SYNC

Before this game, I was nothing more than a shell of the former man I was. (Divorce hits you hard) She took everything; the kids, the house, the dog, even my foreman grill. I had nothing. I had to work extra shifts at the factory just to keep up with the child support payments. All my money went to either my Ex or my slummy landlord who expects the rent even though he won't fix this damn door (yeah right buddy), so I have to shop around Steam's free games. But this was a blessing from the good lord himself; for he bestowed upon me the gifts of the heavens. I gave this game a try and instantly fell in love. Firstly, the game play loop is very engaging. Having the unique gimmick of being able to "sync" (take control of) an enemy while your old body becomes a decoy for you to reposition yourself (or to get a moment to breathe) is genius. It's easy to understand and allows the player to start to think more strategically when attempting to beat the Speed run game mode as it challenges the player to not only play in a timely matter, but also to pick and choose which enemies they kill and which they sync into! The three enemy types (which are all playable through the sync mechanic) e…

I really hope the developer sticks with this game because the concept of switching between characters through line of sight in an fps is one that I want to see done right. Unfortunately, in its current state, the game is only an unfinished prototype.

As a free proof of concept to try for an hour, SYNC is a cool game that I'd love to see fully fleshed out. However, if it were a paid release I would definitely not be satisfied with this level of polish. The core concept is great: You can take control of any enemy at nearly any time. Each has their own weapons and movement abilities, and ammo and health are rare. The result is dynamic combat where you have to assess your health, ammo, SYNC, and enemies, trying to get all that you can out of your current host while putting yourself in a good position to take over a healthy host when those resources run out or things get spicy. The problems start when there are only 3 synths in the entire game, and they're not created equal. Some combat is linked by platforming, but you can completely bypass it using the flying Stalker. There are also optional lore pickups in out-of-the-way places, but again, why risk dying and repeating the whole level when you can just fly to it? Its railgun is also a useful weapon at all ranges, so for those reasons I used the Stalker nearly every chance I had. In the AI's hands, the synths' arsenals go unused except for primary fire, and they're incr…

Dev team was immaculate at the feel of the first person weapons!

"SYNC" is one of literally thousands of student projects infesting Steam. While student projects tend to be better quality than most "amateur" made games, we must still question what value such projects have for gamers. As with all student projects, this isn't really a fully fleshed out game, it's just the result of an academic exercise, and as such it has much more limited value as a game than a professionally developed game would have. Educational institutions should not be using Steam as a dumping ground for homework assignments (especially if the students didn't even pass the course). Sure, it helps their marketing and helps the students feel good about themselves, but this is another case of a business putting themselves before the needs of gamers. Like many student projects, this one takes an existing premise and does something new. Similar in a perhaps unintentional way to the 1980's home computer game Paradroid, you take over robots and use their distinct abilities to help you fight. Where Paradroid had a minigame to defeat the robot and assume control, here, you "SYNC". Some clever ideas but this is let down by lack of content, lack of polish, and despite not bein…

⠀