Echoes of the End has a development story that is compelling. It is a small team from Iceland, a country that is mostly known for Eve Online in the gaming sphere. The team is punching way above their weight with a presentation on their game that is fantastic.
This is the kind of thing that I normally latch on to, it feeds into my desire to see indie teams thrive. However, I found myself about halfway through the game inside a gorgeously rendered cavern and the companion character quipped: “Hopefully the next two sections aren’t as hard as that last one!”
Ryn, the protagonist, sighed and said that she doubted that would be the case.
I felt that weariness in my bones, it mirrored my experience so completely with playing Echoes of the End that I had to turn the game off and go do something else for a bit.
Anyway, I should probably say what the game actually is.
Echoes of the End is a third-person action game, set in the world of Aema. The back story is that a cataclysm occurred, and the humans are reliant on giant stone constructs called wards to protect them.
The opening cinematic shows that ne’er-do-wells are aiming to change that by destroying the wards using magical powers. As this is happening the player takes control Ryn who is on a patrol with her brother near this event.
The dialogue between the two siblings – as they traverse platforms, solve light puzzles and hack up a few monsters – does a good job of introducing the dynamics of the characters and the world. Ryn is still recovering from the death of her father, and she fears the power within her. An event recently seems to be her fault and disfigured her brother by accident.
Their patrol is set against a stunning sky box. I feel like the dev team have taken inspiration from their home country and it is shown throughout with natural splendour displayed everywhere. Cristal lakes, snowy mountains, dense woods, and the aforementioned cavern. The art team have gone all out and there is granular detail in every part of the game. I will say that I am not sure the tech team are as up to the task of supporting these visions as sometimes things fail to render properly and there is a lot of assets that pop in and out depending on the camera positioning.
Once I got past how good the world of Echoes of the End was, I started to see a lot of cracks in its execution.
The gameplay is split into sections: fighting and platform puzzles.
The platforming felt very by-the-numbers, I was jumping, climbing and occasionally dashing but there was no sense of real tension. There was no spectacle to the traversal, and the slightly sluggish controls made any mishaps I had more of a chore than a challenge.
The same goes for the puzzles that litter each level, although they show some sparks of inspiration as they incorporate Ryn’s powers – this means she is able to push and pull giant objects, hold them in place. The developers just do nothing with these tools that I haven’t seen before, it is competent if I am being kind, and uninspired if I am being mean.
Being meaner – my feelings on the platforming are that they were just ‘so-so’, which better than the dread I felt getting into any significant moments of combat.
The move set is souls-lite, all of your usual attacks and parries. Again, Ryn’s powers could have been a highlight, but they feel squandered.
When I first started it seemed like it was going to be a fantasy-themed Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. Instead, the combat designer has come up with every opportunity to make Ryn’s kinetic abilities as tedious to use as possible. First, the control system is awkward and on a delay, it can still be fun to throw an enemy off a cliff, but it doesn’t feel intuitive. Then there is the mana meter, that drastically limits the use of powers, and it is really hard to recharge that meter without engaging in the very average hack and slash.
Sure, there are combos and specials but most of it falls apart when there are multiple enemies that need engaging with. There is no rhythm to it, and the AI likes to rush Ryn down, so most of the arena design is thrown out the window. It is so frustrating to fight 8 enemies in a tiny corridor and resort to cheap tricks.
Echoes of the End ends up in a situation where the dull platforming and puzzling ends up being preferable to the soul-draining combat.
It is so hard to be in this position where a game has sumptuous graphics, solid story and voice acting, but I just found myself disengaged and annoyed.
Conclusion
The tech art and art direction deserve commendation as Echoes of the End is frequently breathtaking. The gameplay design is similarly breathtaking but in the way that it sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
