You’re shooting a great metal beast, unloading magazine after magazine into its rippling hide as it roars and aims back at you. Its minions swarm in close, but your loyal teammates have you covered. Eventually you bring the machine to its knees, but instead of delivering the killing blow, you meld with it, taking its properties unto yourself. Your arm is coated in metal now and you’ve bent it to your will. It will fight by your side now as you rid America of tyrant scourge.
Synced’s foes may look like robots, but they’re technically Nanos; giant enemies that took over the world. It’s your job to control the population and take back your country. With a post-apocalyptic setting, Destiny-esque gameplay, and a live-service seasonal business model, Synced is hoping to be your next everyday game. But does it have what it takes to be a Destiny killer?
Gameplay is good fun. Each mission is split up into four sections, and you must defeat waves of grunts to progress through each. The bog standard Nanos are varied in design and function, meaning that each wave feels like a different challenge, even if spraying and praying will see you through more often than not.
You collect two different currencies as you go, one for spending in-game and another for spending back at base. Our characters were at max level, so we didn’t get a sense of that match-to-match progression, but the mid-match currency was enjoyable to spend. You’re flush with cash at all times, likely spending minutes at buy stations upgrading your armour or abilities. These usually turn up after you’ve defeated a wave, but there’s always a chance you’ll leave yourself vulnerable to the next flock of robo-villains bent on your destruction. I loved opting for explosive chain reactions triggered by killing Nanos, which proved devastating, but you could upgrade your Nano too.
Nano fighting feels good, if a little removed from the real action. You send out that Nano that you bonded with earlier – there are four kinds to choose from, each providing different defensive or offensive pressure – and it helps you tackle the hordes of smaller Nanos. I tried a few, but enjoyed the defensive wall the most. This Nano held a huge shield when deployed, good for covering a flank or tanking damage while you work on dealing damage. Upgrades can give it a dome shield, useful for taking a minute to heal while protecting you from all angles, or brutal charges. Alternatively, if you don’t deploy your Nano it gives your character a small buff – the defensive creature outfits you with an arm shield when you ADS.
Upgrade after upgrade makes you into a powerful warrior before you even deploy your Nano for more destruction. And that’s the main problem with Synced: it’s so easy. I didn’t take a single hit of damage in my solo mission, and things only got easier when I tried out three-player co-op with two teammates. There was one point where they jumped through a portal and I was left behind due to a miscommunication. They were both downed, but I cleared out the room I was in despite being ambushed by countless enemies. Then I jumped through the portal, took care of everything in that room, and finished the mission solo.
I took plenty of damage when forced into this co-op mission on my lonesome, but I survived and took out every opponent while doing so. Ammo crates are plentiful, and with all my buffs stacked on top of one another I could tackle even the biggest beasties with relative ease. My teammates automatically respawned before the next stage of the mission.
The only mildly testing part of Synced’s missions is the Tyrant – the big boss. These are the only foes where you need to actually focus on their weak points, the only battles where you need to communicate well as a team, and the only time when your Nano feels necessary and not just a cool addition to proceedings. Don’t get me wrong, every game has room for giant robots just because they’re cool, but your Nano should feel more necessary in all the encounters up until the Tyrant.
Perhaps this was because our characters were at max level, but I never felt in peril during my time with Synced. Even when two teammates were down and I was solo-ing in rooms meant for three, I was never particularly near death. My shields got cracked, I needed to regroup and medkit up, but I always had enough health to make it through comfortably. It just took a lot longer than usual, and I don’t doubt my poor teammates were thoroughly bored watching me dodge across a room before unloading yet another magazine into beasties one at a time. There is a timer for each mission, and when it reaches 100 percent you start taking environmental damage from the atmosphere, but even with my lengthy battles it never reached critical level.
Synced is good fun, but live-service games need to be more than that to survive in today’s market. If, by the time players reach the highest level, the game becomes easy, they’ll grow bored and play something else. Maybe the PvP mode, which we didn’t have a chance to test out, will rectify this, but the Destiny-like PvE missions leave a little to be desired. Facing off against swarms of robots that all but extinguished humanity should feel like a fight for my life, but Synced makes it feel like pest control.