Synduality Echo of Ada Review in Progress

The first time I lost my mech in Synduality Echo of Ada was on my second sortie, and lot of things went wrong. I didn’t buy insurance beforehand and I took way too much stuff out with me because I hit the wrong button, and then I chose not to take a moment to repair right before I got into the encounter that killed me. I made a series of avoidable mistakes followed by a bad decision, and this mech-flavored extraction shooter made sure I lost everything I had for it – so it’s a good sign that, after I was done cursing Synduality and then myself, I was immediately excited to try and get it all back. I have much more to do and see before I am ready for a final review, but that trial by fire will certainly stick with me until the end.

Synduality has a pretty cool premise: In the far future, humanity has been nearly wiped out by a mysterious blue rain called the Tears of the New Moon. In addition to killing humans on contact, the blue rain also made animals and plants gigantic and aggressive. To survive, society has moved underground and adopted the use of enormous mechs called Cradlecoffins to explore the surface world and gather energy-producing AO Crystals to survive. You step into the role of a nameless, faceless Drifter — someone who pilots a Cradlecoffin. Your goal? Get up there, get the things you need to upgrade your base and make some cash, and get out before the locals turn your Cradlecoffin into a grave.

Cradlecoffins aren’t your traditional mechs. They’re slower than something you’d find in Armored Core – though similarly armed, as they’re still bipedal and wield weapons – but faster than the behemoths you’d see in MechWarrior. Ready for a deep cut? They’re actually a lot like the mechs from 2002’s Phantom Crash, which is to say they are a nice balance of being reasonably fast but still heavy and limited in terms of, shall we say, vertical mobility. Armored Core mechs can dunk like Jordan. Cradlecoffins got no ups.

But you’re not alone. In addition to your mech, you’ve got a Magus — think a humanoid AI you can fully customize and play dress up with — helping to guide you when you’re out on the surface by marking objectives on your map, alerting you to threats, and even keeping track of the weather. You can be as normal or as strangely intimate as you want about the creation process, though it kinda seems as if Synduality assumes you’re more likely to pick a robo-girlfriend than a robo-boyfriend based on the clothing choices available. (Even the AI-controlled Cradelcoffins have robo-girlfriends.) There are several different personalities to choose from, including supportive mentor lady, demure, eager-to-please girl; encouraging big brother, and spicy athlete who just wants you to be the best version of yourself. They’re a weirdly likeable little crew — I chuckled when my spicy athlete robo-girlfriend essentially told me to stop whining and eat my veggies (read: weeds that we had removed from the base) or she’d beat me up. And since they’re the only companion you’ll have for most of your time with Synduality, their presence is welcome.

In addition to their clothes and look, you can also customize the special abilities and focus of your Magus, whether that’s finding AO Crystals, providing more info about different Enders (the name for that superpowered flora and fauna I talked about earlier), or giving you the low-down on the other Cradlecoffins you’ll run into once you pop out on the surface. So far I’ve liked both the one that’s good at protecting me from the evil rain and the one who has a knack for spotting other Cradlecoffins at range because hearing another engine in this game is stressful, but I appreciate that you can tailor your Magus to assist you be the best Drifter you wanna be.

You’ll run into other players in Synduality’s world, but in my experience, most of them aren’t out there to kill you and take your things. Usually, an encounter with another player means the two of you being very cagey, aiming your guns at each other, until one of you finally uses the wave emote. Then the other returns it and you both go on your way. It’s admittedly tense, and an extraction shooter like this should be, because you’re never more than a single insurance-less run away from losing all your things. The whole “we’re all working together to help humanity” thing sets up that cautious camaraderie, but there is always the danger that someone’s gonna see your shiny shotgun and think “I want that and I don’t wanna work for it,” so… you know. This does seem (so far) like a kinder, gentler extraction shooter, but you should still be careful around other people, even if they do the wave emote.

Managing each mission means making a lot of interesting choices. How far from the elevators that bring you to and from the safety of the underground are you willing to venture? What kind of materials are you looking to collect for your base, and how much are you going to risk to get them? How much ammo will you head out with? What kind of mech? Will you prioritize carrying capacity or defense? All of these choices matter, and you may regret your words and deeds when you’re sitting at low health with no repair kits, far away from an elevator in a world where everything wants to kill you.

So far Synduality has mostly just been this loop played over and over again, but it’s at least an amusing one, with a little bit of fun base building and dress-up in-between that I haven’t had a chance to dig too deeply into yet. What’s less amusing are the microtransactions and battle pass (we live in hell!) that can speed up the process of getting a better Cradlecoffin substantially despite this not being a free-to-play game. You get almost nothing in the free track of that pass, which is a standard-issue problem to some degree, but I’ll need to play more to see how much these systems feel like they impact the overall pace of progression without spending any money. I don’t think I would have all the nice things I have now, which replaced the stuff I lost, if I didn’t have that battle pass.

I am at least enjoying Synduality for now, though I have yet to unlock the single-player missions or the second map. Once I put some time into those, expand my base, and just generally Do More Stuff, I’ll have a better idea of where Synduality falls. Until then, I’ll be out in the world, trying not to die too much. Buy insurance, kids. It’s a scam, but it may save your life – or, at least, your mech.