Syndicate Wars

Syndicate Wars is the 1996 sequel to Syndicate. A virus has broken the control the corporation had over the world's population, and a religious movement, the Church of the New Epoch, is rising against it. You can play either side, running a team of four agents or acolytes through missions in large cities.

The cities are in 3D, with a camera that rotates, and almost everything in them can be destroyed. Weapons are bigger and more varied than in the first game, and the Persuadertron returns, now able to turn large crowds into an army.

It is one of the most spectacular games of its decade: watching a building collapse after a firefight was a new thing in 1996. The choice of sides gives the story two very different readings.

It is more of an action game than its predecessor, and its strategic layer is thinner. It is sold on GOG.

Syndicate Wars keeps Syndicate's real-time team of four and adds destruction. Next to Commandos it is the opposite approach: overwhelm rather than avoid. Its spiritual successor is Satellite Reign, from one of its programmers.