Synthetic 2 – test, arcade action

Known strengths

Synthetik 2 is clearly based on the successful roots of its predecessor, which was able to secure a gold award in the ultimate version. There is also the tried and tested headshot mechanics, which is quite rare for an isometric or bird’s eye view game and continues to work well and is fun. In principle, the other ingredients are also known, such as different classes, which are further subdivided into sub-classes in this part, a decent arsenal of weapons, some upgrades, a lot to unlock and of course the possibility of increasing the level of difficulty a lot.

Sounds exactly like the strengths that many players liked about synthetic, but somehow the newest offshoot of the series plays worse than its older brother. On the one hand, we would have the general feel of the game. In Synthetik 2 you do on the whole exactly the same as in the first part: You march through the zones to the exit and shoot down everything on the way that would prevent you from doing so.

New problems

Synthetic 2 takes the whole thing a lot slower. Move, shoot, and everything else almost feels like you’ve accidentally slowed down the game speed in the options. One

Unfortunately, there is no suitable option for this. Synthetics were also popular with players for the weapon mechanics, which are comparatively realistic in this perspective. To reload, you have to remove the magazine first, weapons can overheat, stall, etc.

As usual, the E and R keys are used for this. In principle this also works, but in Synthetik 2 it happens much more often that you have to reload while moving instead of shooting at the opponent from a stationary position. In turn, the movement buttons and the reload buttons argue about fine motor priority. That, in turn, is a bit frustrating in a game like Synthetics, where precision and quick decisions are important.

Sparse content

In addition, Synthetik 2 offers a lot less content than its predecessor – naturally due to your early access status. There are fewer classes, fewer upgrades, fewer weapons, and so on. It can be assumed that more will be added in the coming weeks and months. But given the vanishingly small size, one should perhaps have thought about postponing Early Access a little longer. Although the skimpy content available so far is definitely fun.

Each class has a couple of sub-classes that are all different from one another. So you can still choose your character according to your preferred style of play.
Aside from the missing content, there are also bugs and missing mechanics that are known and should be fixed or upgraded over time. At least with Synthetik 2 you have to say goodbye to the time when the Early Access version was already quite extensive and also polished. At its core you can find a chargeable alpha version here.

Cumbersome user guidance

The biggest problem besides the general slowdown is the user guidance, which cannot even be called useful: To start a game at all, you have to click through some very confusing and not exactly pretty menus.

The ammunition display also has a new place in Synthetic 2: It is now located at the bottom right of the screen instead of in the middle, which makes it much more difficult to keep an eye on the target and the available ammunition – that’s that in this form unfortunately rather counterproductive.

Audiovisually appealing

At least in terms of setting, the title already differs positively from its predecessor. The style of the original was charming, but the new 3D graphics of the successor make it much easier to spot opponents. The bottom line is that the visual design makes a very promising impression.

After all: Flow Fire Games tries to deliver new content and updates (including a Day 1 patch). It seems as if one is aware of the need to catch up behind the scenes. Because apart from the backdrop, there are currently hardly any valid reasons to prefer this sequel to the original. Of course, one can only speculate about the reasons for the early access release, which seems too early. But the current status of the game is likely to cause displeasure among the fans of the predecessor.