There’s news about Synced: Off-Planet at gamescom 2021. The shooter wants to mix PvP and PvE, look really fancy and make NPC hordes your slaves
When a shooter mixes PvP and PvE, that’s nothing really new anymore, at least since Hunt: Showdown. Nevertheless, the Tencent studio NEXT is venturing into the sub-genre with Synced: Off-Planet. What’s more, Synced is even supposed to create its own shooter genre with an unusual game mechanic.
And what has been shown so far not only looks smart thanks to Unreal Engine 4, ray tracing effects and high-quality art design, the gameplay also reads exciting on paper. Instead of a classic battle royale, players compete against each other in teams, fending off hordes of zombie-like tech monsters – and even controlling them themselves.
How exactly this is supposed to work, what sets Synced apart from the Hunts and the PUBGs of this world and whether this might be your pair of combat boots, we discuss in this preview.
Synced: Off-Planet was first revealed at gamescom 2019, after which it went quiet for two years. At gamescom 2021, the developers came back with a new story trailer, because yes, there is a story too:
What’s Synced: Off-Planet about?
First, let’s get to the basics: Synced is a third-person shooter set on a post-apocalyptic Earth. For once, the downfall of civilisation was not caused by a virus, but by high technology. The advanced Morpheus chip made it possible for mankind to virtually merge with technology and thus always have a direct line to all available data.
But a faulty update put an abrupt end to the god fantasy, killing billions of people in one fell swoop and subsequently transforming them into dangerous zombies called Nanos who now rule the streets of the world. The few survivors struggle to leave the planet and reach the saving “ark” in Earth orbit.
The highlight: As players, we have the ability to hack weakened nanos and synchronise with them, allowing us to take over entire swarms of the beasts. We can then have the monsters throw themselves at enemy players or even AI hordes roaming around. This is the big unique selling point of Synced: Off-Planet. Developer NEXT Studios describes the game as a “companion shooter” because of this feature.
And the whole thing even looks really good, as the screenshots show:
How Synced: Off-Planet plays
This sets the premise for fighting with and against each other in different modes. But how do the modes shape up? So far, the developers are talking about three game modes:
Off-Planet – PvP: Here players compete in teams of three to reach the rescue shuttle to the ark on one of several large maps. The hunt for loot such as better weapons is reminiscent of the familiar Battle Royale formula. Battles take place against the AI and other player teams, which all have the same goal. Only one team can successfully exfiltrate per round. This sounds like Hunt, Escape from Tarkov, PUBG or The Cycle, but promises more action and chaos due to the companion feature.
Shuttle Rush – PvP: The second PvP mode of Synced: Off-Planet revolves around several rounds of shuttles that need to be reached. Several shuttles appear on the maps and players have to fight for them. The goal here is to score as many points as possible in order to be able to celebrate victory at the end.
A pure PvE mode: In the third mode, everything revolves around co-op combat against the AI. The task is to collect corrupted data and learn more about the history of Synced: Off-Planet along the way.
The modes support 36 to 48 players and up to 1500 AI opponents. By the way, just like the players, they spawn at random locations in each round to create new gameplay over and over again.
In our video from gamescom 2019, we discuss Synced in detail and also show many gameplay scenes:
No classes and many individual tactics options.
Synced: Off-Planet lets us create our own fighters. Developer NEXT wants to offer players many options to design the characters according to their own wishes. How exactly this will take shape, however, has not yet been finally decided.
At least we know that Synced: Off-Planet does without predefined classes. Instead, we build our characters (yes, we can create several) based on a perk system. Skills change the way we control the AI monsters, among other things.
The battles are somewhat reminiscent of The Division: We are allowed to use cover, roll out of the danger zone with pike jumps and look directly over the character’s shoulder when aiming. In addition, there is also a first-person view in the aiming mode that lets us look directly through the mounted visor.
Realistic assault rifles, pistols, submachine guns, shotguns and the like are used as weapons. We also see parallels to The Division in the superimposed UI and the fluid, almost tantalisingly casual movement animations.
What can we expect from Synced: Off-Planet?
A release date has not yet been set. First of all, an alpha phase of Synced: Off-Planet is coming up, for which you can apply on the official website. Synced is then due to be released on Steam and “in other shops” sometime in 2022.
As of 2019, however, the developers have not yet agreed on which sales model they would like to pursue with Synced: Off-Planet. Free2Play or Buy2Play are currently on the table. “Similar” Tencent titles, such as Ring of Elysium or PUBG Mobile, have so far relied on Free2Play with microtransactions.
