nlineThe End of Echoes of the End
Echoing a more traditional adventure
I was hesitant at first when I first saw the ‘Echoes’ trailer, assuming it was another AA studio attempt at a souls-like. Viewing the physics-based magical manipulation during combat, as your character lifted environmental objects and smashed them against an enemy, as well as lifting enemies and colliding them with other foes, the mechanic intrigued me enough to give it a go.
The premise has your character, Ryn imbued with a residual magical energy denoting her as a limited mage or “vestige”. Once her power has been mastered she can control larger items in the world, move ancient mechanisms, shift crumbling stone structures and employ her manipulative talents in combat - stunning, shocking,throwing and pelting them as well as engaging her swordplay in combination. Part Viking, part Battlemage, part Jedi.
I settled into the early stages of play, as it linearly exposed the premise of the story, piecing together the lore in exposition and journal entries and opening up the platforming and puzzle elements. Guiding the player through the mechanics set to a gorgeous visual backdrop from a believeable Icelandic fantasy world. The rendering of this world itself was a lure for me to carry on.
Interesting traversal with some collision jank
In contrast to the usual open world ‘Echoes’ had me skipping along a more traditional path that felt more like comfort food. Explore what you can, dip into elusive nooks and crannies to find lore and important progression rewards. With enough explorative scrutiny the path and traversal methods where brought to your attention in a naturally paced way.
My main gripe* with the game centered around dubious collision detections during some of the more elaborate platforming tasks.
In lengthy tomb-raider-esque sections, jumps from rotating hanging frames on spinning water wheels where precarious enough when trying to reach magically extruded platforms with a timer. Often a mid-air rotation would have you appear to land on the edge engaging the usual ‘climb up’ routine, but would have Ryn skating over a fussy collision box and falling off to her death instead.
Failed platform manoeuvers would result in a checkpoint restart with a small amount of health lost, which isn’t too drastic a penalty. But over time, these slight inconsistencies amongst an otherwise enjoyable platforming section could seriously wear away at your patience and resilience to continue. With enough determination you could get through it, trial and error, but the frustrations over time would raise the spectre of a rage-quit.
Satisfying spell-bladery
If you had only your sword, the game would present a satisfactory fight - however when your combo swings and twirls, or perfect parries and evades are interwoven skillfully with your magical prowess, the game weaves a merry blade dance feeding your interdictions and finishes with the gravity and weight (often literally) of a wrecking ball. Perhaps feeling similar to a basketball alley-oop. Very satisfying.
You befriend an ally later on in the game and they become yet another tool in your playbook, to stun or hold enemies in a more supportive way. Your mana is limited and often requires charging up once spent, so your magery requires some measure of restraint - imposing a tactical decision process throughout every encounter.
You can alleviate this issue a little, by gaining skills that allow you to charge your mana during basic melee attacks or with perfect parries. Thankfully, as you transition between combat arenas and new platform or puzzle zones there are stone cairns where you can absorb the world’s latent mana and perform an auto game save.
Delightfully puzzling through patience
Some of the more enjoyable sections within the game are it’s puzzles.
As you step into a platforming puzzle zone, there is a breathing space for exploration, mechanical investigation and spatial reasoning.
All parts of the area need to be gradually scouted and assessed, recognising known platforming mechanics and detecting newly introduced environmental manipulation techniques. Throughout the length of the entire game, newer mechanics are brought into play keeping these sections fresh along with gained familiarity.
I don’t want to spoil the more esoteric mechanics brought later on in the game, but to summarise generally, they involve magical handling of physical, illusionary and time based effects to illuminate a path forward.
The feeling of apprehension for the unknown and the discovery, elucidation and mastery of these mechanics delivers a satisfying reward of unlocking the areas secrets and appreciating its nuances and cleverness of design. This never got old for me. Some where truly a challenge, but one in which more studying and thought would always lead you through.
A Vestigial Summary
Overall I enjoyed my 25 hours plus time with ‘Echoes’, it was a much appreciated return to a more traditionally structured gaming experience. A finite scoped, well told, beautifully rendered fantasy adventure, with magicks, manipulation, heroic battle and gratifying puzzles. Characters with personalities and empathy, grit and determination.
* A day after I finished the game, the developers released an “Enhanced Edition” upgrade for free. Given its poor reception on initial release, the developers listened to the feedback from the players and have implemented a number of changes in an attempt to make it a more enjoyable experience.
Reviewing the enhancements, it sounds as if my gripes with platforming and floaty collisions may have been addressed. They’ve souped up the graphics and animations, added more character costume customisations and they’ve reworked skill upgrade progression and timing. They released a video detailing the enhancements:
So perhaps, at some point, I’ll have to revisit the game and see how enhanced it is now. If the platforming issues can be kept in check, I’d welcome more combat in this fantastical world.
Did I mention that the soundtrack is enjoyable, this track had me all melancholic and emotional at the end of the game. Bergmál by lúpína
Check out the developers site for more information about the game: