Syndicate Wars

The Good
My favourite part of the game would be the fully 3D cities with rotating camera, this is a major improvement over Syndicate where you could find your self lost or being sniped at by someone standing on the far side of a building where the 2D camera wouldn't show. Almost everything is destroyable which means those high explosives and suicide chest upgrades really pack that extra punch when you bring down a buidling or two in the blast. There is a wealth of new vehicles to use (including hover tanks) as well as new weapons there is no need for ammo as all the weapons run off self charging power packs. The option of playing one of two sides is a major plus.

The Bad
The flamethrowers aren't as effective or as satisfying as they were in the first game, agents still suffer from path finding and the AI has only one tactic - storm head long at you. While removing the ammo is nice, you will often find your self running low on energy with dozens of weapons around you, in the original you could have just picked one up and blasted away but this time you would have to retreat and regenerate your energy. The missions are about as varied as the previous game and can get very repetitive especialy since most of the cities are identical in appearance even if their layouts are greatly different.

The Bottom Line
A fine sequel with many needed features added, doesn't change too much to alienate original players but changes enough to make it new and exciting. I recommend playing the original first simply because it is still brilliant and will help the second one make more sense.

The Good
I sure would like to get this one for the next giveaway ;-)

This game ROCKS! It's one of the best I've ever played. I loved the original Syndicate and this one is even better! The most AMAZING 3D engine I've seen in a game up to that point in time, fast, smooth and great-looking even on my 486. Great missions, great controls, awesome gameplay and even the music/sound effects are improved. What more is there to ask?

The Bad
A little on the difficult side... but isn't that a plus?

The Bottom Line
An amazing game, one of the best ever created and even better than its prequel.

The Good
Everything range from the moody music, dark futuristic atmosphere, game concept, great 3D graphics, rotatable views, intuitive interface, very satisfying game experience (more on it later), etc. etc. And the part of the game to research new technology and alien artifacts to wield new, more destructive and weird weapons or agent upgrades are just thrilling! The level design and puzzels are very clever, with diverse mission objectives and interesting twists. The abilities to ride vehicles and the many various types of different vehicles are really fun. Oh, and have I mentioned that you can blow up buildings and wreaking havoc to whole cities? :D

The Bad
Sometimes since there is no in-mission save in this game, the last several long and difficult levels are really hard to beat and requires a lot of restarts and clever thinking as most of them require some innovative tactics to get through, and this can feel a bit frustrating (However, as I have mentioned above, this also partly makes completing the game extremely satisfying :) And somtimes on very rare occassions there maybe some bugs to crash the game or mesh up the mission.

The Bottom Line
The really great action/strategy game approaching perfection. Anyone who likes a very dark theme and a game which requires as much brain as sheer force will surely enjoy this game very much. Absolutely a classic!