Wars like I did, my friend and I are about to submit a in depth FAQ at GameFAQS for this game. There is currently only one written FAQ for the PSX version already there, but the one I been working on is MUCH better. Do you have a lot knowledge or questions about the PSX version? Please send a PM to me and I'll like to hear it.
I loved Syndicate on the Amiga (and the American missions). I've never had a PC that can run the DOSbox version (1.9 gig and its not enough to play these old games! Oh, the irony..) - so got the Playstation version.. Its ok but feels more like an action game (with the pad), you also don't have as much control over your weapons as a mouse driven game (instead of shooting where the mouse is pointing your men just shoot in the general direction - it feels a bit loose in comparison).
Now SYNDICATE returns finally...
it wish it where a syndicate but its a fancy neon fantasy-style shit game named satelite reigin
The difficulty curve in this game is all over the place, which is my only real complaint. One minute, you're mowing down enemies without taking a scratch - the next, one guy with an electron mace flattens your entire crew.
Yes please !!
I would love to see a new syndicate game for the iphone / ipad, I thinkthat the touch controls would be very suitable for this kind of game.
What mission was this? ? I'm replaying it now I don't remember this one?
@Bartreligion i think somebody is doing exactly that atm...
Syndicate Wars remake anyone?
where can i download this game for pc?
It's fun how the 2D sprites in this game looked worse than in the original.
But the 3D maps where nice. At least in the SVGA mode.
are there any speed runs for this? I haven't been able to find any :/
@SuckItLily I thought project Redlime wasn't 100% confirmed if it was a Syndicate game or not yet? Where did you read that because i have been trying to dig more info up on it.
Your right on the FPS thing though. I'm thinking a FPS in a GTA style sandbox environment.
I remember playing this game. its fun. did it come out before gta?
+joe greem depends if you mean gta 1998
Ffransis James The first GTA
joe greem 1998!! no this was before in 1996. roughly
Pretty sure GTA 1 came out in 1997. Syndicate Wars in 1996
Can it be zoomed out?
Also if u played it at 640 res the graphics were very crisp I thought, back then at any rate
@nuroe1 The game is easily enough found on Amazon or ebay. I am on a mac and and running it through a program called 'bullfrog'. Since games like this have a cult following, any problems you may encounter could probably be solved by just going online and looking up a forum. Get this game mate, i promise you that you will enjoy it!
I loved the The Church of the New Epoch, I always liked playing as them. At first I thought they were the supposed 'good guys' that wanted to take down Ero Corp Syndicate. Due that in the beginning you feel that the Church was out to show the people what the Syndicate really is, later on however.
To take one life is sin. To take a thousand is religion.
Bravery will take you into the most dangerous of places. Overwhelming firepower will see you safely through them.
- The Book of Cataclysm.
If it's all RTS combat, how does the player have any input? It seems like success or failure's arbitrary (or just determined by stats).
Stats, weapons, if you managed to blindside your enemies, if you're using drugs or shields, there's a lot to it and it definitely doesn't feel arbitrary or out of your hands
Can you save this game whenever you want? It's on the PS Store and that's what made me find this vid.If it can be saved whenever, I will buy it.
Cool move!
Pretty cool game :D
@NewcastleGrind
Shortly after as I made it back to base, a 2nd flying car swooped in and gunned my boys down before they got in the door. A poetic end to a perfect 10min of gameplay.
I have the PSP version and you can only save between missions. But you can always just turn your PSP off to "save state".
The controls for the PSP version are good. Just use Setup 2, not the default since it thinks you have two thumbs on your left hand lol.
I remember my dad used to play the original Syndicate a lot. I never really understood it cos I was about 7 or something, but I've always thought that group of cyber agents were some of the coolest motherfuckers around. Im a Deus Ex fan aswell, and this game DEFINITELY has a similar vibe to it. CLASSIC, I might buy this on PSN cos its only 2 quid, but I hope the graphics ain't too bad compared to the PC version
This was a great game . the need to remake fps gta style
@PoppieXL ebay or amazon