Syndicate Wars
| Syndicate Wars | |
|---|---|
European DOS cover art
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| Developer(s) | Bullfrog Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Director(s) | Mike Diskett |
| Composer(s) | Russell Shaw |
| Series | Syndicate |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation |
| Release |
DOS
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| Genre(s) | Real-time tactics |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 90% |
| Metacritic | 8.3 |
Syndicate Wars is the third video game title in the Syndicate series, created by Bullfrog Productions in 1996. It was released for DOS and the PlayStation, with a Sega Saturn version also fully developed, but never published.
Syndicate Wars presents a followup to the events in Syndicate taking place 95 years later (the year 2191). At the game's opening, the player-controlled syndicate (called EuroCorp) is at the peak of its power (achieved in the previous game), an alliance of corporations controlling the world through a combination of military and economic power, and technological mind control. Corporate decisions are facilitated through a number of AI entities connected through a global communications network.
As the game opens, this totalitarian status quo is threatened by the emergence of a virus named "" in the global communications system, damaging mind-control implants and leaving citizens vulnerable to co-option. Some of the newly liberated persons, dubbed "unguided citizens", choose to engage in an armed insurrection. The Unguided appear in early missions as random antagonistic elements, but over time form a well-organized militia.
Viral damage to the global network causes disruption to Syndicate coordinations, with individual stations isolating themselves to avoid receiving rogue communication. The London station, as the headquarters of the EuroCorp syndicate, attempts to regain authority via direct intervention by the game's signature quartets of heavily armed agents.
The bulk of the game concerns the development of armed conflict between EuroCorp and the Church of the New Epoch, a church (led by a group called "The Nine") seeking to undermine the world rule by corporations in favor of subjecting its parishioners to its own variety of mind control. "Harbinger" was their first step in demolishing the existing world order. As insurrections take hold, the player is also obliged to conduct missions to control rogue elements within the syndicate itself, as various sub-corporations change allegiances or make bids for independence.
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Wikipedia