SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada Shows Some Promise in Closed Network Test - Impressions

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I am a huge fan of Bandai Namco's titles, and it's hard not to love them, especially as someone who loves anime. While they are known for making some of the biggest anime and JRPG games (shoutout to the Tales of series), they tend to publish some games I wouldn't have expected from them. SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada is one of these games. I wouldn't have expected them to go into the PvPvE extraction shooter area, but at the same time, it feels like one of their games, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Recently, I was given the chance to partake in the closed network test that took place over the last three days, and I had a damn good time playing it! On top of that, I am happy to say that it IS working on the Steam Deck, even though performance is not up to par yet. I have seen reports that say it wasn't working on the Deck, but I am glad that these were inaccurate.

SYNDUALITY is an extraction shooter and really feels like one. If you have played Escape From Tarkov, ZERO Sievert, or Hunt: Showdown, you will know exactly what to expect. You go into an online map with equipment, try to get the best loot you can, and then escape the map with it. If you die, you lose all of your picked up loot and the equipment you brought with you, so you have to play safe and be aware or else you could lose everything.

The game takes that formula and puts a nice spin on it. I love the sci-fi, apocalyptic setting the game uses in such a colorfully vibrant planet. Locations were pretty interesting to run through, and the colors of the world popped, especially on the OLED screen of the Steam Deck. I liked going around to see the different parts of the world and how it would light up on the screen, and as always with these settings, it was interesting seeing what developer Game Studio Inc.'s version of a ruined Earth looks like.

Gameplay takes place from within a mech that can withstand the harsh climate out in the world now. These mechs are more grounded than the ones we have seen in games like Armored Core or Mecha BREAK, so you won't be flying around. Instead, you are tasked with gathering crystals and defending yourself against monsters roaming around and/or other players trying to take them.

While you take two different weapons and equipment, an excavator, and different equipment with you, you also have a Magus. This is an AI partner that helps you out in various ways. It can help you find crystals, detect the weather, and give you some abilities to help you survive combat. These can include force fields to protect against acid rain or a special weapon to shoot multiple targets at once. I love this mechanic, and I think it's really cool to see your humanoid AI, which you can visually customize pretty extensively. It will help you out and fly next to you.

Once you escape, you get currency and your new equipment and go back to equipping your mech. You can use the currency to buy new equipment, which can be in the form of new weapons, repair kits, ammo, and parts to outfit your mech. There are three different mech parts you can equip that can increase weather resistance, durability, and speed. I like this system so far, though there are limited options for now due to this being a test, but there are also going to be ways to upgrade your home base.

Performance on the Steam Deck, however, is not so great, and I think the test is geared more toward PlayStation. Not only did we have no graphical options, only giving us a "Prioritize Quality" or "Prioritize Framerate" option, but the gamepad icons that showed up were all PlayStation. I didn't see an option to switch this, but I may have missed it.

On the map, at "Prioritize Framerate" mode, SYNDUALITY will range from 14-24 FPS, depending on where we are on the map and how intense the fight is, at native resolution. I was able to get this to a mostly stable 30 FPS by forcing the resolution down to 800x500 on Steam, and with the SteamOS FSR, the game still looked pretty good on the smaller screen. There were still some drops here and there, but it was still playable in this state. With this being a test, I expect more optimizations to come in prior to the full release and being able to fine-tune graphical settings, and if so, I could see this being an awesome extraction shooter to play on the go!

I have hope for SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada. I really enjoyed the world that has been built and felt the combat is pretty solid so far. I also like how you interact with the Magus to change the tide of battle and help you survive. It doesn't feel as high-octane as games like Escape From Tarkov, but it's still quite fun in itself.

SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada can be wishlisted now on Steam.

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