Tactical roguelike Synthetik 2 will be out in November

The original Synthetik was a shooter that put a lot of thought into the act of shooting. It had active reloads and a recoil mechanic designed to discourage running and gunning, and guns that could jam or overheat—it really wanted you to get a feel for the act of pulling the trigger. Also, you were an android in an alternate 1985 who was fighting the robotic servants of the Machine Gods, just in case you were afraid it was a dry game of fussy realism.

Synthetik 2 was first announced with an Early Access release planned for August, but had to be delayed. Berlin studio Flow Fire Games has now announced Synthetik 2 will arrive in Early Access on November 11, with a new trailer that reiterates the story setup before getting into the good stuff. By the good stuff I mean dropping the beat while a whole lot of robots get shot up. There's a spinning sawblade enemy that looks like it came right out of Disc Room, and also jets that I'm sure will be fun to shoot out of the sky.

Synthetik 2 is adding three new factions, the Machine S.A.T Police Forces, Chrono Squad, and the Shock Troops, and promises to have "Near-infinite replay value thanks to a fresh new progression system combined with new unpredictable environments with random elements, and endless options on how to arm and upgrade yourself." It'll also have integrated mod support, and four-player co-op.

According to the Steam page, full release is still scheduled for 2022.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.