Syndicate At A Glance

Syndicate is an old DOS game by Bullfrog. It's an action RTS where you went deep into what I'll call "soldier development" where you can choose your soldiers' weapons and augmentations. This game was actually pretty controversial back in the day for the game's drug use. Now because this is the game at a glance, I don't get far enough into the game to explain, but here it goes...
The game opens with a bleep and some militaristic synth percussion followed by some… not so good synth that starts with a random set arpeggio and then some organ that sounds like it belongs in Castlevania and then it moves to like 8 different things, like… is this the same song?
The visuals in this intro are pretty good. Just some animated cinematics of what's going on in a city. Cut to Some guy getting a metal leg implant. Cut back to the opening visuals and I wondered if the opening cinematic was on loop and I was expected to skip it. It literally repeats the same three scenes in the opening, but then it cuts to a red haired guy with dark shades and a trenchcoat. He pulls out a pistol with laser sights. He aims his pistol at the player and then the title pops up.
When that is over a green laser outlines the screen and the main menu shows up. Nothing special here. No music. Your options are to configure your company, begin the mission, load or save the game, restart the game, or quit to DOS. Let's start with Begin Mission.
...
I bet that right now you're going, "but Connor you have to configure your company!!!!" well when you press begin mission you are given this Command and Conquer-esque map of the world. You click on the designated territory and you are given a mission briefing and THEN you can configure your company.
The briefing gives your your mission type (i.e. Assassination, Persuade, etc) and then does the whole briefing thing. To the right of that are three sets of numbers and a box with flashing lights, which I have no idea what those mean. It couldn't be a map of the mission, and if it is, that lacks a lot of detail.
You find out the first set of numbers (starts at 30000) is your money you can use to enhance your soldiers. You can enhance them through implants, weapons, and I guess research? I don't really know what research does.
So you equip your team and begin your mission. The first mission begins with your team just outside a small base. When you select a unit or their weapon they say, "selected" in this very robotic voice. Now when you begin each mission remember to select your team's weapons because for some reason they aren't already equipped.
…
why? Why would you not have your teammates weapon already equipped? If you didn't read this you wouldn't know about the weapons not being equipped until the enemy is shooting at you and your soldier just wants to walk up to them and hug them or something. The music is very simple and uninspired, but it works. I wouldn't download the soundtrack, it's too empty. So you finish the mission by doing whatever task you are given and you are given a cinematic of people in a city cheering and rejoicing while a hover car flies by. One thing you'll notice pretty fast about these missions is that constant boop that will get faster or slower. That would be your radar, and yes it is very annoying. I'd like to tune it out, BUT IT'S LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE GAME!
Another thing that pisses me off is the AI, when you are on the persuade missions the AI you persuade cannot follow you for shit. They always get hung up on a fucking wall or something and then when you go back for them they seem way to interested in that fucking wall! Look, if you persuade someone you should be able to control them. The second level is a persuasion mission, so guess how fucked you are in that one!?!?!?! I lost that mission about 4 times, thrice from shooting and once because the AI is retarded, yes, I'm making that a cause. The only upside to the second mission is the police who when they spot you shout, "Police, put your weapons down!" It's also fun when your whole squad has a shotgun and you do one click on on the enemy and he goes flying. Oh, there's another thing I forgot to mention. This game is set up like an RTS, so naturally you'd think left click works all the magic, but no, right click does all the shooting and left click moves. Or if you're on a mac, two finger click does the shooting and one finger click does the moving. What is cool about this is that you can shoot wherever and whenever. So you could shoot the ground, or a building, or a set of stairs, or whatever.
So that's Syndicate at a glance. Was it as good as I was hoping for it to be? Fuck no. I thought this game would make me completely forget about Command & Conquer, but it made me wish I was playing that instead. Maybe I'll post a full review when I manage to get passed the idiotic AI... yeah... maybe.