Synthoid Messiah Windows game

A nightmare inducing puzzle of energy management and ascension. Vanquish the Sentinels from your dimension and restore Nature to your worlds! The spiritual successor to Firebirds "The Sentinel" (1984) and Psygnosis "Sentinel Returns" (1998), Synthoid Messiah takes the player on an exciting and difficult journey over 1000 levels.

The player takes control of a Synthoid pod, armed with an electron flux laser for absorbing energy and cloning objects and side mounted blasters for dealing with Insectoids. A pod cannot move but can clone other pods and teleport the Synthoid within from pod to pod.

Controlling pods that are standing at a higher altitude is fundamental to the game, only objects with a visible base can be absorbed (the player may absorb or create objects on a boulder if the sides can be seen).

At all times the player must avoid the gaze of any Sentinels or else they will start absorbing energy from the pod, and when all your energy is gone, the game is over.

Height is gained by cloning a boulder on any visible, flat ground, and cloning a pod on the boulder. The player may then transfer the Synthoid to the new pod, absorbing the old one to conserve energy. Stacks of boulders of any height can be created, if the player has enough energy. In order to absorb the Sentinel, the player must create a stack of boulders of sufficient height that the pod on top can look down on the Sentinel's platform. When the Sentinel has been absorbed, the player may no longer absorb any energy from the landscape, although objects may be created as normal.

In later levels, the Sentinel is assisted by a number of Sentries. They behave exactly like the Sentinel, but absorbing them is not necessary to complete the level. Unlike the Sentinel, the Sentries do not stand on a platform but on ordinary ground. Attention must also be paid to nearby trees: if the Sentinel or Sentry cannot see the ground on which the pod is standing, but can see the pod, they will call out to the insectiods to swarm on your position.

Sentinels and the Sentries turn slowly and predictably. However, if there are many Sentries, there will be few safe locations anywhere on the landscape. If either the Sentinel or the Sentries come across a source of energy (boulders or a pod) their rotation stops while they absorb the energy, one unit at a time. Meanwhile, to keep the total energy of the landscape constant, a tree is created randomly on the landscape for each absorbed unit of energy.

Insectoids love energy and Synthoid flesh, avoid or kill. Larger insectoids in later levels might need to be avoided or killed from a distance as they are very powerful. Insectiods keep reproducing, the never stop coming.

A level is won by absorbing the Sentinel off its platform, creating a new pod in the place of the Sentinel and transferring the Synthoid to that pod.

The more energy you complete a level with, the more levels you unlock after each stage. (1 energy = 1 stage).

Objects that you will encounter:

Trees (1 unit of energy)

Insectoids (provides a small amount of energy when destroyed (1/3))

Boulders (2 units of energy)

Pods (3 units of energy)

Sentry (3 units of energy)

Sentinel (3 units of energy)

Can you help the Synthoids and become their saviour?