I’m a sucker for games that involve exploring, shooting, collecting, and repeating. It’s the reason I stayed with Destiny so long, even though it has become very unplayable as of late. So unplayable.
Anyway, I bumped into another game of the Destiny type called Synduality: Echo of Ada from developer Game Studio Inc. and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game has all the above attributes that drive it, plus it has a mech component and a building system that could only make a Gundam fan happy. While the pieces and parts of the gameplay have the right intention, the execution just isn’t there quite yet.
Synduality: Echo of Ada gives the player quite a few ways to play but doesn’t make the gameplay interesting enough to maintain the gameplay intention. There are lots of ways to customize your mech, your helper, and even your home. However, the missions seem to be a bit empty on content and delivery, as you are mostly just scouring maps looking for items and objectives, while occasionally running into repeating enemies. The fix to make this a better game isn’t tough, but the vanilla version of it right now isn’t enough to maintain constant attention or interest. Honestly, this is how Destiny started back in 2014. The structure is there, now it just needs more meaningful content.
Let’s get right into it.
Story and setup
The story for Synduality: Echo of Ada revolves around a broken and decimated world. Humans have nearly gone extinct thanks to a mysterious and deadly rain called The Tears of the New Moon. Those who have survived have made it underground and scavenge for resources to compete for survival. Their enemies are each other and mutated beasts that are equally desperate for resources as well…mainly you.
To be blunt, the story is everything with games of this type. If you can’t hook your player into the situation, the world, and its characters, then you won’t have much hope to keep them. It’s probably the only reason people still revisit Destiny 2 when expansions arrive because the gameplay certainly isn’t the attraction any more.
Anyway, Synduality: Echo of Ada has a great narrative foundation, where it is easy to buy into the situation and understand the parallel stakes between the story and gameplay. It feels like good sci-fi and delivers a consistent push to keep you in the world it has built. I can dig this story, and I can see somewhere down the road where you can expand it and make it far deeper.
In other words, it’s an easy connective world to be a part of in the game.
Gameplay issues
On the surface, this game is easy to understand. The players have a scout called a Magus that hangs with their mech, and spots/detects enemies as they approach. The player controls the mech which consists of a few gameplay attributes that are typical for this type of game.
The mech has multiple weapons that it can use during battle, all bought or earned when the player is back at base. Leveling for new weapons, meaning ranking up, isn’t too difficult, as you are given objectives to achieve that translate to XP. Once weapons open, you can equip them, adjust them, and use various ammo with them. In the beginning, the player gets to carry two, which are swappable. Just like a player would use Destiny’s triangle button to swap weapons, Synduality: Echo of Ada’s mech works the same way. The player can also purchase weapons in a shop with earned coins, though some of the weapon prices are a bit up there.
I enjoyed the ease of use with weapons at the start of the game. The devs made the game feel familiar and intuitive, which made getting right into battles super-duper easy. I don’t necessarily mind that you must unlock weapons or acquire them in the game’s shop, as it feels like it’s a journey either way, and gameplay is still kept as the main focus of obtaining such things. It’s also a good motivating factor to keep playing the game, as some of the weapons are interesting as heck.
As for moving the mech around, it feels mechanical, as it should, and intuitive. The player’s mech can jump, walk, and slide-sprint around levels, the latter of which is useful when the Magus detects danger. The slide-sprinting is finite, as each mech is given a stamina bar that gradually builds. If the player doesn’t pay attention to that bar, then the mech could overheat, which makes running away from danger impossible. It’s a good hindrance that adds some strategy to battle approaches.
Speaking of battles, this one felt a bit empty. The game runs on a PvPvE backbone, which means the player should occasionally run into actual human-driven enemies. You’ll notice on the first map, once you get beyond the tutorial, that you’ll run into more computer-driven enemies that aren’t that tough in comparison to actual other players. When you do run into other players, especially early in the game, you’ll find that the battles are a bit more engaging but also just a little bland. The biggest advantage you will have in early battles is based on who can reload the fastest. While that creates intensity, moving and hiding while reloading is your best bet for success.
The game makes battles feel like the stakes are high. That feeling isn’t wrong. If you are defeated in battle, then you lose what you collected during your exploration. Losing that collection means that you’re not bringing goods back to the base. Not bringing goods collected back to the base means that you can’t earn XP and progress. It all tumbles and progression can be tough if the player continually loses. But that is the name of the game. Explore, battle, collect, and progress. Battling and surviving can be tense, which forces constant focus on the action and potential strategy with battle approaches. I like that forced focus and I think it does make an otherwise dull back-and-forth battle a bit more worthwhile.
Coming back to the exploration aspect of Synduality: Echo of Ada, I found this to be the most interesting part of the game. While battling and surviving is fine, traversing large landscapes for goods is what makes the world come to life. The more time you can spend in an environment getting to know it, the more you can understand the ins and outs of it, which translates to other gameplay aspects, especially battling. While the levels in the game are huge, they can be visually repetitive but the sheer girth of them helps keep away any ongoing dullness.
At the end of the day, I enjoy the mech battles and the environment. I’m glad I don’t have to feel like I’m in a classroom learning a thousand things to fight. I like the stakes in the game as well, as they make exploring a more cautious adventure, as well as preparation before departure. There are a lot of good things to appreciate about the gameplay, but I do wish there was a bit more to make the content hit home better. One of the better parts of Destiny is that the story connects and drives the action. The action is intense and outrageous yet never feels slow and dull. Pushing the action and making it a spectacle of sorts helps Destiny cover its flaws most of the time. It certainly makes doing things more meaningful, especially when it comes to exploring and going up against enemies.
Synduality: Echo of Ada has the structure and potential to take things in that direction and to step the battles up and make them more chaotic and faster. I think the speed of the battles bothers me the most, especially early in the game.
Other aspects of gameplay
Now, you just don’t leave a base and go battling for no reason. Requests for assistance are sent to your Magus as you progress in the game. The requests give you goals, the goals help keep the gameplay interesting, which translates to a more engaging experience. These are typical of this type of game and they help to fend off any mundane moments that might creep up. I dig this type of mission progression and think it works well for Synduality: Echo of Ada.
Continuing with going out on a mission, the initial start of the game is slow with tasks and sometimes confusing thanks to a somewhat confusing HUD. Synduality: Echo of Ada’s HUD is simple, yet too simple at times. I found myself wandering through maps from point to point forgetting why I was there in the first place. The game doesn’t often remind you where you should be heading, though I’m sure that is intentional because the devs seem like they want you to discover rather than to be told. Regardless, walking around aimlessly in the game is bound to happen. If you enjoy getting lost in the weeds sometimes, then you’ll be in heaven. For me, I like having some directions and reminders about the mission I’m on without having to pause the game and go into a menu.
Moving on, the other big aspect of Synduality: Echo of Ada’s gameplay is customization. As you earn XP, gather coins, or collect material, you can customize nearly everything in the game, including your home base. Yes, you can customize your Magus, and mech, and build out your home base. This is yet another gameplay ingredient for this type of game, as customization adds more motivation to keep playing and makes the gameplay experience feel like an individual and unique experience. Of course, if you’re not completely sold on that idea, then it may mean nothing to the gameplay experience for you.
Early adoption
I remember how Destiny and No Man’s Sky went through hell and back during their initial launch window. They were incredibly vanilla at launch and people had a right to complain, especially with the latter of the two. The devs for No Man’s Sky promised the world/universe to the player but under-baked the launched game. That said, both games have grown, especially NMS. Right now, NMS is one of the best and most diverse gameplay experiences on every platform. That is a huge difference from where it began.
Both above games had room to grow and showed signs of gaps that were going to be filled in the future. Getting an early, somewhat disappointing version of a game that you might have been looking forward to is sometimes just a way for devs to figure out what players were hoping for in the initial release. I think that is the case here with Synduality: Echo of Ada.
I feel like Synduality: Echo of Ada has room to grow and there are signs that it could be a lot bigger and better than it currently is right now. I can see that with its structure, as it shows room for bigger pieces to arrive and make that world more defined and engaging sometime in the future. As it stands right now, I think the first version is good at a base level but not great by any means. Given more time, and much like No Man’s Sky, I’m hopeful the title will improve and the publisher will give the devs more room to make this an outstanding experience.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Synduality: Echo of Ada from developer Game Studio Inc. has the potential to be bigger and better than it currently is with the initial release. As it stands now, the gameplay is a bit bland with battles, the exploration needs to create more motivation to give players more meaningful substance, and bigger story pieces that could help players connect with the gameplay. Given time, this game could be outstanding.
