The looter shooter genre is largely dominated by the big three - Destiny 2, Warframe, and Division 2. While fantastic single-player / co-op games from the Remnant and Borderlands franchises have earned the love of millions of fans, they do not have the staying power of live service titles. Does Synced have what it takes to rise to the top?
Destiny 2 is suffering from its monetization woes, bugs, and server instabilities. Warframe has a poor early game experience (which DE did try to rectify with Plains of Duviri) and a lack of true endgame content. Division 2 is possibly in the healthiest state among the big three and has a compelling endgame. Enter Synced, a new title by NExT Studios and published by Level Infinite that wants your attention. Is it worth checking out if you are looking for the next big looter shooter? Let’s find out.
Synced Gameplay Progression Overview
Synced throws you into a world where nanomachines can reanimate the dead and want to take over the world. You can create a party of Runners with your friends and jump into the game world in a bid to stop the nanomachines.
The gameplay is reminiscent of Borderlands and you can pick up upgrades along the way as you progress through missions. You get access to perks that enhance your combat capabilities similar to how you would receive buffs in roguelike games. The perks can be extremely potent in some cases and help you trivialize content.
But what caught me off guard is that you do not get easy access to these perks and you are constantly short on currency to obtain these perks. During my limited time with the game, there was never a point in time where I was able to get enough credits to keep picking up these powerful perks. Even without them
The leveling system for Synced is centered around your weapons, power level, codex, and account level. You can raise your account level by progressing through the game and gaining levels. There are exclusive mods that you can gain only by leveling up and as you equip them, your power level changes. The rarity of your mods affects the power level of your character and there are various activities in the game that you can be a part of to gain power levels.
Weapon levels are gained by using guns that you want to use. PvP felt like a more efficient way to gain levels but killing PvE mobs led to a slower but fairly fast level-up experience as well. The number one reason to level up your weapons is to gain access to attachments and power them up.
Aggressive and Shameless Monetization
Currency systems in looter shooters are horrendous in most cases and the issue is present in Synced as well. As you reach the mid-game you will start getting access to Dead Sector and Master runs that grant you three different types of currencies.
The first thing you are shown when you boot up the game is a list of bundles you can get right now. After you head to the main menu, it’s still the same thing. While I understand that free-to-play games need to make money, having a gacha system with pay-to-win weapons is the last thing I want in a looter shooter game.
The gacha system requires you to spend money on the gacha system to get your hands on some of the most powerful gear in the game. It is impossible for players to get their hands on loot at the rate of someone who spends money and this is something that is not the case for games like Destiny 2 and Division 2. In Warframe, you can pay for loot but free-to-play players also have the opportunity to earn Platinum by selling anything that is tradeable and obtain the same items.
In Synced’s case, you are at the mercy of luck as a free-to-play player or you have to sell your soul to the gacha gods to get powerful weapons. Can you beat the game without these powerful weapons? Probably. But locking it behind an egregious monetization system in a looter shooter is something not many will appreciate.
Warning About Synced’s Anti-Cheat Program
The way Synced installs its anti-cheat is very suspicious. The game launches just fine the first time you play and then the anti-cheat is installed in the background. The “ProximaGameAntiCheat” retains registry entries even after you uninstall the game and it apparently keeps running. It also asks for access to the registry editor which is something I have not experienced with any other game including Valorant, which uses a kernel-level anti-cheat. If you try out the game and uninstall it later, make sure you go to your registry files and remove the anti-cheat as well.
Some players have also reported that the game is triggering errors on their anti-cheat programs and you might want to be cautious if you have been eyeing the game. Many players jumped into the game due to Discord Rewards giving players in-game goodies but I recommend being careful when giving the game permissions.
Should You Play Synced?
Synced’s gameplay has potential and it could offer a fun experience. But the monetization is in your face and I cannot recommend the game current. The gunplay and visual design are its two strongest elements; unfortunately, they are the only two things I enjoyed about the game. With aggressive monetization and a gacha system, I cannot recommend the game right now because of its pay-to-win mechanics.
Synced continues a trend of greedy live-service titles that simply fail to get the free-to-play formula right.
If you are looking for a looter shooter, it is best to stick to the more popular titles out there for now. The story and dialogue are also lacklustre and you should try it out only if the gameplay appeals to you. The hectic combat is fun for a while before the monetization slaps you in the face and brings you back to reality to ask you for your credit card information.
