History Videogame / Syndicate

* GutturalGrowler: Agent Merit.

*** '''A''drenaline, when raised, massively increases the agent's movement speed, letting them get into and out of bad situations almost with impunity (especially when combined with leg augmentations), but when it's too high, the agent will become aggressive, and they'll slow down due to the drug having less of an effect. When lowered, the agent will move slower, but have increased health regeneration, but when too low, health regeneration will be slowed or even stopped, and the agent will slow to a crawl.

* ArtificialStupidity: Invoked or averted ''at the player's discretion''. Your agents' "chips" suppress their free will when you're giving them orders, but when left to their own devices (e.g. on guard while the rest of the team pushes forward, or while you micromanage another agent) their level of independence is determined by their [[FantasticDrug IPA injectors]].
** To elaborate, Intelligence governs whether your agent will make a TacticalWithdrawal or fight with SuicidalOverconfidence; Perception determines whether they have HyperAwareness or [[FailedASpotCheck fail a spot check]]; and Adrenaline skews them towards [[HealingFactor faster regeneration]]. The adjustment levels can be changed at any time, but take a while to actually reach the level you want, ''and'' become less effective as the agent builds a tolerance, so you need to carefully consider when to make changes.

* FantasticDrug: ''Wars'' allows the player to pump their cyborgs with two types of drug; Red Mist creates heightened awareness, making Agents shoot any armed personnel they encounter. Blue Funk, on the other hand, makes the user acutely paranoid, resulting in them shooting anything that moves.

** MultiEthnicName

* TheWikiRule: [[http://www.syndicatewiki.com/wiki/Syndicate_Wiki Here ya go]].

* ManOnFire: Screaming and running, before expiring in a patch of dust is the standard death animation for anyone killed by fire. Charming.

* SuperPrototype: Kilo's DART 6 implant is specifically stated to be a new and ''potentially' powerful version of the DART implant used by agents (every other agent uses a DART 5). It's explicitly stated that the DART 6 isn't as powerful as the previous DART implants, but has the ability to automatically upgrade itself over time, which forms the basis of the game's character progression. It's also mentioned that the DART 6 is experimental enough that it could've easily killed whoever it was implanted in, which is why Kilo was chosen to test it (since he is considered only an above-average agent and not as valuable as someone like Merit). [[spoiler: The experimental nature also lets Lily subvert Syndicate control of Kilo without anyone being any the wiser, which ultimately gives him the freedom to fight back against Eurocorp.]]

* DiskOneNuke: In one of the early missions in the original game, you can attack a police car, kill its driver and take his [[GatlingGood mini-gun]]. In ''Wars'', grabbing a Long Range Rifle early gives you a huge advantage, as it has a huge range and will OneShotKill any non-vehicle enemy in the early game.

* GameBreaker: The Persuadertron once you're able to control enemy agents with it if you're in an area with walls, since it actually works through walls, it's possibly to clear buildings by having an Agent walk along the outside of the building and control everyone inside or duck behind a wall so the enemy has to run up to them to fire, only to get mind-controlled before they can.

* CopKiller: You can kill any cops you meet, either they are a threat to you or not. One specific mission is to elminate all police officers so your organisation can replace them with your own.

* HotScientist: Lily Drawl. Agent Merit will actually wonder aloud if Miles just agreed to test the prototype DART chip to have a chance to let her examine him.

* DifficultySpike: Happens in the last few levels in ''Syndicate Wars'', when your enemies start carrying Plasma Lances as their standard gun. These powerful energy weapons fire rapidly, have a good range, and can kill your agents ''very'' quickly. While there are plenty of other dangerous weapons such as (rocket) Launchers, High Explosives, Long Range Rifles or Nuclear Grenades, all of these other weapons either have long reload times or give you some time to react (rockets and grenades take time to hit you, explosives must be planted); Plasma Lances give you almost none.

** To elaborate, Intelligence governs whether your agent will make a TacticalWithdrawal or fight with SuicidalOverconfidence; Perception determines whether they have HyperAwareness or [[FailedASpotCheck fail a spot check]]; and Adrenaline skews them towards either CaffeineBulletTime or [[HealingFactor faster regeneration]]. The adjustment levels can be changed at any time, but take a while to actually reach the level you want, ''and'' become less effective as the agent builds a tolerance, so you need to carefully consider when to make changes.

* GameBreaker: The Persuadertron once you're able to control enemy agents with it if you're in an area with walls, since it acutally works through walls, it's possibly to clear buildings by having an Agent walk along the outside of the building and control everyone inside or duck behind a wall so the enemy has to run up to them to fire, only to get mind-controlled before they can.

* TheSyndicate: Obviously.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Kris Delaney of the Subverters.

* InkSuitActor: An obvious case with Rosario Dawson, Creator/BrianCox and Creator/MichaelWincott.

** Also, the agents you see in the game are either this, blonde or ''[[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue]]''. Given that [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience all agents have their hair color fixed to their parent]] MegaCorp, this can be assumed to be a uniform dye job.

* TheQuincyPunk: The Unguided are a textbook example. They all sport [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair bright coloured]] mohawks and dress [[HellBentForLeather in leather]]. They're also a force to be reckoned with later in the game, since Ko-Paull Vissick organises them and arms them to the teeth with late game {{BFG}}s.

* BiggerBad: Though the PlayerCharacter is responsible for spreading the corporation's influence all over the world, he's just middle management in the grand scheme of things and has to answer to at least one higher-up.

* BadassLongcoat: With a ludicrous arsenal of weapons beneath it.

* BottomlessMagazines: ''Wars'' has these. Handwaved by each agent having a miniature fusion reactor strapped to them to power weapons.

* DeflectorShields: A researchable item in the original game. In Wars, they can be turned on by clicking the weapon energy bar - though as you'd expect, this will drain your weapon energy.

* DiskOneNuke: In one of the early missions, you can attack a police car, kill its driver and take his [[GatlingGood mini-gun]].

* EmergencyWeapon: Every agent comes equipped with a single pistol, which is fine for flesh and blood targets -- enemy agents, not so much.

* LimitedLoadout: The original game allows carrying eight items. Without mods, they're also subject to encumbrance that slows them down.

* ShoutOut: Many of the agents are named after members of the design team (special agents Edgar, Jones, Donkin, and Mumford, among others.)

* DeflectorShields: Enemy [=UAVs=], all 3 variants of Syndicate EliteMooks, and the final boss(es) all have these. You need to breach them before you can even harm the shielded enemy. A regenerating player version is available as a purchasable upgrade; it functions similar to the shield from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and various other similar shooters.

* DevilInPlainSight: Application of "datascape camouflage" allows you to walk around secure places without anyone batting an eye at the sinister masked man in the black coat [[note]] This works because the many, many systems in place to prevent someone unauthorized from gaining access to secure locations work 99% of the time, and the places that you use the camouflage are Syndicate locations, where Agents would be fairly common[[/note]]. Naturally, it fails at the worst possible times. [[spoiler:When you infiltrate Cayman Global, it doesn't last even three minutes]].

In the sequel, ''Syndicate Wars'', the Syndicate has been managing the world for some undisclosed time, until an experimental mind-expanding program [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes wrong]]. The scientists running it GoMadFromTheRevelation, becoming "The Nine," heading the [[VisionaryVillain Church of the New Epoch]]. They spread a "Harbinger" ComputerVirus that destroys the globe-running UTOPIA network and the chips in people's heads as the start of their EvilPlan, which you must either thwart or advance. [[http://www.gog.com/gamecard/syndicate_wars Also available at GOG]].