The Syndicate game for the Sega Mega CD console is a strategy game that adapts the computer original for its capabilities. While it follows the same gameplay template, it has been redesigned in a cartoony style and features multiple differences in gameplay and controls, as well as new levels.
In the game, you take on the role of an executive of a criminal syndicate in a dark cyberpunk future. You control teams of cyborg agents on missions such as assassinating politicians, opinion leaders or executives from rival syndicates, retrieving important objects, kidnapping scientists or taking out enemy agents. The world map consists of 50 regions, each containing one level, with two training levels also available.
The game is played in an isometric view, with one to four agents controlled directly, and potential targets being selected automatically. This is a departure from the indirect cursor control found in the computer versions. The stages are single-layered, unlike some of the multi-layered versions of the computer game.