Synduality: Echo of Ada Review (Hommnom)
I find so many of the negative reviews for this game absolutely baffling.
The only people who can play and review this right now (prior to Jan 23rd) are those who preordered either the Deluxe edition ($70) or Ultimate edition ($100), both of which include a week of "advanced access". I'm finding myself somewhat surprised at how many people apparently dropped that much cash on a game while knowing literally nothing about it. I'd like to touch on a few of the "complaints" that keep popping up, which a few minutes of research would have shown are simply part of the game.
1) Yes, it's a PvPvE extraction game. Yes, that means you lose your gear if you die. I genuinely don't understand how you could get this far and not know that. For those of us who enjoy this genre, though, that's not a bug; it's a feature. And yet, this is also the friendliest and most chill extraction game I've ever played, in a way that makes it really unique within the genre. Hold that thought for now.
2) Yes, it's a paid game with a paid battle pass. No, you can't act surprised about that if you bought the Deluxe or Ultimate edition; the battle pass is literally part of what you paid for. We can debate whether or not a paid battle pass in a non-FTP game is ethical, but you're not really making a statement against it if you've already bought it.
3) No, you can't form a party with your friends. I'll admit, the game doesn't really go out of its way to advertise this, because they (presumably) know that's going to be a dealbreaker for a lot of people. But if you were planning on playing solo, and you're tired of basically every other extraction game being balanced around group play (even if it has some sort of solo queue that always feels like an afterthought), boy have I got some good news for you. This is our game.
There are also a few complaints that do have some merit to them. Performance could be better; having played the beta on both PC and PS5, I can say that the game is definitely better optimized for console. In fact, there's a lot about the game that makes it clear this is a so-so console port. There aren't many graphics options to adjust; the UI and menus are definitely geared towards controller use; and there's sort of a weird floatiness to mouse input that'll probably drive you crazy if you're a serious M+KB FPS player. On the plus side, if you do prefer playing games with a controller, this one's great. While I do wish there were settings for stick deadzones, I still prefer controller here overall, and the game isn't so sweaty that I feel like I'm at a huge disadvantage vs. M+KB players.
Also, the elephant in the room: the preorder bonus, the DAISYOGRE mech. Obviously, this won't affect you if you're reading this a week from now, but if you are, don't feel like you missed anything. It's just a blue-rarity mech that you can lose if you die with it equipped, just like any other (which is apparently shocking to people), but you also get the blueprints to make it yourself towards the end of the battle pass, so it's not gone forever if you do lose it. It was a mistake for it to be the preorder bonus, though, because regardless of whether you use it or sell it for a boatload of cash, you're depriving yourself of the normal early-game progression. It's fun starting with a crappy, grey-rarity JACKBOX and no cash, and working your way up to bigger and better things...at least, provided you have no frame of reference for just how crappy that starting JACKBOX is. I can't imagine throwing on my fancy blue mech right away, losing it, and then having to go back. If you're preordering, I highly recommend just leaving that DAISYOGRE in your garage until you're at a point in the game where you've got other blue mechs to use.
Now, the good. I'm running out of room, so this part is sadly going to be a lot shorter, but let me just say that I love this game, and you might too if you're a certain type of player. If you like the idea of extraction games (emergent gameplay and "watch-your-back" temporary alliances) more than the reality of most of them (kill on sight), this game is for you. Even if you're not huge on the PvP portion of PvPvE, it might still be worth a shot, because this game does something clever that I haven't really seen before.
It essentially groups players into two factions; by default, you're in what might as well be the PvE faction, but if you start killing other players, you'll get a bounty on your head and switch over to the PvP faction (and even get exiled to a separate PvP-focused map, at least at first). What this means is that if you're in the Association (the PvE faction) and on the starting map, you'll generally only run into other Association members, and everyone is really, really friendly for an extraction game. So far, I've only died once, when I stupidly tried to bum a ride in an extraction elevator with a Cautionary Association Member (someone who has killed, and will switch factions if they keep doing so). Every other encounter has been a friendly wave hello, and then either going our separate ways, helping each other out for a bit, or even teaming up for a dynamically generated co-op mission. Meanwhile, if you prefer PvP, just kill a few players, switch factions (and maps), and you'll get your fill. It's a really cool system, and it's what makes the game unique.
And yeah, I guess you have to at least be okay with mechs and anime waifus. Just...don't buy the game solely because you like mechs and anime waifus, without knowing anything else about it, as so many people have clearly done. (I guess publishers should take note on what makes a certain subset of gamers blindly throw money at something.) But if you go into this knowing what to expect, and you're cool with what this game actually is, you might really enjoy it. There's nothing else quite like it out there.