ADACA is an Indie Retraux Science Fiction First-Person Shooter by one-person developer Siris Pendrake, made on Unreal Engine 4 and released on PC via Steam on July 25th, 2022. Unlike most indie Retraux FPS games, which are influenced by 90's FPS like Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, etc., ADACA is heavily inspired by FPS of the early-to-mid 2000's, most prominently Half-Life 2 and Halo with a healthy dose of S.T.A.L.K.E.R..
In the main story campaign, players take the role of non-binary protagonist Jessi Thorn, a conscripted debt-slave soldier for a space MegaCorp who wakes up to find that while they were in cryosleep their ship crashed centuries ago on the mysterious planet of Adaca, home to strange unnatural anomalies and a multi-faction war between peaceful collectivist workers, brutal totalitarian cops, ruthless corporate mercenaries, and a deranged cult of machine-human hybrids known as the Conflux. Jessi, whose cryogenically atrophied arm has been replaced by a telekinetic cyborg one by friendly Mad Scientist Dr. Chops, finds themselves allying with the communal workers, known as the Free Scrappers, against the other factions, eventually delving into the heart of the Anomaly Zone in search of the Conflux's machine god.
A second game mode, known as Zone Patrol, has you exploring the Zone as corporate soldier Lexi Abrams in a more non-linear open-world experience.
ADACA provides examples of:
- The Battlestar: The cop battle cruiser hangs high in the sky above Adaca and has the ability to deploy large numbers of Orbital Drop pods and troop transport craft, and at one point even bombards your position with artillery barrages.
- Boss in Mook's Clothing:
- The Conflux's most powerful Husk is more than twice as large as a normal human and equipped with an energy scythe for an arm as well as a shoulder-mounted explosive launcher. They appear as a Mini-Boss-like encounter at several points in the later levels of Episode 2.
- A number of humanoid Anomalies appear in Zone Patrol mode, who act as miniboss-like encounters which are much tougher than anything you fight in the main story campaign.
- Cliffhanger: Like The Long Dark, even though ADACA is fully out of Steam Early Access, it currently ends on a cliffhanger at the end of Episode 2, with an Episode 3 planned for some point in the future to conclude the story. The 3rd and final Episode was finally released on February 27th, 2024, two years after the game's initial full release.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The game has each individual enemy type be visually different based on what weapon they use; for example, pistol-wielding cops have blue goggle lens, smg-wielding cops have orange lens, shotgun-wielding cops have white armor with red lens, Heavies and snipers have their own character models, etc.
- Damage Reduction: The Husks with deer skulls for heads and blades for arms can use their arm blades to partially deflect bullets, allowing them to take quite a lot of firepower before going down. They can be killed much more quickly by throwing objects at them with your telekinetic arm.
- Deflector Shields: Jessi can pick up batteries to partially charge a personal energy shield, and several of the Elite Mooks of various factions have personal energy shields as well. Such shields do not regenerate, and batteries are uncommon enough that you'll almost never be running around with a 100% full shield. However, even a partially charged shield will let you take a couple more hits than you normally could with just your health bar.
- Elite Mooks: Orbital Drop cops (whose armor strongly resembles SPARTAN armor) show up in orbital drop pods, are equipped with heavier weaponry such as plasma rifles or grenade cannons, and have energy shields to increase their durability. To a lesser degree there are the cops armed with carbines, who start showing up in squads towards the end of episode 2. They're a bit tougher than regular cops and their carbines hit harder than the pistols and smgs the starter cops were equipped with. The Conflux also has tougher units with energy shields armed with various explosive weaponry. In Episode 3, at one point the Conflux sends a couple squads of green military robots at you; they're tougher and much more aggressive than most normal enemies and can be a very challenging fight, especially as there's a lack of healing items or extra ammo in the area you fight them.
- Expy: The cops are essentially Half Life 2's Combine with the
Serial Numbers Filed Off. The Free Scrappers are likewise heavily reminiscent of the Resistance, with Kelly clearly being a stand-in of Alyx. - The Faceless: Almost all characters wear goggles and some form of mask to conceal their face. The Free Scrappers wear scarves or cloth masks, the mercs wear night vision goggles and cloth masks, the cops are Gas Mask Mooks, and the Conflux wear assorted masks often shaped like animal skulls.
- Featureless Protagonist: Jessi Thorn is a Silent Protagonist with a Gender-Blender Name and, besides being a First-Person Ghost, is depicted on the main menu as wearing a work overall uniform that completely covers their entire body, with googles, a scarf, and a hat completely concealing their head and face. They are explicitly described as non-binary, as well.
- Glass Cannon: The Final Boss of the game is the leader of the Cops, who's referred to alternatively as Detective and Warden throughout Episode 3, and his 2 bodyguards. They're a bit tougher than regular enemies (it takes 2 RPG shots to kill one of them), but not by a huge amount, but what really makes them dangerous is the fact they're armed with laser magnums and can kill you in just a few shots even with full health and shields.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Among the cops are a number of Heavies who wield machine guns and are wearing heavy armor that lets them soak several times as much damage as regular cops before going down. One variant carries a fusion cannon and has energy shielding on top of their heavy armor, and is fought as a sort of Mini-Boss fight towards the end of episode 2.
- Heroic Neutral: In Zone Patrol, even though Lexi is technically a Corpo soldier, Free Scrapper squads will leave her alone as long as she doesn't attack them.
- Homage: The game's character design, story, and gameplay are heavily inspired by Half-Life 2, with a telekinetic arm heavily inspired by the gravity gun being central to the game's core gameplay. Weapon design is also heavily inspired by Halo, with an open-world Anomaly Zone inspired by S.T.A.L.K.E.R..
- Limited Loadout: The game has a Halo-style 2 weapon loadout limit, although unlike Halo you can also carry a sidearm in addition to your 2 primary weapons.
- Manipulative Bastard: The ending of Episode 3 indicates that the whole game was the Cairo A.I. manipulating everyone, including the Conflux and the Mercenaries (it was apparently their mystery client), in order to get itself hooked up to the mysterious ancient portal and bring Jessi to the portal so they could be recruited by the A.I.'s "employer", an Expy of the G-Man (who is also apparently the employer of the Cops).
- Mêlée à Trois: Adaca is being fought over by a number of mutually hostile factions, including the cops, mercenaries, Conflux, and local wildlife. A third faction will often interrupt while the player and their allies are engaged in a firefight with one of the other hostile factions.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They're human corpses with robot heads crudely replacing their original heads, created by the Conflux and known as "husks" or "homunculi".
- Shout-Out:
- Much of the game's plot elements are clear call-outs to Half L Ife 2
- The code to the Cop's ship armory in Episode 3 is 0451.
- Stone Wall: In one of the final levels of Episode 3, you go through a dark cave occupied by some kind of stone human figures with stone blocks for heads. They can take a ton of damage, but are limited to melee attacks and move at a fairly slow speed. It's actually best just to run past them all to the next level.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite playing a major role in the first two episodes, Kelly is nowhere to be found in episode 3, with Lexi Abrams from Zone Patrol showing up in the last few levels to serve as your ally instead.
