I wish, it had the destructible terrain of the sequel. You know, for digging trenches with nukes.

The second one had one of the best intros of all time!

I haven't played the game either, but saying nostalgia seems like a valid answer to me. The question asked isn't "why WAS the game so fantastic?" but "why IS it so fantastic?"

I haven't played it but I'm expecting great things of it because my older brother and a friend's older brother played it (separately, they do not know each other) back when it was new, and I sort of trust the good reviews from them.

To translate my brother's review: "Does GOG have Syndicate? I used to play it so much back when I was a kid, and I want to play it again. It was brilliant even though we didn't understand any English and had to play through trial and error and memorization.". See? That's totally a rave review :p

...and the translated review by proxy from my friend: "...talking about old games like that, my brother used to play a game called Syndicate. It was a good game.".

*these reviews were from non recorded conversations months ago, and my memory is shady, so they're of "something like that" quality

I hope these verbose reviews helped you understand why it's so fantastic :D

I don't understand your first question.why does it matter if the OP never played the game? He's not the one giving nostalgia as an answer, the people who have played it are.
And saying "nostalgia" as the first thing instead of saying what makes the gameplay so good seems clear enough to me. It basically meansthe game was really good back in the day, but nowadays it might not seem that amazing. As trilarion put it " Of course nowadays you have much more other similar games which might be better "

There is one less flattering aspect to Syndicate's popularity which. so far, no one has laid his finger on - even though it contributed hugely to its success (at least according to many discussions I had back then when the game was new). That's the amount of gore it has. Syndicate brought an amount of gory detail to the strategy genre that was formerly reserved for shooters. It let you shoot civilians with flamethrowers, and you could actually watch them burn. This was a huge topic in the media as well as among players. Syndicate was traded on the school yard as "the game that lets you burn people with flamethrowers".

There had been games with similar amounts of gore (or even more) before, but not in the strategy genre and not with so obviously high production value.

Also, gameplay was quite innovative at that time (it may feel "x-commy" now, as the OP says, but X-COM was actually released a year after Syndicate and can be seen as a copy of Bullfrog's concept).

Personally, however, I never liked the game. I found the prospect of playing a ruthless criminal, a head of a criminal organization bent on controlling the world by eradicating other similar organizations (no matter the cost) disgusting and appalling. I can't tell whether the _gameplay_ was actually any good, because each time I tried to get into the game, I put it away in disgust after a couple of hours. The game undeniably _was_ a huge success though, and the very elements that I detested were seen as "especially cool" by many people I talked to, although the reasons for that still elude me.

I hated Syndicate and could never play it for long. Syndicate Wars however, is one of the best games I have played.

I have to agree with the people who say nostalgia.

Syndicate was a very interesting game for its time, it offered a new take on the RTT genre, it allowed for a lot of customization of your soldiers, it allowed you to be a total jerk or psychopath and the sound effects gave everything a satisfying feel to it.

But if you have never played it before, there are some things that will annoy you. The way buildings are handled means that they can block your sight (the game is isometric, so if someone stands on the north or west side of a building, you might not be able to see them). Also, while shooting bad guys with chainguns is fun (no matter if you have the chaingun or they have the chaingun), the game does tend to be a bit repetitive. The AI is quite poor, so don't expect it to force you to mix up your tactics very often. If the AI would have been a bit better, and if the game world would have been fully 3d and rotateable, then the game would have been a lot better (Syndicate wars did fix some of the issues, but also introduced a few new ones at the same time).

such as... ?

Darwinia

I've played (finished) Syndicate just two years ago, and I found it to be a really specially crafted game: it has a great atmosphere, cunning mechanics, enjoyable graphics, monotonic yet nice sound theme, etc.

You know, Syndicate IS a fantastic game. That's not an opinion, it's a fact :-P

Oh, and I have to say: I'm not a great fan of RTS games, not at all....

So it's RTS? That certainly sets it apart from XCom.

It's somewhere half-way between an RTS and Cannon Fodder. To be honest, I don't see much of X-Com in it.

Not all of Syndicate holds up to todays standard, but for it's time it was pretty damn good, among other things:

* RTS genre was only a year old back then and Syndicate is still a pretty original take on the formula (i.e. four squad members instead of base building)
* a lot of freedom in the levels, you could drive cars, trains, etc.
* lots of crazy weapons
* unique sci-fi setting
* you have large crowds of people, could kidnap them for recruitment
* a whole economic simulation on top of the core gameplay, with research, buying upgrading, etc. for your squad
* 640x480 at times where every game was 320x200

All that said, the core gameplay is not that great, it is fast and fuzzy, lacks precision and doesn't allow that much room for strategy, it's more a multi-unit action game then a strategy game really. I found the American Revolt add-on close to unplayable for that reason, as that just went crazy with throwing tons and tons of units into your direction. But the setting and the freedom you have in the mission is still pretty amazing and something your modern FPS game doesn't even get close to.

I'd love to see a modern take on the formula, as there is certainly a lot of room for improvement.