SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada Preview

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is an upcoming PvPvE extraction shooter developed by Game Studio Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Set in a post-apocalyptic world many years in the future, you are the newest Drifter, a member of the Drifter Support Association who is tasked with completing quests by venturing into the dangerous overworld and procuring materials and AO Crystals, the only way humanity can harness energy.

I had the opportunity to check out a closed beta for this upcoming title and I managed to get quite a few hours in. In them, I was able to complete over a dozen quests, fight various groups of enemies, and experience how the game is going to unfold overall, exploring the first two areas (with only the first having quests to complete). I gave it a long playthrough, experiencing 10 hours of gameplay and still having a few things left to do, namely rebuilding my base of operations and maxing out the areas.

Starting with the basics, you'll begin your journey in a tutorial, a quest that tests your merit as a future Drifter. Here, you learn everything from basic controls to how the game works and its enemies — straight off the bat, SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada's first impressions aren't perfect. Controlling the CRADLECOFFINs can feel a bit janky (which is to be expected with a gigantic mech), and combat feels very punishing, with a few Enders (monsters that roam the surface) being enough to take you out for good.

Once you've passed the tutorial and proven your merit, SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada reveals its first downfall — there isn't much of a story. This is a very rich world, filled with lore and things to uncover — as is evidenced by Synduality: Noir, the anime based on this same world — but it doesn't take too much advantage of it and instead leans strongly on its gameplay elements. The fact that your Magus speaks in Japanese only also serves to be a bit of a hindrance, as being mid-battle (or mid-terrified-flee from Enders and Bandits when your health is low) meant I couldn’t turn my face to read what on Earth she was saying in her incomprehensible Japanese.

The few story moments you'll get are in the form of quests given to you by the Drifter Support Association, which is a group of people that give you requests to do things. There are four factions total in the beta: Association HQ, Old Amasia Interim Government, Magus Lab, and the Artifact Forum. They really don't mean anything, even nearly a dozen hours into playtime, because the game does little to introduce you to them, and there is no reputation system to give you reasons to focus more on them. It definitely lacks a story or a motivating factor aside from gameplay elements to keep you hooked — there aren't any memorable characters because there aren't any characters, and even my Magus, though lovely and lovable as she was, felt flat in contrast to those present in the anime.

Instead, each faction is meant to give you quests that are in the same vein: kill X enemies, go to Y place and get an item, etc. With each quest, you get a short blurb of what you're being asked to do and an objective, and off into your Sortie you go. It doesn't really enrich your experience and give you much more to do — you know your goal, you know who you're doing it for, and you don't really feel all that motivated to do it because there aren't any faces behind it all: it's just you, a bunch of other Drifters that may or may not attack you (more on that later), and a world of enemies to conquer.

Still a few visual glitches here and there, too...

A Sortie is a quest that is set in the outside world. Everyone lives in an underground city due to the toxic blue rain and the Enders that roam the surface, which is why Drifters are equipped with heavily armoured CRADLECOFFINs and a Magus, android companions that have become an integral part of society (and you get to decorate their look!). The beta experience only features the Northern Zone (which is where you'll get all of the quests) and the Southern Zone. 

As you head out into the world, you'll find a large map to explore, and it'll be very daunting at first. Without being introduced to pretty much anything, SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada throws you into the world with quests, monsters, objectives, and an entire geographical map that you'll likely have no idea how to traverse. Despite this frustration and lack of guidance, I was able to find my way through pretty much everything and felt more acquainted with the world — it felt like everything around me was hostile, and for a post-apocalyptic setting, that's a good thing.

As you venture into the overworld, there are various threats you're going to encounter. There's the apocalypse-bringing rain, which breaks down your CRADLECOFFIN's weather resistance coat; the Enders, which are creatures that arose after the apocalypse and deal a stupid amount of damage; the Bandits, which are rogue Drifters who ran off with CRADLECOFFINs and work as NPC enemies for you to fight against; and the other players themselves. This hostile environment keeps you on your toes, ensuring that you have to do everything carefully, but thankfully, it isn't nearly as stressful once you've become acquainted with the world and controls, even less so once you feel more comfortable in your mech and have a few strong items up your sleeve.

As a PvPvE title, you first delve out into the world to face the environment (the E in PvPvE). Enders are everywhere, and you'll have to find a way to manoeuvre around all types of foes, each dealing massive amounts of damage, but having a caveat: they're quite predictable. You have Chasers, wolf-like creatures who attack in packs; Crawlers, which are obnoxious mines that will one-shot you if you don't see them (can you tell it happened to me too many times?); the flying Gazers, who will attack you from the air with very long-charging and heavy-hitting attacks; and the Incubators, which are Dune-like worms that come out of the ground and made me uncomfortable the first time I faced them. There isn't a lot of variety in terms of foes, and it feels less so in combat, as you'll only really face the Chasers and Gazers, with the Crawlers and Incubators being less common foes that are secluded to specific areas only.

Defeating enemies of both the human and monster kind feels a bit unrewarding and useless at times, as SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is sorely lacking an experience system or a better incentive to fight foes. Enders drop random materials that can be used for crafting, which is a plus side but means you'll be stuck farming them consistently and only for a limited time, and Bandits have very heavy items that, once you take them, will pretty much over-encumber your mech and force you to have to leave. The combat was fun and exhilarating, if not a bit punishing and demanding at times, as even one Ender can be the ender of your run and cost you several thousand of the currency. It was made far worse by the terrible server issues, and it raises a worry of how the game will be handled in that regard.

With such demanding combat and enemies, it's a relief to say that the PvP aspect of SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is not only pretty much nonexistent but also very much discouraged. If you attack fellow members of the association, you'll rack a bounty on your head and stop receiving as many quests from the association, pretty much halting your experience until you go "clean". It's a nice system that won't overly reward aggression, but the risk-reward of losing your life in PvP and being banned from the association due to your actions makes PvP feel unfeasible and pretty much a waste of spent resources. Aside from the stress of wondering whether I'd be betrayed by my peers in the Northern Zone as we mined AO Crystals or stumbled upon one another by accident, PvP served no other purpose than to give me critical levels of stress for no reason. 

No one — not once — broke the Drifter code, and we all played nice and friendly: we mined the AO Crystals together, we fought Bandits and Legendary Bandits (they give very heavy and expensive rewards) together, and we looted them together without altercations. Even the one time I shot a peer by accident was only responded with a wave as we both waited for the elevator to take us and our goods home so we could keep the grind. It's really a waste, as SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada feels like it won't benefit from PvP elements nearly as much as the enjoyable factor of cooperation, especially in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Death is punished hard by making you lose everything you have on you, including equipment and anything you scavenged. Though money is very easy to come across (as I ended my Beta run with 500,000 credits, where you'll be pretty much set for life if you have 50,000), dying can feel more like an obnoxious nuisance than a punishment. You'll be forced to go to the shop, purchase the CRADLECOFFIN parts you want again, your weapons, excavator, and then head out to the world to fight once again. It's great that the game doesn't have that much of a punishment for death aside from a waste of time, but it also works to discourage PvP and encourage cooperation, begging the question: why even fight one-another anyway?

My final and biggest complaint of it all, though, is the way that the traversal system is done in its entirety. Each CRADDLECOFFIN has a set amount of carry weight that is going to be taken in part by your weapons, ammunition, healing items, and anything else you take to the field. At certain percentages of carry weight, your CRADDLECOFFIN loses its capability to sprint for as long, and it starts feeling unrewarding to pick up random objects from the ground, even if it's materials for something you want to do. A pipe weighing 100 (pounds? Kilos? I have no idea what kind of pipe weighs “100” but it does) meant I would often choose not to pick it up until I needed it so I could take more valuable items home, and it became a constant need to go back to the base because I had too many items on me. I didn't want to explore or pick stuff up, and for the most part, I started ignoring certain gameplay elements, like fighting Bandits, because I knew they were going to give me items that were too heavy for me to carry. Or I stopped surveying for AO Crystals (even though that's a Drifter's main job) because I knew I could get enough by randomly exploring, so the game quickly started becoming a fetch quest simulator, as any other activity was met with heavy items I didn't want to pick up, so why waste my precious ammo on fighting enemies when I could, just as easily, run like an absolute coward?

Likewise, the rain went from a scary foe to a nonexistent thing in the game pretty quickly, and I'm not sure that I like either outcome regardless. When I was terrified of the weather, I would spend my time stuck under a place that would offer me a roof in order to protect myself from the weather effects while wasting away my limited CRADDLECOFFIN battery, but once I lost fear of it and carried only one Sealing Kits to heal the weather damage taken, it felt like an unnecessary evil that existed. This, paired with being too heavy to run, meant I spent my time healing myself with a Sealing Kit during a storm to get to my destination.

The experience is abundant with things to do, even if they do get repetitive after a little bit, and I do have to admit that as I started playing more, I started liking it even better. You head out to get money to become stronger and to upgrade your Garage, which works as your base of operations. You can remodel some areas to make them prettier (or as pretty as a post-apocalyptic base can look) and sometimes get benefits; heading out to the world to farm materials for upgrades was definitely a highlight of the experience. I started getting this feeling of "one more Sortie" because I wanted to get my item or finish my quest or kill one more Legendary enemy and save more Maguses to hoard more money. The better I got, the more I wanted to head out again, and the less stress I felt, the more I wanted to explore the Northern Zone and find materials without being stressed.

Despite that negative first impression, it starts becoming quite evident that SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is a title that has a few merits up its sleeve. Though it's sorely lacking in story, and the gameplay starts becoming repetitive after just a few hours in, it's hard to deny that it's quite enjoyable to head out into the world, gather materials, and return. The short sessions created a "one more Sortie" mentality that ensured I kept playing and playing, and before I knew it, it was dark outside. I'd spent 10 hours playing the game in one sitting, and I'd quite enjoyed it.

Is it perfect? No. It has a repetitive loop and the performance issues (both server and FPS) left something to be desired. I have my doubts and worries about how this will work as a multiplayer experience moving forward as the world starts getting too full... or too empty. Though it sorely lacks the narrative and story charm of its anime counterpart, and it could have done with a bit more variety in quests, the straightforward goals meant I was happy venturing out and exploring more. There are a lot of tweaks to be made — after all, this is a beta experience first and foremost. But I do leave slightly optimistic for the full release.