Syndicate Wars is an isometric real-time tactical and strategic game, developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts.

This was followed by a spiritual successor (developed by the Syndicate Wars producer and lead programmer Mike Diskett), Satellite Reign, in August 2015.

As the game opens, this totalitarian status quo is threatened by the emergence of a virus named "Harbinger" in the global communications system, damaging mind-control CHIP implants and leaving citizens vulnerable to co-option.

[4][5] Viral damage to the global network causes disruption to Syndicate coordinations, with individual stations isolating themselves to avoid receiving rogue communication.

The London station, as the headquarters of the EuroCorp syndicate, attempts to regain authority via direct intervention by the game's signature quartets of heavily armed agents.

As insurrections take hold, the player is also obliged to conduct missions to control rogue elements within the syndicate itself, as various sub-corporations change allegiances or make bids for independence.

[9][10][11][4] Although the general mission structure remains consistent when playing as either EuroCorp or the Church, they are made distinctive by differences in the pre-mission briefings which are delivered to the player in the form of a fictional email system.

[11][4] During missions, the health, shields and weapon energy (which functions in the place of specific ammunition) of the player's agents will recharge over time.

[4] Syndicate Wars supports competitive multiplayer, known as "Multicorp", over a local area network connection, with players receiving points for each enemy agent killed.

[12] Syndicate Wars included in-game advertising, taking the form of video billboards placed within the game's locations.

While he complained that the control interface is a pain to adjust to, he found the new weapons, completely interactive environments, and numerous missions make it worthwhile to do so.

He nonetheless concluded, "Syndicate Wars masterfully recaptures the dark, deadly emotion of the original, adds to it a huge variety of weapons and scenarios, and refurbishes it with a gorgeous new coat of paint.

[24][26] Critics also widely praised the PlayStation version's highly detailed 3D environments,[23][24][26][29] though some commented that the character animations fail to adequately stand out.

"[23] GamePro was more optimistic: "... a heavy dose of manual reading is required to play the game, which makes Syndicate Wars difficult to get into at first.

In a 2006 interview at the Leipzig Games Convention for GameSpot, Peter Molyneux (co-founder of Bullfrog Productions) said that he would like to revisit some of his old efforts, but adds that it is very unlikely that will happen.

[33] Starbreeze Studios developed a new Syndicate game for EA, replacing the real-time tactics format with that of a first-person shooter.

[35] On 15 May 2013, Mike Diskett posted a video on YouTube[36] that revealed an imminent Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a new spiritual successor to Syndicate Wars, called Satellite Reign, which returned to the series' original real-time tactics format.