Extraction shooters are quite easily the latest big trend in multiplayer gaming that companies are trying to hop on to in the wake of the success seen by titles like Escape From Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown. Few titles, however, have managed to have enough staying power to boast success, with most new games in the genre seeing small but dedicated audiences. Bandai Namco’s Synduality: Echo of Ada is the latest extraction shooter that is seemingly gunning for one of the top spots of the genre, and in order to do this, the game has its own unique twist on the gameplay and setting.
What sets Synduality: Echo of Ada apart from its contemporaries is, first of all, the fact that it is a mech-based game. While this might seem like a superficial observation from the get go, the fact that you’re not in direct control of a human character, and are instead piloting a mech – referred to rather grimly in the game as a Cradlecoffin – means that the title plays differently from just about any other extraction shooter out there. Interestingly, Synduality also has a smoother learning curve than many of its contemporaries, including the excellent looking The Forever Winter.
There is a certain vibe that Synduality goes for which feels like it was heavily inspired by the entire medium of anime. Aside from the previously-mentioned grim name for mechs in the universe, players also have AI buddies that they can customize the look for, complete with new outfits to make them look more unique. The mechs themselves lend themselves to more Japanese design sensibilities, looking more like sleek battle machines and less like the clunky bi-pedal tanks that you might see in a western title like MechWarrior 5: Clans. Visually, however, aside from a few fun quirks here and there, Synduality: Echo of Ada tends to look incredibly bland.
“Synduality also has a smoother learning curve than many of its contemporaries”
Unfortunately, just about every bit of unique design and flavour in Synduality is kept to the game’s various menus. Even the AI buddy you’re partnered with is relatively bland, being yet another anime character in a medium that is filled to the brim with, you know, anime characters. Even the design of the Craddlecoffins tend to feel quite bland and derivative of other IPs in the mecha genre, bringing in a mix of designs that range from being inspired by older mecha anime like Gunbuster, to some of the sleeker designs we see in modern-day Gundam.
The environments themselves also feel quite uninspired. While the color palette is okay most of the time, with several zones being easily identifiable thanks to the color theming that went into designing them, it’s difficult to have things in the game’s two maps stand out because of how generic they can feel. Things seldom get more interesting than ruins of cities and military buildings, and the small bits of forests or mountains that fill out the gaps between these locations tend to often feature some of the more unique opportunities for varied combat. Of course, it also doesn’t help that even important things in the game tend to look either slightly blurry, or washed out, and this includes your own mech.
While combat is where Synduality hopes to truly shine, unfortunately, it often feels a bit too simplistic to offer anything really new. Sure, the fact that every player is controlling a mech should, theoretically, add a new dimension to battles, especially since these mechs are much more agile and easy to control than a player character would be, unfortunately, things never really evolve much beyond players circle-strafing each other or the PvE enemies while blasting them with weapons. The weapons themselves are relatively quite simple; you get the usual array of guns you’d expect from a shooter, ranging from SMGs to shotguns to rifles. While these weapons are split between two categories depending on the type of ammo they use – energy or live rounds – this seldom comes up in fights.
“While combat is where Synduality hopes to truly shine, unfortunately, it often feels a bit too simplistic to offer anything really new.”
Another aspect of the combat is that you get to pick the type of companion you bring with you, which in turn also affects what special abilities you’ll have access to. While some of these abilities can end up having some effect in fights, like the multi-targeting missile barrage, the build-up and cooldown on these abilities is too long for them to have too much effect on battles. It’s often just faster to go in guns blazing and trust your own reflexes in effectively dodging attacks.
Credit where it’s due, Synduality: Echo of Ada at least has some of the best onboarding I’ve seen from the genre. Rather than being thrust out into a cold and unforgiving world where failure means losing everything you were carrying (including your own weapons and equipment), the game at least gives you a much better time in the early game than other titles in the genre. Unlike Escape From Tarkov, which is known for its brutal difficulty, Synduality will ease you into its general gameplay loop. In fact, PvP is outright impossible to engage in without progressing through some of the game’s early objectives, which revolve around you setting out into a PvE-only zone to kill monsters and find materials that will allow you to build up your base to a reasonable level.
The game also does a decent job introducing its mechanics gradually, with a key example being a set of early objectives that revolve around setting up a crafting room in your home base. Through these objectives, the game teaches players to set out and fight things, and how various materials can be used to not only build up their base, but also that players can unlock better item stocks in the game’s stores, and eventually even craft their own specialized equipment.
“In fact, PvP is outright impossible to engage in without progressing through some of the game’s early objectives”
The tutorialisation does tend to go too far sometimes, however, with the game finding it difficult to occasionally shut up and allow the player to figure some things out themselves. In fact, the early game has constant interruptions where either your companion or a mascot character will try to be helpful by over-explaining various aspects of the game. Some of the “help” offered by these characters feels like the game thinks that you’ve never played a video game before.
When it comes to the story itself, there’s not really much to write home about. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a dangerous type of rain started wiping out the entire human population. Players are Drifters, who set out in the dangerous rain-filled world to get their hands on AO Crystals, which are the new energy source that is allowing humanity to bounce back after their near-extinction. There isn’t really much more to the story beyond this basic setup, which provides an adequate reason for players to set out to take on creatures known as Enders and occasionally even rival Drifters. The story is never really expanded upon aside from giving you vague hints about some of the factions being up to no good, and there’s never really a big payoff regarding the ultimate fate of humanity.
Unfortunately, Synduality: Echo of Ada feels like an early idea that never really got expanded on. Superficially, it has some interesting ideas, and its easier early game objectives are definitely a great step in the right direction for the genre. Sadly, the game is quite lacking when it comes to actual depth; the combat seldom evolves beyond circle-strafing and shooting, and even the progression system is quite basic. Add on top the rather bland and generic anime aesthetics, as well as the fact that the story never really goes anywhere, and you get a title that might just not be around long in the future.
This game was reviewed on PC.
