This was posted 9 years 15 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Syndicate - Free on Origin (On the House)

2110

In the dark and twisted cities of tomorrow, corporate syndicates compete for global dominance.

But the boardroom deals and corporate takeovers of the future look very different from today: they are lead by marketing directors who manage teams of half-men, half-machine cyborgs with no conscience and plenty of guns.

You are an ambitious marketing director in the Syndicate, hand-picked to lead a team of cyborg mercenaries. You work in the problem-solving department and you are damn good at "taking care" of problems. Some might say that violence is not the answer but you know better. There here are hardly any problems that you can't solve with a well-placed bullet. Collateral damage in the local population and infrastructure during the "negotiations" is, as always, acceptable. After all, what would you expect form the dystopian futuristic world run by mega-corporations?

Syndicate is Bullfrog's masterpiece of a game in which you aren't saving the world or protecting innocents. You just make sure that your employers get what they want. At your disposal are four cyborg agents, an impressive arsenal of weapons and gadgets, and a massive selection of cybernetic upgrades. You are free to unleash this power on a highly interactive map where you can blow up buildings, steal cars, light trees on fire, or just shoot stuff. Produced by Peter Molyneux himself, Syndicate is the essence of cyberpunk and, with its great music, stylized visuals, and mind-blowing atmosphere, it has earned its place among the best games of all time. Make sure to check out the game that secured Bullfrog's place in game development hall of fame.

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  • +27

    One of THE best PC games of all time IMO. Played this so much as a kid, can't wait to grab it again!

    • +4

      Great game that deserved its own series.

      • didn't they do a remake recently?

        • You mean this atrocity?
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_%282012_video_game%29

          It's an FPS that bears next to no resemblance to the original game.

        • @zzyss:
          He probably means this one:
          http://store.steampowered.com/app/268870

        • +2

          @mrayner:

          Fair enough! Although "spiritual successor" would be more accurate as Benji78 called it, since it is technically new IP. The 2012 game linked was the actual remake with the original IP that EA still holds.

        • +2

          @zzyss:

          I don't know why you were down voted, that game was atrocious as a Syndicate game and it was a remake.

          Satellite Reign is as you pointed out a 'Spiritual Successor', it is not a remake. In Syndicate you play as Corporate Executive manipulating a team of cyborg agents expanding the corporation you work for. While in Satellite Reign you control 'rebels' trying to bring down corporations and it is not made by the same Development Studio.

      • +1

        Syndicate wars was dope

    • I second that… brilliant game.

    • +2

      Gauss cannon?

    • +1

      I can haz the best game of the 90's for free? SELECTED

  • cheers

  • +2

    Oh the memories…

  • +29

    This was the defining game of the 90's.
    Remember spending hours decking the agents out with Gauss guns and high tensile body parts.

    Just for fun (and this could just be my strange sense of humour), you can persuade every civilian on the map, and when you get in a car, all 80 add civvies will cram in there with you.
    But, the hilarity does not end there, oh no..
    Should you, um, accidentally shoot said car with a Gauss gun, the map is suddenly filled with civilians running around with their head on fire.
    Hours of fun, right there.

    Hmm. This probably explains why I live by myself..

    • +3

      V3 legs and persuadatrons meant those civilians could barely keep up!

      Nothing more satisfying than having an army of civilians with you, then snagging a couple of enemy agents. Especially when they were fully kitted out!

      • +1

        And if there were spare guns, the civilians would pick them up. So dropping all of your spare guns could create for quite a firestorm.

    • lol I did the same thing couple times after I finished the game.

      Persuaded enemy agents have unlimited ammo, so if you're lucky enough to capture some armed with gauss or lasers, its time to party like Nero .. flames everywhere. Also, when you hear the bombers starting their strafing run, its time to get the hell outta dodge :)

      • Finished… The… Game…?

        A concept I never even thought of :D

  • +4

    This game was so awesome!

    On another note the FPS game release a few years ago was pretty good (a remake of the original that doesn't mess with the gameplay would have been better though)

    • +5

      Must finish that FPS version. I was enjoying that (until I hit an near invincible enemy agent..)

      EDIT: And a FYI for those that didn't know, an Aussie company is doing a spiritual reboot, that looks pretty amazing. Google "Satellite Reign".

      • This Satellite Reign looks pretty good!

      • Cool, I forgot all about Satellite Reign

      • I believe it's by one of the lead designers of the original game, based up in Brisbane.
        Like everyone else, pretty excited about this one when comes out

        As for the FPS version, that was disappointing, and the end just doesn't make sense. It was rushed and pretty weak, imo.
        Bullfrog, how we miss thee.

  • +3

    The Atlantic Accelerator and suicide missions still gives me nightmares.

    Best. Game. Ever.

    • The first time I played I didn't know the whole "click to select all 4 agents" thing, so I did the game with only one agent.

      Atlantic accelerator was actually rather easy.. 6? of the personal shields, switch between them before they completely depleted so they would recharge. Then run around at let the different enemy factions kill each other off until there was only a few left. You had to keep moving because they could still do damage through the shield with their gauss guns but coupled with standing around a corner with a flame thrower, was pretty easy.

  • +3

    Classsssic!!

    It's not just free… it's on the house!

  • -1

    OMG

  • Brilliant!

  • You're kidding me, I just bought 6 copies this week as Amazon had 2 for $5US deal. =(

    Edit: Nevermind, this is the retro game. Great deal. I like how EA give away games from their old IPs they don't intend on selling anyway. Not sure why they do it on this sort of roster though rather than just building up a library of free titles you can play on Origin.

    • They were and are still selling the game on GoG.com, so they are sacrificing money too. Not much mind.

  • +2

    User 'cooper team' as team name to get wicked cheats if memory serves me well.

  • Still runs at 640x480?

    • Probably runs 640x480 unscaled to your desktop resolution via dosbox

  • +3

    Love the intro, never skipped it, used to watch it every time I played the game which would've been no less than a hundred times.

    • Loved the intro to the Syndicate Wars game too. Still turn the speakers up for when his EuroCorp chip finally fails :D

      • Me too, few games have memorable music both at the intro and in-game, Syndicate Wars is one of them, I can even play it in my head and I haven't heard it in over a decade, that's how amazing it is. "have a profitable day executive" "You alright sir?" lol

  • +3

    Satellite Reign are doing a spiritual successor, looking pretty good so far

    http://satellitereign.com/the-game/

  • Yeah this is a true CLASSIC! in every sense !!

    Nothing beats having some civilians as a human shield as you battle enemy agents :)

  • +1

    COOPER TEAM

  • +2

    How come no ones mentioned the 2nd iteration?:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_Wars

    That was far better than the first… would love that as a freebie!

    • +1

      True. Just a shame about the nonexistent ending. All that effort for no reward :-) Just roll credits.

    • Because it was not rewarding. Lack of story All I do is fire rockets at cars and do silly things I don't even bother finish up missions I just hang around like GTA2 causing havoc

    • The graphics on Syndicate Wars was a mess, the sprite based original game was sharper and easier on the eye.
      Plus S.Wars had 'rechargeable' miniguns (free ammo) which was just so out of place.

    • That was hectic

  • I 100% enjoyed the 'remake' but since it was banned here I had to play it with a crack… which brings me to my question: Can you install this game and play it through Origin now, or not?
    IF NOT can someone tell me where to find the crack as I lost it and therefore can't play this game without it last time I checked, the crack was by Skidrow.
    Thanks.

    • The remake is $5 for 2 copies on Amazon atm. I also played it with a crack but got a couple copies of the game and am playing through the coop mode with 3 friends and it's pretty fun. The coop missions don't really have a story and some of them are very short but there's an upgrade tree and weapon upgrades you can grind out to keep it interesting.

      • Link?

    • I picked up from Amazon a year or so ago and it just worked from Origin for me… no need for cracks or anything

      • Oh I meant I downloaded a cracked copy from torrent when it came out because that was before I knew you could buy digital downloads from Amazon with fake us address. The day I learnt that changed everything haha they have so many deals that undercut Steam and put Valve to shame on customer service.

        • The deals on Amazon now are nowhere near what that they once where :(

          Anyway just so you guys know if you buy the new syndicate from Amazon or similar it will work fine on local origin without VPN or anything.

  • Does it actually run on Windows 8 at all?

    Man how can I forget running around with persuading device

    • Yeah it runs fine as they have packaged it in Dosbox.

  • +12

    Anyone else remember asking for blank 3.5 disks for birthday presents and drilling out the corner of 720k disks to allow them to format at 1.4m, or was that just me…. ahh Syndicate in the 90's.

    • Nice one Grandpa

    • +3

      humble beginnings of an over clocker.

    • +1

      I remember doing that to the floppy's for my commodore 64 when I finally got a drive

      • Ah, those were the days.

      • I still have the disk notcher for the c64 somewhere… classy no scissors here :)

  • I'm not old school enough. Never heard of this game. Added to my library anyway though. Thanks.

  • +1

    This game brings back memories!

    Also, Australia has 3 states.

    • Was that in the game, 3 states? I mean the whole of Western Europe is one mission while the tiny population of Australia gets split up into 3, pfft, lucky Australia.

  • Is the addon, American Revolt, included?

    • No, states Standard Edition.

  • Man this game was hard back when i was young and it still is. Games were less forgiving back in the old days…

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