SYNCED: Off-Planet PC Review

Synced: Off Planet is a surprising title. The game from Next Studios and Studio Gobo Limited, seems to have the DNA of numerous different games spliced into it. It is both The Division and Day's Gone simultaneously to varying degrees of success. The game is a PvPPvE/Co-op action survival game. In it, players compete against each other in their fight to survive the apocalypse and for a chance to escape Earth.

The premise itself also sees players facing off against 'Nanos' essentially the zombies found throughout the game. The name adds a certain unique flavour, but in the end, these 'Nanos' are really just cyborg zombies with big purple eyes and some yellow bits.

 

Starting off with the core of Synced: Off Planet is the gameplay. The game is ambitous and has many differing facets that make up it's gameplay whole. Starting with the gunplay, this area o the game can be quite fun, however, in many cases the weapons can feel somewhat floaty, this in conjunction with stiff movement can make the combat more of a real chore than it needs to be.

The weapon variety also seems somewhat limited, or at least that it how it felt. The shotgun was the most fun weapon to use by far, while the other more 'precise' weapons suffer more from the floaty mechanics. Each weapon did manage to feel distinct which was a good thing, but like many of these games, certain weapons stand out and as mentioned previously, not only was the shotgun the most fun weapon, it was also the easiest to use and most effective.

In terms of enemy variety I think the game shines. While the Cyborg-Zombies aren't the most unique premsie, it does allow for far more creativity in terms of the enemy design. The 'classic zombies' serve as essentially the runners from 28 Days Later with hordes being your main issue, but luckily they tend to go down in one or two shots.

 

The same could not be said for the other variants of enemies. Similar to titles like Left for Dead, these enemy variants spice up the gameplay and tend to make it more interesting. Though unlike games like Left for Dead these special enemies seem to lack a bit of flavour to make them more interesting. Instead in many cases these enemies simply turn into bullet sponges, soaking up boat loads of damage and doing some relatively basic attacks over and over again, almost making the enemy variety pointless, as fighting the hordes is far more fun.

The game also features PVP gameplay and this is, in my opinion, one of the better aspects of Synced: Off Planet. Many of the weakness of the game PVE is undone in PVP. While the gunplay is still floaty, facing off against other players is immediately a far more tense experience where you are truly using your wits in your attempt to survive.

There is one unique mechanic that Synced: Off Planet utilises and when it works it is without a doubt the games most unique and interesting feature. These cyborg zombies are hackable and because of this, players can utilise these hordes against other enemies or even to just divert them to another path. This is endlessly entertaining as handlung the hordes becomes a hassle for enemies whilst you pick them off.

 

Hacking the 'Nanos' is also relatively straight forward and because of the designs of the zombies and the 'readbalility' of their colours allows players to recognise which ones are hackabable and which are not.

In terms of Synced: Off Planet's visuals, the game is brilliant. Whether it is the environments, to the weapons, to clothing to the enemies themselves, the graphics are fantastic. There are some occasional pop-in issues and also some frame rate drops while playing, but overall the game maintains it's stunning visual appeal.

One aspect of the visuals that does not hold up however is the UI and this links with gameplay as well. The UI is clunky, stiff and sometimes completely unreadable. The colours can clash with the backgroudn creating these muddy appearances essentially making the UI almost completely unreadable and overly convoluted.

Moreover, Synced: Off Planet also features voice acting through the entire game. Though, unfortunately, much of the dialogue is poorly written and poorly performed. This resulted in me not really caring as to what any of the characters were saying, or what my real objective actually was.

 

Overall, Synced: Off Planet is a game that I don't quite know what to make of. The game can be fun, hacking zombies and facing down hordes remains to be a fun experience, though it can become repetitive quick. Facing other players ups the intensity quite a lot making the game much more engaging.

However, Synced: Off Planet suffers a lot from it's floaty gunplay, poor UI and poor dialogue which ultimately serves to detract from the overall experience and muddy the game to the point that it becomes more of a chore to play.
 

Joshua Burt (@JoshuaBurt123)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed