Syndicate is an action game with strategy elements developed by British company Bullfrog Software and published by Electronic Arts. It was also released for Amiga, classic Mac, FM Towns, PC-98, Jaguar, 3DO, Amiga CD32, Acorn Archimedes (only in combination with the mission pack) and later re-released for Windows. The game of the same name for Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES and Mega CD/Sega CD has the same premise but several large changes.


The game takes place in a dark Cyberpunk future were large crime syndicates battle for control over the world. You are a the leader of one of these syndicates on your quest to gain dominance over the whole planet.

The world is divided into territories which you must conquer. In order to conquer a territory, you have to complete a mission. Objectives usually include assassinating one or several persons, "persuading" one or several persons or killing all enemy cyborgs in the territory. You control a team of up to four cyborgs. You can control them separately or several as group. Control is indirect: you click where cyborgs should go, and you aim with the cursor and click to shoot. Each cyborg can carry up to eight objects. Apart from weapons and medpaks, there are several special items like a shield, a scanner (shows a mini map and info on the persons surrounding you) and a persuader. A persuader will hack a nearby person's brain chip to convert them to your side. If you control enough persons, you can even convert police or enemy forces. You can increase some attributes of your cyborgs by drug injections for a short time.
If you conquer a territory, you get taxes from it. Money you earn is to buy equipment, ammo, cyborg body parts, or to do research. You can research new weapons and better cyborg parts.