From the wide variety of superpowers, telekinesis was always my first choice as I found it interesting and fascinating. Synapse delivered this to me with a bang. The game is quite remarkable and entertaining, despite the fact that the minimal quantity of material gives the sense of an unfinished effort.
The narrative is adequate, if simplistic, and serves as an excuse to have fun. We take on the position of an unidentified agent tasked with infiltrating the mind of a particular Colonel Peter Conrad, a public adversary from whom we attempt to collect information known only to him and avert a potentially lethal biological strike. We go deeper and deeper into his mind and subconsciousness, and the waves of opponents we meet along the way represent a defensive mechanism attempting to combat the “intruder.” Synapse’s fundamental ideas and execution are undeniably its strongest points. This is a rogue-lite game, which takes a lighter approach to the rogue-like genre – death does not mean you lose everything. We work on the character on a daily basis, and the sensation of increasing strength is incredible. The first few attempts were a continual battle for life, but within a few minutes, I was hurling foes at the walls like rag dolls and storming through the easy stages.
In Synapse, telekinesis is employed in addition to weaponry, and it is a genuinely memorable experience. We “grab” items (and subsequently adversaries) in our hands and move them around. We attack opponents with boxes, clench our fists to crush explosive barrels, push aside kamikaze bombers charging at us, and knock opponents off their feet with a single wave of the hand. Similar to a Jedi, but with a submachine gun in one hand. While Synapse is a dynamic shooter, you can also hide behind covers in this game, but you don’t have to physically crouch or move in front of the console at all, because it’s enough to “grab” some element of the environment, and then manoeuvre your hand so that our virtual body alternately hides leaning out from behind a wall or wall. While the hand responsible for telekinesis is the focus of Synapse, the other hand reloads the rifle we’re wielding. We pull out the magazine with a button and then reload it by pressing it into the weapon, for example, with the chest or leg. Simple, quick, and efficient.
The character growth mechanism is quite intelligently designed and encourages a wide range of playstyles. It may appear difficult at first, but in practice, many issues take care of themselves. The developers made certain that each ability you may purchase has a noticeable impact on the gameplay, so the sense of advancement after each repeat is really enjoyable. We gain access to a radar with essential items highlighted, stronger weapons available in stages, greater health, the ability to resurrect, the capacity to neutralise explosives hurled at us, and so forth. However, the great utility of talents is a double-edged sword, because the farther you go into the forest, the less effective certain simple solutions become. I nearly gave up tossing boxes or bursting barrels at adversaries after I unlocked telekinetic interaction with them – it was easier to just bash them against the wall or chuck them into the abyss.
Monotony is my major criticism about Synapse, because under the veil of well-designed gameplay principles sits a fairly contentious notion for the game’s structure. Synapse is divided into three “passes,” each with nine stages, and in order to progress in the tale, you must finish all nine levels without fail. When we finish the first run, the game’s end credits show. However, Synapse makes it apparent that you must complete the other two runs in order to fully understand the plot. The problem is that they merely varied in difficulty, thus the makers camouflaged the New Game Plus option, concealing important plot aspects required to understand the whole story. It doesn’t help that the game only has four weapons and four monster types, and because the levels aren’t produced procedurally, we’ll figure out their layout very quickly. With such a small quantity of material, Synapse appears to be an incomplete effort rather than a full-fledged game.
Synapse isn’t a must-have type of game though it is an interesting experience. The principles of gameplay and character development are expertly done here, so if you pick this up, you’ll be pushing goes to the ground and flinging virtual lead at them with a smile on your face while making explosions wherever you go.