A new ‘rogue-looter shooter’ about the machine betrayal of humanity is going into open beta soon

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If there’s one thing we’ve learned through the consumption of popular media, it’s that sooner or later, the machines are going to rise up and kick our asses. For those who haven’t yet picked up on that message, here’s another opportunity: Synced, an upcoming third-person roguelite looter-shooter that’s going into open beta testing in December.

Synced is set in humanity’s near future, following an event called the Collapse, which saw the nanomachines we’d come to rely on for the day-to-day operation of our civilization decide that they could do better as a solo act. Thus, they began propagating themselves by consuming humans—not really sure how that would work, but this is a videogame, not science class—and ultimately morphed into deadly creatures known as Nanos. Now it falls to you and your pals to face them down as Runners: Fortune-seekers who make runs through the dangerous region known as the Meridian in search of a substance called “nano-energy.”

It is admittedly not the most original (or coherent) excuse to blast killer robots into pieces that I’ve ever run across, but it does promise a unique gameplay trick: Players can “synchronize” with Nanos, thereby turning them from enemy to ally (and also providing the title for the game). Developer Next Studios said the combination of different Nano classes—Crusher, Seer, Guardian, and Suppressor—and individual player loadouts and skills “allows for a broad variety of combinations and tactical approaches.”

Lots of new games make big promises, but the good news about Synced is that an open beta will begin on December 10, so you can jump in and see what it’s all about. It won’t be complete, of course, but it will feature both PvP and PvE content, and will be free to everyone. New content will be released throughout the beta and players who take part in the beta will earn a reward in the full game, but because Synced is still in development, progress will not carry over: This is, as the saying goes, a one-way trip.

This is what you’ll need to play—I would assume that these are not finalized system requirements, but just a baseline for the beta.

The Synced beta will be available through Steam and a standalone launcher available at syncedthegame.com. Naturally, there is also a Discord server you can hang out in while you wait for the beta to start.