I've written about my love of Syndicate before, as it's a fantastic game that really felt ahead of its time and captured my imagination.

A big part of that was due to the box art 

I was a teenager visiting my friend's house who'd recently been given the amazing gift of a PC imbued with Sound Blaster audio and two full shelves worth of games

These shelves were mounted above the PC and were fully loaded with an amazing variety of big box PC games. Each one featuring a variety of hand drawn art designed to fire up your imagination of the fantasy world contained within each.

I'd always loved science fiction, so the vivid green Syndicate case featuring high quality hand drawn imagery of a futuristic city space and cyborg drew me straight in

Unlike some box art (Streets of Rage 2 I'm looking at you!) what you saw depicted here was actually what you'd get in the game.

For instance the sleek curved hover car you can see at the bottom left. Those featured heavily in the game and you could actually drive them! Which in itself was a fantastic feature in those days.

Flipping over the box revealed tantalising screenshots of actual gameplay

Seeing rows of people lined up to watch what looked like a tank and police car sparked my imagination with thoughts of complex scenarios. These looked like cities inhabited with people who seemed to exhibit actual behaviour. 

Plus this meant even more transport options! Again, being able to play about with vehicles in a game that wasn't a driving game was a real thrill. 

Look at that other screenshot, there's smoke and fire. Does that mean I'll get to play with a rocket launcher? Can I set things on fire? 

In many ways this period of gaming felt more creative and diverse than it does today. I think when a new wave of technology comes along, such as the Xbox 360 generation, it suddenly unleashes the creativty of developers that was held back by the previous generation.

With PCs of that era we were treated to rapid improvements with each new generation of processor from Intel which led to noticeable advances. 

The technology of today is so very advanced compared to then and we don't have the same technological barriers that prevent so many visions being realised. 

Perhaps it's simply becoming older and the changes in outlook and perception that the years bring, but it's been a while since I remember feeling the stirrings of excitement that stumbling on the Syndicate box brought out in me all those years ago.