Syndicate Wars

The Good
My favourite part of the game would be the fully 3D cities with rotating camera, this is a major improvement over Syndicate where you could find your self lost or being sniped at by someone standing on the far side of a building where the 2D camera wouldn't show. Almost everything is destroyable which means those high explosives and suicide chest upgrades really pack that extra punch when you bring down a buidling or two in the blast. There is a wealth of new vehicles to use (including hover tanks) as well as new weapons there is no need for ammo as all the weapons run off self charging power packs. The option of playing one of two sides is a major plus.

The Bad
The flamethrowers aren't as effective or as satisfying as they were in the first game, agents still suffer from path finding and the AI has only one tactic - storm head long at you. While removing the ammo is nice, you will often find your self running low on energy with dozens of weapons around you, in the original you could have just picked one up and blasted away but this time you would have to retreat and regenerate your energy. The missions are about as varied as the previous game and can get very repetitive especialy since most of the cities are identical in appearance even if their layouts are greatly different.

The Bottom Line
A fine sequel with many needed features added, doesn't change too much to alienate original players but changes enough to make it new and exciting. I recommend playing the original first simply because it is still brilliant and will help the second one make more sense.