SYNCED, a world filled with enemies and hidden secrets, with a fair amount of tyrants.
Developed by NExT Studios, SYNCED is an interesting entry into this studio’s list of prior games, such as Bladed Fury, published by Level Infinite. SYNCED brings to light an interesting take on co-op third-person shooter with a fantastically dressed story of a futuristic end-of-world scenario while combining several other genres which work really well together.
Starting your adventure, you are given an epic cinematic that sets the overall mood for the world and the goals of your characters within the game. This is based on the world’s final technological golden era, where Nanot`echnology had finally bloomed and reached its ultimate capabilities, meant to revolutionize the world and aid the people within it.
With Nanos being humanity’s greatest achievement, most things thrived until The Collapse, where those same Nanos meant to help had turned against humanity, turning those who died into mechanized monsters hellbent on obliterating what’s left of humanity. As for the rich and well-off people of this Nano-torn world, they fled to the skies in Shinar’s arc-like ship, leaving most of the common classes to fend for themselves.
For those who remained, they must now scavenge, fight, and survive the broken lands of The Meridian in hopes of defending against the extinction of the human race. Entering your first mission, which will also play the part of your tutorial, you will start your adventure off with Deadcut, the first runner you get to use while learning the basics of this world’s combat and environments, and how to use Nano Companions you Sync with along your path to closing up Nano surges.
Your first objective in SYNCED right off the bat will be to find and tame a Prime Nano, although it’s not as simple as just taming them, as you have to face off against one. You’ll bring it down by lowering its shields and health enough to sync with the Nano; granted, these Prime Nanos are never alone. They’ll usually have a few smaller grunt Nanos that fight at your target’s side, and you’ll need to be as they can be quite overwhelming if you don’t keep their numbers in check.
Having your companion is a vital part of combat and can be your strongest ally aside from the other players you can co-op with. As for the Nano companions, there are 4 types to choose from. The first and most powerful in terms of raw brute strength would be Crusher, a high-damage and melee-oriented Nano that crushes enemies in its way while also boosting your movement and damage output while in Nano Arm mode.
Other Nano companions also consist of the Suppressor, a long-range Nano that gives you an extra gun in the field of combat. The next companion would be the Guardian, a shield-type Nano that focuses on defense rather than battle. While in Nano Arm mode, it will project a shield in front of you while you are aiming with your gun, giving you some much-needed protection while finding the perfect shot under fire. Lastly, there is Seer, a combination of damage recon, and it offers some added damage with its lasers; it can also serve as a scanner that will help detect rival runners in Nano Arm mode.
Aside from your Nano Companion, the weapons in this Nano-torn world add to your firepower, and every little bit of damage is needed to take on Tyrants. With a wide selection of primary, secondary, and melee-based weapons such as Assault Rifles, Shotguns, and hand pistols, or even having melee weapons such as a sword, hammer, or even a double-sided axe to smash Tyrants down can become fun chaos for all involved in the mission.
Mods in the world of SYNCED play a vital role in any combat situation; it also highlights the roguelike aspects of the game, exploring the world of Meridian and uncovering its secrets alongside cleaning up some of the enemies in the world, you will also find exchanges littered across the maps where you can exchange Radia for Mods.
With both the power of your weapons and your Nano companion, you still need an edge, something to set your attacks apart and claim your play style if you want to survive this constant onslaught of enemies. There are quite a lot of mods, and the limits to what they can do are up to your creativity in battle, from simple damage buffs for weapons to completely changing an aspect of combat and adding extra effects to your attacks.
The only downside, which also makes gameplay a bit fairer, is that these mods are randomized, and you only have a choice between two at a time, though a caveat to note is that you can’t reshuffle the random options or opt to choose neither. You will get the same options at the next exchange, forcing you to choose one in order to get new mod options.
Dead Sector Runs will be your insight into the story and lore. As for its counterpart, the PvP aspect deals with having to fight other players with your Nano Companions. As for the influence of mods and companions, you’ll be able to choose between several different Runners, each bringing their own traits and abilities.
While you’re still starting your adventure in SYNCED, you’ll have the option of choosing Dr. Stone, who has the unique ability to deploy a temporary health drone that will let allies near you heal over a short period. This ability is one of the most useful ones to have in a team or even solo, as it allows you to stay in the fight and recover in any situation.
Glory, being our next Runner, is more Scout-oriented with her abilities and proves useful for searching and having the ability to deal more damage to Nano weak spots, along with her deadly smoke grenade, which creates a field of cover and damages any who is caught inside of it.
Lastly, we have Deadcut, the first Runner we get to play during the introduction phase of the game. He’s a focused damage dealer with minor survivability; having his trusty grenade, he sets fire to the battlefield and scorches his enemies. He is a great character to have in crowd control situations that will leave your enemies as nothing more than smoldering husks.
Reaching the truth behind SYNCED‘s story, you will have to scour the game’s maps and levels to uncover fragments hidden throughout the game, littered all over the world, each one giving more insight into what happened during The Collapse.
After spending more time in Dead Sector Runs and Nerva Runs, you’ll notice the options to buy things will expand, giving you access to other Runners, weapons, a variety of cosmetics, and some occasional modifications. While you do have access to the majority of what the game has to offer, there will be things that might require you to use the in-game premium currency, Shillings. Luckily, there are quests you can do to earn some shillings if you need them.
Last but not least, SYNCED is primarily an MMO, which means it offers you, as the player, different options for playing. If you are a wallflower, SYNCED does allow you to play solo, or you can team up and take on other players, as well as just team up to take on the environment. Having teammates makes the game more enjoyable and entertaining to play, regardless of the modes you choose to play.
With the impressive visual and auditory fronts of SYNCED, both sides show the amazing environmental designs, NPC, and character designs, not to mention the variety of enemies you have the chance to face off against to survive. This shows an awesome dedication to detail with world-building and the visual effects as a whole during in-game encounters.
The NPCs are also voiced, and the voice acting keeps you interested in the mission and information given to you by NPCs in the game. Music and ambiance play their roles quite beautifully when painting the mood of crucial moments, indicating combat and cutscenes quite well with a mix of epic music and electronic; you can bet you’ll feel in the zone with the situation you find yourself in. The gameplay of SYNCED, especially its roguelike elements, is similar to games such as Returnal, and the PvP aspects share Traits with games such as PUBG or Fortnite.
Overall, SYNCED has tons of hours worth of things to do, whether in solo or co-op; in PvP or PvE, there’s no shortage of content, lore, and modifications you can’t revisit or do. Gather your teammates, find the companion that works for you, and dive head-first into hordes of enemies in SYNCED.
