Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

The above video gives you a taste of what myself and my friends spent months playling.  The game was from Bullfrog, and published by Electronic Arts.  That game was called Syndicate.  It was a game that came out of nowhere with little to no advertising, and gave the player the ability to kill anyone, being as ruthless as needed, as long as the mission was completed.  If you want to hear about complex missions, just ask anyone about their experiences with the Atlantic Accelerator mission at the end, or the American Revolt add-on pack that was just brutal.

Well word from many sites across the web that a new entry into the franchise is on its way from Electronic Arts.  This should be a time of celebration, but you see, I am worried about this announcement, because in 1995 I heard the same announcement.  A sequel to Syndicate was announced, with fully destructable environments, and two factions to play.  It was even going to have online multiplayer, which just lit up my eyes.  Immediately, thoughts of kicking ass and taking names online against my friends in the Syndicate universe came into my brain, and put a smile on my face.  Syndicate Wars would be the name of the title.

Fast forward a year to the games release, which came after the release of Windows 95, a new experience in Operating Systems that was causing all kinds of headaches for gamers, as most of the games coming out at this time were having to run by booting into DOS mode.  Syndicate Wars was one of those games.  It would not run well in Windows 95, and it took extrordinary amounts of work to run in the DOS compatibility mode.  It did not matter as I wanted to play this game.  Of course, I watched the beginning movie, and was just floored at how cool and good looking it was for the time.  But then it became time to play the game, and I relalized that it pretty much sucked.  Destructible environments were cool, but not if they slowed the PC down to 3 frames per second.   Also the combat never felt right, and it was just downright buggy.  It just did not feel like Syndicate.  It felt more like someone tried to fit the Syndicate style into a Command and Conquer like game, but without resource management.

Needless to say, Syndicate Wars has always been a reminder for me as to why to not ask for a sequel to a classic game.  Because the sequel may kill your impressions of that great franchise.  Could a new sequel work in today’s gaming world.  I would like to say yes, but EA would probably like to add to the formula, to give Syndicate more elements.  It would end up moving away from simple to play, extremely difficult to master category, into a more make it assessible kind of game.  Not a way to gain the trust of the hardcore faithful that would buy this new incarnation in a heartbeat.

I think the only way it could be done right is by getting the input of Peter Molyneux on the game, but that is problematic on two levels.  First is his employment at Microsoft.  Secondly, the game would probably be promised as the coming of Superman, but end up missing a few features, essentially killing the mystique of the game.  There is one other team that I think could get it done, and that would be Relic.  Their work on Company of Heroes, shows how they can do squad combat, and they make it fun to play, while being devilishly sadistic with the harder levels.  I am not sure if they are under contract, but if not, that is who Electronic Arts should be calling if they want this game done right.  Not the EA Westwood team, but Relic.

So right now, I love the idea of a new sequel to Syndicate, but I have to think that it will not happen in the long run.  If it does though, I cannot wait to see how they top the Atlantic Accelerator mission.  Speaking of which, it might be time to dust off Syndicate for a playthrough via DOSBox.