Syndicate ending -SPOILERS-
Neal W. Miller
merely 'OK' if the ending is really cheezy. I thought that Syndicate was
a spectacular game, with excellent graphics and sound, but there was
virtually NO endgame whatsoever. Not even a f*cking congrats. Just a
grayscaled image of the buildings from the "fireworks" screen that you'd
seen 49 times already, and uninteresting credits. IMHO, they should have
made the game larger, and added cinematic updates, as per Wing Commander 2.
The manual mentioned a half dozen Syndicates, and I don't think the game
even mentioned ONE by name. Am I alone in this judgement here?
--
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Neal Miller | Rensselaer Polytech. | Witty quote to be filled in later.
mil...@rpi.edu | Troy, NY |
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Stefan Wichmann
: WHEN will software makers realize that even the best games become
: merely 'OK' if the ending is really cheezy. I thought that Syndicate was
: a spectacular game, with excellent graphics and sound, but there was
: virtually NO endgame whatsoever. Not even a f*cking congrats. Just a
: grayscaled image of the buildings from the "fireworks" screen that you'd
: seen 49 times already, and uninteresting credits. IMHO, they should have
: made the game larger, and added cinematic updates, as per Wing Commander 2.
: The manual mentioned a half dozen Syndicates, and I don't think the game
: even mentioned ONE by name. Am I alone in this judgement here?
No, the Syndicate ending was really not worthy of the game. After I had
watched this 'ending' I sat there and thought "that's it ???". Almost
reminded me of the Eye of the Beholder I (just plain text and exit) ending.
My top 5 of really _GREAT_ endings is:
1. Ultima 7
2. Ultima 7.5
3. Wing 2 + add-ons
4. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
5. Eye of the Beholder II
PS: Haven't seen the endinf of Strike Commander yet, is it great ???
PPS: The top 3 is from Origin, they came up with some really cool animated
sequences lately.
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Andy Duplain
Stefan Wichmann <a1...@zfn.uni-bremen.de> wrote:
>Neal W. Miller (mil...@rebecca.its.rpi.edu) wrote:
>: WHEN will software makers realize that even the best games become
>: merely 'OK' if the ending is really cheezy. I thought that Syndicate was
>: a spectacular game, with excellent graphics and sound, but there was
>: virtually NO endgame whatsoever. Not even a f*cking congrats. Just a
>: grayscaled image of the buildings from the "fireworks" screen that you'd
>: seen 49 times already, and uninteresting credits. IMHO, they should have
>: made the game larger, and added cinematic updates, as per Wing Commander 2.
>: The manual mentioned a half dozen Syndicates, and I don't think the game
>: even mentioned ONE by name. Am I alone in this judgement here?
>
>No, the Syndicate ending was really not worthy of the game. After I had
>watched this 'ending' I sat there and thought "that's it ???". Almost
>reminded me of the Eye of the Beholder I (just plain text and exit) ending.
>
>My top 5 of really _GREAT_ endings is:
>
>1. Ultima 7
>2. Ultima 7.5
>3. Wing 2 + add-ons
>4. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
>5. Eye of the Beholder II
>
>PS: Haven't seen the endinf of Strike Commander yet, is it great ???
>PPS: The top 3 is from Origin, they came up with some really cool animated
>sequences lately.
I don't think the ending is important... although I agree that the
Syndicate ending is lame.
--
Andy Duplain, BT Customer Systems, Brighton, UK. dup...@rtf.bt.co.uk
#define DISCLAIMER My views and opinions are my own, and not my company's
Rowan Crawford
was well below par. The gfx were absolute crap (but now I read they were all
only 16 colours) and I wasn't really impressed with the raytraced stuff either.
The intelligence (and I use that word lightly) of both the badies
and the goodies weren't particularly stunning nor was the scrolling.
I wonder how it would have came out if they'd passed the design to
someone like Team17? I think it certainly could have been a lot better.
Row
Mark 'Mark' Sachs
>: WHEN will software makers realize that even the best games become
>: merely 'OK' if the ending is really cheezy. I thought that Syndicate was
>: a spectacular game, with excellent graphics and sound, but there was
>: virtually NO endgame whatsoever. Not even a f*cking congrats. Just a
>: grayscaled image of the buildings from the "fireworks" screen that you'd
>: seen 49 times already, and uninteresting credits. IMHO, they should have
>: made the game larger, and added cinematic updates, as per Wing Commander 2.
>: The manual mentioned a half dozen Syndicates, and I don't think the game
>: even mentioned ONE by name.
I'm with you. The manual goes into detail about how the different Syndicates
operate, but it makes absolutely no difference which outfit you happen to
be going up against. Arabian, Yakuza, Australian, CIA... they're all the
same. Phooey to manuals that promise and don't deliver.
I would have liked to see multiple missions in the same city. This does
present the problem that your agents easily carry enough ammo to totally
massacre the population during the course of one mission. Perhaps they
could take place in different neighborhoods or something. As well, the
various cities looked too much alike -- different architecture to make
Lima and Tehran look like two seperate places would have been pleasant.
> Am I alone in this judgement here?
You certainly are not. That ending was bad -- so remarkably bad that it
soured me on the game pretty much permanently. The way it popped back into
game play after that was really the last straw -- they didn't even bother
to end the wretched thing!
Think of it, there are all sorts of things one could have...
- A shot of your lovely new syndicate headquarters (built on the backs of
your defeated enemies, of course), from which you as CEO lord it over the
world. Profuse congratulations from the programmers, and a snazzy
Imperial March-style tune to commemorate your total world domination.
- That Atlantic Accelerator "discovery" actually DOES save the world.
Shocked and mortally dishonored by actually accomplishing something good
in the midst of the campaign for evil, your character commits suicide. :)
- Or perhaps an apocalyptic ending, in line with the apocalyptic fashion
in which the missions are conducted. The defeated syndicates blast
humanity to smithereens with the old nuclear arsenals. It would be
shocking and depressing, but quite appropriate. Admittedly, this would
pretty much eliminate the possibility of add-on scenario disks.
- My personal fave is that your agents get fed up with rushing around, killing
civilians, having their IPA levels fiddled with and repeatedly dying. They
storm your airship and... well, heh, no need to get into the gory details.
After all, you didn't think you could run a campaign of terror and mass
murder like that and _get away_ with it, did you?
- At the very least, juggle things such that, once you've won, you can
then replay any mission you want as many times as you want with unlimited
agents and funds. At least there would be a reward for completion this way.
But that ending... it put me off enough that, frankly, I wouldn't recommend
the game to others.
"We promise you there are no dinosaurs in this presentation."
[Your blood pressure just went up.] Mark Sachs IS: mbs...@psuvm.psu.edu
DISCLAIMER: These opinions were probably generated by a buggy news reader.
Gary Achenbach
[...good points deleted along with legitimate gripes.]
>But that ending... it put me off enough that, frankly, I wouldn't recommend
>the game to others.
Bit of a non sequitor there, I think. Granted: the ending bit donkey wads.
However, the actual gameplay most definitely did NOT. I enjoyed the hell
out of this game, and still play some of the missions over. (Easy to do once
you're dropped into gameplay--jack tax rates up to 100% and wait for the
inevitable "rebellion." (One of my only major gripes. They should have
included at least a stock rebellion quelching mission instead of replaying,
but, what the hell.)
The cities were all quite similar. Variety would have been nice, but, this
is really a minor point. I would have liked better AI on the enemy, but
try playing some missions without raising your own squd's intelligence, and
watch the difficulty soar as you actually have to target things yourself.
The intro was incredible. The gameplay was addictive. I loved the fact that
the game was completely amoral--a rare quality in any commercial game nowadays.
The carnage was entertaining at the worst of times. And Bullfrog did an
incredible job using only a 16 color palette.
Ending bad? Undoubtedly. The game, somehow by extension? No. Definitely
not.
--Gar
DISCLAIMER: All opinions are not my own. Rather, they are those of my
employers and network site.
Andy Duplain
Gary Achenbach <shr...@camelot.bradley.edu> wrote:
>In <93246.194...@psuvm.psu.edu> Mark 'Mark' Sachs <MBS...@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>
>[...good points deleted along with legitimate gripes.]
>
>>But that ending... it put me off enough that, frankly, I wouldn't recommend
>>the game to others.
>
>Bit of a non sequitor there, I think. Granted: the ending bit donkey wads.
>However, the actual gameplay most definitely did NOT. I enjoyed the hell
>out of this game, and still play some of the missions over. (Easy to do once
>you're dropped into gameplay--jack tax rates up to 100% and wait for the
>inevitable "rebellion." (One of my only major gripes. They should have
>included at least a stock rebellion quelching mission instead of replaying,
>but, what the hell.)
No need for that! Just select the terratory you'd like to replay and
hit <ENTER> or <RETURN>.
>The cities were all quite similar. Variety would have been nice, but, this
>is really a minor point. I would have liked better AI on the enemy, but
>try playing some missions without raising your own squd's intelligence, and
>watch the difficulty soar as you actually have to target things yourself.
You're right... the gameplay is what's MOST important... the lame
ending is not. But they should indeed have made it easier to replay
once the game is complete.
Neal W. Miller
>In <s1171180.747245858@giaeb> s117...@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
>Which version did you play the Amiga version or the IBM? There is a drastic
>difference, and the Amiga version of this one really does suck. On the IBM
>version the sound, the graphics, and the actual game play are much improved.
I was wondering about the above (>>) criticism of Syndicate graphics.
I've never seen it for the Amiga, but for the IBM, the graphics are excellent,
and it took me a while to realize that it was only 16 colors. The artists
did a fantastic job paying attention to detail.
Bushido
Which version did you play the Amiga version or the IBM? There is a drastic
difference, and the Amiga version of this one really does suck. On the IBM
version the sound, the graphics, and the actual game play are much improved.
Bushido
Michael Wang
>My top 5 of really _GREAT_ endings is:
>
>1. Ultima 7
>2. Ultima 7.5
>3. Wing 2 + add-ons
>4. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
>5. Eye of the Beholder II
Star Control II.
--
Michael Wang
mmw...@mv.us.adobe.com
Richard Cavin
I hate to say this...but you REALLY should try and play it on a PC
copatible with sound card. The graphics are SUPERB and the sound is very
impressive also. The intro is 256 colors...very nice. I have the demo for
the Amiga but brought the PC version instead. The gameplay is the same
for the most part but the overall polish of the game is much more
impressive. Sad, the Amiga version could not be as good... BTW, I am
playing it on a 386-DX40 with 4 megs of ram...very nice and smooth. My
Amiga is a 500 with 5 megs of ram and HD.
Later
Tommy Hwang
>
>I hate to say this...but you REALLY should try and play it on a PC
>copatible with sound card. The graphics are SUPERB and the sound is very
>impressive also. The intro is 256 colors...very nice. I have the demo for
>the Amiga but brought the PC version instead. The gameplay is the same
>for the most part but the overall polish of the game is much more
>impressive. Sad, the Amiga version could not be as good... BTW, I am
>playing it on a 386-DX40 with 4 megs of ram...very nice and smooth. My
>Amiga is a 500 with 5 megs of ram and HD.
` Isn't the graphics better on the A4000 and related? I thought I read it
somewhere. Well, maybe I am wrong.
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen
Perhaps that's what the 'DO IT AGAIN' compagny-name 'cheat' is for???
Anybody tried this?
Spot
Andy Duplain
Neal W. Miller <mil...@goya.its.rpi.edu> wrote:
>ST...@jetson.uh.edu (Bushido) writes:
>
>>In <s1171180.747245858@giaeb> s117...@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
>
>>> Personally, I thought Syndicate had GREAT design, but the actual implementation
>>> was well below par. The gfx were absolute crap (but now I read they were all
>>> only 16 colours) and I wasn't really impressed with the raytraced stuff either.
>>> The intelligence (and I use that word lightly) of both the badies
>>> and the goodies weren't particularly stunning nor was the scrolling.
>>>
>>> I wonder how it would have came out if they'd passed the design to
>>> someone like Team17? I think it certainly could have been a lot better.
>>>
>>> Row
>
>>Which version did you play the Amiga version or the IBM? There is a drastic
>>difference, and the Amiga version of this one really does suck. On the IBM
>>version the sound, the graphics, and the actual game play are much improved.
>
> I was wondering about the above (>>) criticism of Syndicate graphics.
>I've never seen it for the Amiga, but for the IBM, the graphics are excellent,
>and it took me a while to realize that it was only 16 colors. The artists
>did a fantastic job paying attention to detail.
>
I agree, I still don't beleive it's 16 colours, even though I've been
told many times :-) The Amiga version is OK actually (on at least an
A1200), certainly fun... but the PC version is twice as good.