When people get all misty-eyed about the amazing, original Syndicate from 1993, they often overlook something. The game’s ending. Or, to be more accurate, its complete lack of one.
Those unscrupulous sorts pirating the recent PC release of Starbreeze’s Syndicate have found a little surprise buried inside the release. And it’s not some kind of punishment or DRM.
I know a lot of people have nostalgia for the 1993 Bullfrog classic Syndicate (myself included). I also know that critical reception to the new game has been a bit mixed. But I will say one thing the new game has going for it: At least they don’t recruit agents by slamming into total strangers with a hover car.
No Syndicate for Australia. That means you should just pirate the crap out of it, right? Stick it to those evil developers who hate your guts and are not at all trying to make a living or feed their families. They deserve it, after all?
The year is 2069. The government as we know it is obsolete. In its place are various syndicates, all racing to develop the most advanced bio-digital implants that allow their host to connect to the dataverse, and even control it. Syndicate is a telling of that story, originally written by Bullfrog Productions in 1993, and rebooted into the first-person shooter by Starbreeze Studios that hits stores today. You play as an agent of Eurocorp, Miles Kilo, tasked with infiltrating and investigating competing syndicates.
It’s become a familiar story: studio is employed to make a game, studio finishes game, studio shrinks upon game’s completion. This is what has happened over in Sweden where Starbreeze, the studio behind the new Syndicate game, has lost 25 jobs.
Syndicate is the latest casualty of Australia’s antique classification laws, and also hopefully one of the last. Because of this, I will not legally be allowed to purchase the game, despite the fact I am 31 years old.
