Let's get something clear before I start.

This is not a game.

Well, not in the traditional sense. Sindome is not designed to make you feel powerful, succesful, joyous and victorious. Rather, it's designed to challenge your adaptability, morality, flexibility... and viciousness.

Sindome is not a game. It's a work of art. It's a sociopolitical manifesto. And you get to play in it and mess with people.

A cyberpunk city. 65 million people. Four city sectors. You walk into the gates... the guards strip you of even your clothes. From there, you have a plethora of options, career paths, friends and enemies. Thousands of items, dozens of weapons, armor and gadgets. Place bets. Go to space. Scavenge the outer wasteland. Join a gang. Join a corporation. But whatever you do... there's always a price.

Sindome is very carefully designed. This is not evident at a first appraisal, and you will spend some initial time scratching your head and wondering what the hell the developers were thinking. Weapon prices seem odd (there's a running joke about the high price of a set of brass knuckles). Many common items are hard to find. You are not initially told how technology works. Wages are insufficient and the automatic means of money farming are not enough. There is a very, very strict separation of in-character and out-of-character information as well.

Why all this? To generate RP, putting it simply. To force you to get out and interact with people, steal, cheat, band with friends, avenge someone. You're not gonna be able to afford that car if you just work in your nine to five desk job. You won't rise to media stardom if you don't curry in some favors. A gang will not let you enter if you're not willing to make someone bleed. Things that look like flaws now, will start to make sense after a few months -- I guarantee you this, as a two-year plus old player.

The MUD is well coded. Game breaking bugs are rare and addressed swiftly. There is always staff, and they are focused in efficiency rather than personalised player care -- a design choice. There are many failsafes to avoid crashes, and the MUD is divided in subsystems to manage the stream of data. Additionally, it has it's own webclient.

The world is -enormous-. After more than two years I still have things to find. There are secrets everywhere. Your NPC barman may have a secret bomb installed in her brain. That dirty alley may have a secret door to a mob weapons cache. That whorehouse may have cameras to blackmail it's customers. (These are all fake examples, but themely with the game)

Every now and then the GMs throw in a few wrenches to spice things up. A gang raids another one. A fire breaks out. A madman starts shooting. A hostile corporate takeover. A viral outbreak. An art competition. And, always, things aren't what they seem...

This doesn't mean the game is perfect. I disagree in some design choices - like what I feel is over reliance on NPCs, and the intential ignorance about out-of-character mechanics. But like everything, it's a design choice. Those flaws are more than compensated with all the perks.

The game is free. GMs are extremely hard working. Players are always encouraging one another to better RP.

I cannot recommend this game enough.

But remember...

There is always a price.