SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada preview

I’m a simple dude, who has fine taste in gaming and loves mechas, action, farming for resources, and Wifus. And guess what, I have all of that here with the upcoming sci-fi PvPvE shooter, SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada. Now I’ll admit, I’m terrified of playing games online, I ain’t what I used to be when it comes to reflexes, and taunting inferiors and children in a Call of Duty lobby. Especially now in a game which is all about fending for yourself, and potentially being a bit of dick who steals resources. Bit like Hunt: Showdown 1896, a terrific game that’s so intense, I get panic attacks playing it.

So the prospect of a new PvPvE was exciting and utterly nerve-wracking, but SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada won me over, as not only a good multiplayer extraction shooter but one ideal for newbies too.


What is SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada?


SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is what I can describe as very anime, very mecha, and all about extraction, shooting, and taking care of your helpful Wifu. What else do you want?

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada takes place in the year 2222, many years after a devastating event known as The Tears of the New Moon, produced poisonous rain which wiped out most of humanity and created strange creatures that now hunt the remaining populous on Earth. To survive the world-ending event, humanity burrowed deep within the Earth, laying low within massive bunkers to survive the deadly rain (yep, very anime!).

Years have passed and while life within the underground has provided safety from what lurks on the surface, it is tough, and resources are running low. Taking on the role of a “Drifter”, a sort of hired hand/gun who ventures to the surface to gather resources, it’s up to you to collect a plentiful bounty and survive your daily trek to the surface. And a successful bounty is usually harbouring a haul of “AO Crystals”, a rare mineral that provides heat, light and energy for the underground civilisation. And it fetches a very high price. So, you can imagine that every Drifter is looking for a handsome payday with any meals possible… even to stab another Drifter in the back!

But in your quest for those sweet AO Crystals, you have a trusty AI companion, either a Wifu or Husbando, who helps, provides useful tips, and hints, and congratulates you after a good day’s work! Quite a winning formula if you ask me!


Mecha, Crystals, and a handsome Husbando!


Firstly, I must bring up that SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is a rather beautiful-looking game, that harbours a lot of variety, high detail, and generally a nice art style. I appreciated the vast number of biomes, the level of density, the scale and the intensity of detail and colour to make them visually stunning. You’ll find yourself immersed within ruins cities, oddly neon-coloured vistas, and other stunning landmarks that will often leave you in awe.

For this beta, there were virtually no means to effectively alter your graphical settings, aside from setting the output to “Performance” or “Quality”. I hope that this is not the case for the final release, as this is an absolute no, no!

But what made SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada quite engaging and kept me going back for more AO crystals, was the customisation. There’s a bountiful amount of stuff to customise from your Mech, mummy Wifu, and your base of operations. It does take some time to find the right resources, but it’s worth it due to the number of ways you can change up and personalise your base in the way you see fit. I greatly appreciate the epic amount of content to customise your way of life in SYNDUALITY.


Mecha, Mecha, joy, joy!


Like most Extraction Shooters, SYNDUALITY provides a large environment for exploration, the chance to extract resources, and plenty of opportunities to be mortality wounded, and humiliated. The point of a PvPvE extraction shooter, like Escape from Tarkov, is taking high risks for immense rewards. You venture out on the surface, fight aliens, and gather vital resources for a massive payday. And all the while either ignoring and evading other Drifters, providing a level of mutual respect so everyone wins, to being utterly hostile and taking everything for yourself. It’s an engaging formula that has captured the attention of many gamers. It can be quite daunting if you fancy chilling with your Wifu and want to have some fun (not that kind of fun).

SYNDUALITY does allow this and while the experience will chance for other players, I rarely ran into an instance of conflict, more so having the odd warning shot fired at me and easing myself away from the vicinity. Of course, the reward for doing the dirty to fellow Drifters is to acquire even more loot easy peasy.

But in all honestly, I found myself not even considering the notion of killing another player, and I rarely come across another in the field. The world is so massive that there is plenty of room for half a dozen players and you’ll never see another up close. I did find there were enough resources to get what I needed, and while the AO Crystal appearances can be limited, they are there and ready for picking.

This, however, does not mean you won’t come into contact with another player, and even face combat. On the end game recap (which is a nice touch), I did see instances where other players did meet, and even face off against each other. There may have been intentional conflict and thievery, or misunderstandings. But there are plenty of ways to avoid combat if so you choose.

You have your emotes, and the terrain will allow you to take numerous paths that differ vastly from other players. As said, I played a massive chunk of my weekend and found myself quite happily going where I needed to go and enjoying my scavenging.

You will indeed face off against other enemies from aliens to bandit mechas, and combat is brutal and methodical. Mechas here are much slower than in other games, like in Armoured Core. It’s not to the point like movement in Gears of War, but you won’t be flying high, and able to pull off devastating attacks. It’s all about positioning, reserving your ammo, and knowing what battles to pick.

The shooting, gear, and weaponry weigh them, feeling impactful and generally being quite enjoyable when you fight. There is a good selection of arms for the job at hand, and being an element of resource management, where making every shot count ramps up the tension and meaningfulness of combat. I do hope more weapons are added in but assume that balancing would be the key issue here. But there are tiers to weapons and gear, which could lead to some major differences to low- and high-ranking players. As previously mentioned, the environments are very spacious and give plenty of advantage points for even new players. And with the old, but reliable hack of hitting the back of the mecha where weakest is does indeed make a monumental difference in a fight.

But like I also said, you could go miles, or even multiple sessions without seeing or fearing another player. But if you were interested in engaging with other players, be warned and rejoice that there are bounties on those who do a little too much backstabbing. Bit like Dark Soul where other players are marked for their deceptions and collective efforts can be made to ensure they are taken down.

But I do honestly feel this is the type of game for at least a good buddy system, co-oping with a friend, and looking out for each other. Or like me, just going with the flow, and being careful, and alert of your surroundings. Plus, there are usually plenty of monsters and bandits that can easily end you if you take the wrong step, and the same applies to those who might want to do some backstabbing.


Overall?

I dig SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada for plenty of reasons, from its solid mecha gunplay and exploration, the depth of customisation, and course, the cool open alien world filled with monsters …. And the mummy Wifu/Husbando stuff.

There is a lot of engaging content here, and the core gameplay is solid, even if I can see it becoming a little gritty after many, many hours. But I’m sure more content will come along, as there are specks of random encounters, the bounty list, and other smaller touches which I feel can be expanded upon, and more customisable content can be added to go even further. Like more random bosses you can find, more weapons, and tweaks to the PvP elements will allow a great number of people to find SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada even more approachable.

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is worth keeping an eye on, as there is a great approachability to its core gameplay and with all the lovely visuals, customisation, and mummy Wifu/ Husbando stuff is like a cherry on top of the cake!


++ Visually pleasing, compelling game-world, and cool anime Wifu/Husbando stuff
++ Solid combat, and intense survival gameplay
+ Lots, and lots of cool customisable content

-- Kinda simple, but could be enhanced with more content, random encounters etc.
- Lacking graphical options

A preview copy of SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada was kindly provided by Bandai Namco.