Syndicate Wars has a 3/4 perspective similar to X-Com:  UFO Defense's,
but with a well-functioning rotatable view.  One to four players
control cybernetically enhanced Agents, who can upgrade weapons and
receive surgical implants.

The first couple of levels which I've seen so far are dark (it seems
to be nighttime ), and the setting is in the future, when Blade
Runner-esque hover cars zip around city blocks.  Once you figure out
how to hop in one of these cars you'll be pleased with the
transportation effects, though it's sort of a passive process.

The cityscape is covered with citizens and baddies.  The citizens, who
have cybernetic brain implants which *normally* keep them mellow, are
often screaming or running because of a computer virus, but can be
persuaded back to sanity with a Persuadetron.  Once persuaded,
citizens become behaviorally malleable tools of the Agents;  citizens
can pick up guns off dead baddies and fire them when an Agent fires
his own weapon.  Imagine a crowd of 15 or so "persuaded" men and
women, many of whom have weapons, all of whom follow you about as you
cut down the enemy.

Unlike X-Com:  UFO Defense, this title is stuffed with animations and
audile hubbub.  The animations include big screen billboards of
movies, and strangely rippling water/sludge in open-air channels.  The
sounds include policeman shouts and Uzi weapon discharges.

Some of the gameplay features include bank robbing (hey, I thought
Eurocorp were the good guys -- I guess this depends on whom you ask),
escorting someone, protecting a building, seeking out and killing
baddies, evacuating from an area, and conducting espionage.

Syndicate Wars has a lot of little touches, such as inconvenient
feedback loops to an Agent's energy pack when using unresearched
weapons.  Also, the first time you activate an Agents shields and
notice how they look a lot like the personal shield devices from the
SCI-FI movie Dune, you'll be very impressed (if you were a fan of the
movie, like me).

So far I've only played it in 2-player mode.  It's confusing with two
people at first, but the teamwork aspect is a lot of fun, especially
when you begin to successfully coordinate your onscreen efforts.

So far I'm excited by the game.  I'm looking forward to trying it in
1-player mode, though I've been told by my brother-in-law that it's
very difficult familiarizing oneself with the controls.  BTW, while
I'm mentioning controls, this game supports the mouse ... which is yet
another parallel with X-Com:  UFO Defense.  I cannot say whether it'll
have the addiction factor of X-Com, but it's a lot of fun so far;  and
the replay value seems high, given the apparent option of playing as
either Eurocorp or the Church of the New Epoch.

More later, probably.


Ricky Wayne Brown