RoguedexPart 3 (Apr 2025) · #10 of 17 in that tierWatch the moment (3:09:25)
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
- Developed by
- Flow Fire Games
- Published by
- Flow Fire Games, WhisperGames
$19.99
SYNTHETIK is an unforgiving tactical shooter rogue-lite where freedom and experimentation is key. Fight in a world overrun by the Machine Legion and their Gods. Experience the next level in gun-play and dive into unparalleled build options and Android upgrades. Can you defeat the Heart of Armageddon?
Consensus
C69.8/100
Steam players93.8% positiveVery Positive13,095 reviews
Metacritic ↗Users: 8.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈250K copies · ≈$3.2M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2023 · #18 of 30 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A top-down tactical shooter roguelite from Flow Fire Games where hands-on gun handling (active reload, jams, recoil, ammo types) meets randomized weapons, eight classes and a punishing five-floor run against the Machine Legion.
Players love it: Steam shows Very Positive at roughly 94% of about 13,000 reviews, with many reviewers logging hundreds of hours and calling the gunplay among the best in the genre. Critics are few but favourable; Metacritic has only three critic reviews (84, 80, 70 per Wikipedia) and no Metascore yet, plus a user score of 8.1 from 32 ratings. It is a finished, fully released 2018 game (originally Synthetik, renamed Legion Rising after a free October 2018 expansion) with a free spin-off, Synthetik: Arena, and console ports on Xbox and Switch in 2020. A sequel, Synthetik 2, has been in Early Access since 2021. The core complaint is a steep, poorly explained learning curve plus heavy RNG, and some players report crashes and glitches in recent years.
Players love
- Gunplay feel: active reload, magazine ejecting, jams/overheating and recoil make every gun feel physical and skill-dependent
- Huge weapon pool (70+ guns with manufacturer variants and randomized stats) plus 140+ items (turrets, mines, mind control, orbital lasers) enabling very different builds
- Eight classes/subclasses with long progression and prestige arcs, so new unlocks keep coming 30-40+ hours in
- Very high replayability and skill ceiling; runs feel like mastery of a build rather than a fixed meta
- Sound design and soundtrack are repeatedly called out as excellent
- Modular difficulty (about 11 independent modifiers) lets players tune the challenge, including 220%+ for veterans
- Two-player online co-op with shared loot is described as great fun by those who get it working
- Cheap price for the depth, and a free Arena version works as a demo
Common complaints
- Poor onboarding: the game drops you into a run with a weak tutorial and items/weapons/mods whose effects are not explained, so reviewers say many mechanics must be discovered or looked up
- Harsh RNG can starve a run of weapon crates or upgrade shops for several floors, and runs can end from a single small mistake
- Crashes and game-ending bugs, including runs wiped by crashes and getting stuck on obstacles; co-op lobbies sometimes fail to connect
- Unfinished or broken interactions (for example the Modular weapon mod is reported as unusable)
- Display and UI problems: no real ultrawide or multi-monitor support, minimalistic UI that some find awkward, no item descriptions in shops
- Late game spikes hard: floors 4-5, back-to-back gauntlet rooms and the final boss Armageddon are seen as a DPS check that only a handful of weapons can handle
- Some features feel gated (a loadout tied to a friend referral code, locked DLC content) which irritated a few reviewers
Can feel tedious
- Long losing streaks while learning: only a small share of players beat the final encounter (one reviewer cites about 7% with the achievement)
- Trial-and-error discovery of what items and weapons do, often costing a whole run
- Late-floor gauntlets (three hard rooms in a row) and the final boss feel like a slog after a long run
- Overwhelming enemy spam and explosive threats such as Doombots in solo play
- Grinding class levels and unlocks, and repeating the long runs (8-hour sessions reported)
- Screen flash on explosions with no option to turn it off
What's unique
- Hands-on gun mechanics in a roguelite: manual magazine eject, timed active reload, jams and overheating
- Weapons generate with manufacturer-specific variants and randomized stats instead of fixed items
- Eight specialist classes that change playstyle entirely, from sneaking assassin to turret engineer to heavy breacher
- Engineer-style gambling dynamics (double or nothing with credits) and devil-offer red crates that trade health for power
- Modular difficulty sliders and a prestige system rather than a single fixed difficulty
- Free companion game Synthetik: Arena shares character and achievement unlocks with the main game
Players want
- A proper tutorial and in-game tooltips/item descriptions, including in shops
- Stability fixes for crashes and run-ending bugs, and more reliable co-op lobby/connection
- Better balance across the weapon pool so more than a small subset is viable into floors 4-5 and the final boss
- Less punishing or more forgiving RNG for crate and upgrade-shop spawns
- Display options: ultrawide/multi-monitor support, an earlier settings menu, and a way to disable screen flash
- Finish or fix half-implemented content such as the Modular mod
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Top-Down ShooterRogue-liteIndieActionAction RoguelikeOnline Co-OpDifficultCo-opShooterTwin Stick Shooter
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Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Synthetik is a slow, top-down shooter roguelike that leans toward realism: stealth, deliberate aiming, weapon jams, reloads and scarce ammo. He admits it is the game on the list he played least, but respects how it breaks from the usual fast, spray-and-pray shooter formula. The guns, with their many modifiers and upgrades, carry most of the roguelike depth. Repetitive levels, overwhelming detail and a slow unlock system hold it back for him, though the gunplay feels great. He ends by placing it 'around here' on the board without naming a tier letter.
Liked
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