Syndicate is a series of science fiction video games created by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts.
[2][3] Special edition, titled Syndicate Plus, include original game, American Revolt expansion pack and support for current versions of Sound Blaster released for PC in 1994.
[7] Reports of a new Syndicate game, developed for EA by Starbreeze Studios, first surfaced in March 2009[8] and were officially confirmed in September 2011.
The game's plot was to have EuroCorp as the antagonists, while the player, representing a third-party biologist, utilized semi-sentient dolphins to fight them.
As outlined in the game's instruction manual, multinational megacorporations have replaced nation-state governments, and one such corporation, EuroCorp, has manufactured the "CHIP": a device implanted in a person's neck that alters their perception ("numbing their senses to the misery and squalor around them") and allows them to be easily manipulated.
During the course of the game, as missions for the player's corporation are completed by teams of cyborg enforcers known as "agents," it gains global dominance over its competitors.
The release of a virus into the global communications network leads to widespread CHIP failures, resulting in the emergence of armed insurrectionists referred to as "unguided citizens."
Gameplay for the original Syndicate games involved ordering a team of four cyborg agents around gritty cyberpunk-themed cities, in pursuit of mission goals, such as assassinating executives of a rival syndicate, rescuing captured allies, "persuading" civilians and scientists to join the corporation/church, demolishing buildings, or killing enemy agents.
Unlike some games, which either punish the player for civilian deaths or reward them for violent actions committed, Syndicate remains indifferent.
The player must collect funds to finance the research and development of new weaponry and cyborg upgrades, such as by taxing conquered territories (in the original game) or robbing banks (in Syndicate Wars).