Roguelite shooter Synced resurfaces with new gameplay trailer ahead of its open beta

Synced (formerly Synced: Off Planet) is heading into open beta on December 10th, and has quite a few hyphenated terms applied to it. This sci-fi game is both squad-based and match-based, a roguelite hero-shooter, and Tencent's publishing division Level Infinite even go as far as describing it as a rogue-looter, of all things. Whatever you want to call it, though, the main thrust of the game is about finding and taming machine creatures known as Nanos in a techno-apocalypse, mostly so you can battle more Nanos inside a special sealed zone called The Meridian. Come and see what to expect when the beta begins in an exclusive gameplay trailer below.

We haven’t seen a lot of Synced since it was first announced as Synced: Off Planet all the way back in 2019, but the core of the game remains the same. You play as a Runner, a mercenary who enters The Meridian to take on Nanos and get paid. The new trailer showed five heroes: Deadcut, Glory, Doc Stone, Ragna, and Park. I particularly like the sound of Deadcut, a gambler who spends his non-gambling time blowing stuff up. Your little band of three heroes can jump into PvE to take down Nanos and grab gear from the Meridian’s dead sectors, with each run varying on return journeys. Rogue and permanent weapon mods will help take down Nanos by giving your hero extra abilities such as stunning or explosives, and these are found at exchanges scattered around the map.

The game’s set after a future technological apocalypse called The Collapse, which saw nanite machines begin to reanimate the dead and attack the living. Of course, the wealthy elites found a way to avoid the disaster by zooming off into some kind of Jetsons-esque sky castle. That leaves the rest of the survivors on Earth, battling Nanos using a mystery substance called Nerva. Nerva serves as the game’s currency, which you can invest in upgrades at the heroes' home base of Haven. You’ll also be able to jump into PvP runs to fight against other squads over Nerva harvesting hotspots.

The Nano enemies look genuinely intimidating, technologically warped human corpses that they are. While some Nanos called Legions have absorbed serious weaponry to turn against you, there’s some proper hench lads called Primes who might prove useful too. Your hero can overcome Primes to make them into allies, using them against other Nanos in a few different ways. Your Prime could become a shield-generating Guardian, a Nano-smacking Crusher, fire massive cannons at enemies as a Suppressor, or scan the environment as a Seer. Just watch out for the Tyrants, big bosses even bigger than Primes who can do stuff such as turning magma against you or flying about on their massive wings. It certainly looks like a lot to get stuck in with, and our Ed will be writing up his thoughts of the open beta very soon.

Synced’s open beta begins on Steam on December 10th. There’s still no release date for the final version of the game yet, though, other than ‘coming soon’. I’ll let you know when there’s something more concrete than that.