SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada

I'd be one to root for this game the most I can just due to the mechas and TPS combat style. However, seeing how the game was released, I avoided it until recently when it went on -95% sale. And honestly, it might only be worth that much at best... This game has several issues, starting with an identity crisis. It's an extraction shooter with heavy focus on PvP, it might even have actual PvP if not for the world being virtually dead, I can only assume someone still plays in new areas. Even if the player count on the steam chart is just around 100. However You can not expect this game to give you any challenging PvE content despite being a PvPvE game. Not only are enemies weak, they are powered but the dumbest AI i've seen in years. But where's the identity crisis in this? It lays in game focusing overly on being played like an old mobile free to play title! You get a base, cute companion, you go on a mission to get cash and material, you upgrade stuff, repeat. It even includes real time counters for waiting until stuff is built that can go over 50 minutes! The only good part is that they can be skipped with low amounts of in-game money. However since it plays like an old f2p mobile game, of course it also has premium currency and a premium store! Many focus on the companion outfit and unlocking more of them for new personalities, however you will never unlock them all with gameplay! A full price game, locking you into the one chance you did at the very start when making your Magus and then showing you that there are actually more options in the premium cash show. I said locking and I DO MEAN IT, as the only way to change your magus is to buy a magus edit from the premium store for over 20€! Unlocking them with gameplay will maybe get you 4 more, just to get one of each ability, but you will lock each ability to that magus character and will only be able to use that personality with that skill, unless you buy a new one or an edit ticket with your real money, IN A FULL PRICE GAME. With that extraction of money, you can already be prepared to see that it also just includes a straight up pay to win mechanic of being able to just get the legendary variants of all the gear for the very start of the game. The whole system is rather insulting, gameplay is painfully repetitive with the limited extraction loop. I might at least say that controls and gunplay is good, but that doesn't mean much when there's no PvE to play or no players to PvP. Progression generally seems meaningless, reaching any story single player mission is a chore and missions themself aren't really that impressive. I'd probably would be more forgiving if the game at least worked and accommodated PCs properly. However, not only is the game locked to 16:9 aspect ratio like it's an Esport title with a strict anticheat in place, it has basically two graphics settings as if PCs are consoles. To add to that, the game barely runs with 60FPS on my better than average hardware with many dips below that. All while forcing me to either use TSR or no AA at all, since FXAA doesn't work. Making the whole thing a rather blurry mess or a pixelated mess. Looking at the history of development and updates, I'd feel devs don't really listen to players feedback and generally just do their own thing. No idea if it's because of the contracts or a whale hunt, but the whole game is sadly a wasted opportunity that will never achieve any of its potential. I bought it at -95% due to curiosity if it's really that bad and sadly I can only confirm it. It's pleasurable for the right person, but I can't see it being worth anything more than a few hours. Unless you really want to unlock all the story missions and see each corner of the map, you won't spend much time with it.