➤ Synchronized: the review of a shooter with a lot of potential, but too many coins 🕹

Shooters like Synced that combine PvP and PvE well are rare, but the danger of microtransactions is always lurking.

Synchronized It is one of the free video games with the richest launch content package in recent years. Almost 30 hours of PvE campaign to face alone or in a group; a PvP mode halfway between battle royale and extraction shooter; two mastery levels to tackle even more difficult cooperative content; and many customizations. All of this, however, is submerged in a sea of coins that is difficult to navigate and confusing, especially in the first hours of play.

Developed by NExT Studios and published by Level Infinite, this distinctly Eastern game is a solid dystopian adventure that takes some risks by innovating the usual "ruined society with an outpost near a treasure-filled" formula. Its strong point is the large AI-controlled companion robots with which you can synchronize on the battlefield and which have different equipment. You'll use weapons, robots, and the unique abilities of one of six heroes (with new characters to come) to complete missions against enemy robots or against teams of other players in a mode that combines random teams and upgrades that crown the winner. who extracts the most resources from some key points.

The main problem with this video game, however, is its complicated character upgrade system (through upgradeable modifications) and weapons, the latter largely obtainable through a gatcha system. In this Synchronized review We tell you its story, the fun you can have in its PVP and PvE modes and how to navigate between too many currencies and monetization systems.

Space for narrative growth

Synchronized: the review of a shooter with a lot of potential, but too many coins — The story of Synced is not very original but it is not a bad excuse to face increasingly stronger enemies and increasingly challenging bosses.

Synced has many strong points, but the story is not one of them, mainly because it is not exactly original. It all started when a mega multinational invented nanotechnology that changed the world by making great technological advances possible. These nanoparticles, however, went crazy and began to attack and absorb humans: the enemies you will have to face in the game, in fact, are Modified humans who have been transformed into strange constructs. more or less powerful from the nanocomponents. The directors of the corporation have sealed the company headquarters and have escaped into space and the few remaining survivors challenge the Nanos (that is what the mutated creatures are called) to obtain Nerva, a fundamental resource to preserve what little remains. from the corporation lives the society. Faced with the dangers of Meridian, the area where the headquarters of the multinational was located and now infested by the Nanos, are the raiders, the heroes of the Synced universe. Each of them has special technologies and abilities, but all of them can synchronize their consciousness with some particularly strong Nanos, transforming them into allies to face the hordes of enemies.

After a brief introduction in which the basic mechanics of the game are explained, you will begin to face a series of missions that alternate two endings, one in a room full of elite enemies and another against a great boss called Tyrant. There are several, each with unique mechanics to access the damage phase and with variable forms, each with different attacks and critical damage points. The story, which will surely be expanded with future updates, is a sort of investigation into the behavior of the Nanos, the birth of the Tyrants, and what the Shinar Corporation's plans were (and still are). This mega multinational, in fact, may have dirtier hands than expected and you will soon begin to suspect that it played an active role in the downfall of humanity. The managers of this company, in fact, are still alive and well and periodically send shuttles to the surface to extract a special resource called Radia. In PvP mode, raider teams compete to control the extraction process and try to take home as much of this valuable resource as possible.

A satisfactory progression

Raids on hostile sectors are the PvE (thus anti-AI) activity you will spend most of your time on. Play on normal difficulty and die a reasonable number of times to get these 25 hours of solid entertainment that will test you completely free of charge. Without spending a dime, you'll receive weapons and mods to upgrade your raider, leveling them up enough to get through the next mission, often while breaking a sweat. Your character's power is dictated by the mods you equip: each of these passive upgrades, in fact, has a number next to its effect, and the higher the number, the more the character's level will increase. Each of these mods can be upgraded with "Upgrade Materials" (one of the nine different currencies in this game) and with Nerva, the equivalent of the classic game's generic credits. By upgrading each modification you can gain a random additional feature, such as a bonus to your dwarf companion's damage or a multiplier to the effect of a medkit. During missions, then, there is also a roguelike element: you can collect the Radia (which you will lose at the end of the game) and invest it in temporary upgrades for yourself or your dwarf companion that add effects to your weapons or improve them. support skills.

An efficient, well-guided progression cycle like Synced's is a rare thing in the free-to-play world. There is no shortage of prompts that want you to interact with the store to buy new weapons, skins or tickets for the in-game gacha system, but You will never find barriers in the game that can only be overcome by purchasing upgrades. with real money and this is a decent achievement for a game that claims to be truly free. You'll start out having access to three heroes, with a fourth becoming available after just two daily logins. So, in eight hours, we collected enough shillings (the farmable currency to unlock premium content, such as new raiders) to unlock the fifth character; Ten hours later we had enough to unlock the sixth as well. Each Raider has a passive ability, a unique interaction with each of the four Nano companions (Destroyer, Guardian, Probe, and Gunner), and an ultimate ability that can be useful for dealing damage, healing, or cloaking. Some raiders, like Doc, are better suited for PvE because their healing is essential in boss fights, while others are great for PvP (like Layla) because they can even turn invisible. The options at launch aren't many, but adding new raiders is part of the game's live service plans.

New or already seen PvP?

Synced's competitive multiplayer is a clever mix of Battle Royale elements and extraction shooter touches, with a formula that we are sure is capable of pleasing many palates. Four teams of three players each must compete on a medium-sized map to collect as many Nerva as possible, whoever wins the most. The ships of the Shinar executives are extracting Nerva and you will have to eliminate the Nanos present to take ownership of the extraction process and defend it from the adversary's attacks. Scattered around the map are also stations where you can use Radia to purchase upgrades and where you can upgrade your armor or weapon damage. Hidden in buildings are caches of random weapons that you can add to your team. Each player can respawn three times if eliminated, and only when all members of a team run out of lives is that team eliminated. It's fun, full of adrenaline and, what surprised us the most, well balanced in terms of weaponry and power of Nano Partner's allies and enemies, who can be killed with relative ease.

Here, weapon upgrades are removed to "ensure a balanced environment," as the game says. The problem is who has put a lot of money in the gacha machine and having unlocked the most powerful weapons has a clear advantage over those who have never encountered those weapons. As free to play players you will receive tickets for this machine, but in the hours we spent playing and in the 130 attempts we made we did not find a single weapon of maximum rarity (and therefore power). It's the nature of these types of games: if you don't mind the possibility (very rare; it happened to us in 2 games out of 30) of encountering players who have better weapons than you because they bought them in a store, then PvP Synced has a lot of fun reserved for you.

However, where we find this game unnecessarily confusing is in its multitude of currencies. There are nine (if we exclude the entries for the Gacha system), but there are potentially as many as there are Synced weapons. This is because to unlock certain features of each weapon you need the "Components" of that specific weapon. These are not to be confused with "Chips," another currency divided into the game's five weapon families (assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, machine guns, and sniper rifles) required to unlock a second ring of passive perks for each loadout. Then there are the "Upgrade Materials", to improve the raider modifications, and finally the four different store currencies: the yellow one corresponding to real money (Empirea), the purple one to grind to get premium content (Scellini), the red one to grind also to unlock some weapons and skins (Frac) and finally the component fragments, another premium Currency obtainable in the battle pass. The confusion is evident especially in the first hours of the game and it seemed like we never had the right currency to do what we wanted. However, over time the system becomes more understandable, although it is still frustrating.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, epic games store Price 0,00 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (4) 4.7 your vote

Synced has a lot of potential in terms of progression, customization of your playstyle, and challenges against the AI in PvE or against other players in PvP. The content available for free at launch is many and varied and it is possible to have almost 30 hours of fun without spending a dime. PvP is (almost) always balanced and the Nano Partner system is original and fun to use. On the other side of the coin, however, there is a lot of confusion with the game's coins, which are too many and of unclear origin, despite the fact that they are sometimes essential to progress. The best weapons in the game, then, are locked behind a gacha system, so the only way to get them is by spending real money. Everything in the campaign on normal difficulty and in PvP mode can be completed by free players and is a lot of fun. The gameplay flow is similar to The Division 2, as is the response of weapons and enemies. The value is there and if you decide to invest your time in it you will be satisfied because rarely does an oriental shooter manage to get PvP and PvE right in such a balanced way.