Echo Review
cre: Echo Review
Echo on PS4
Should I play stealth, sneaking back and forth to sneak past enemies while suffocating a few that block my path, or blaze weapons? Picking a certain style of play has always been my dilemma in stealth action games that give players the choice to approach every situation. To my surprise, Echo balances this mechanic perfectly by giving you the most dangerous enemy: yourself.
In Echo, you fight against enemies that have the appearance and traits of the protagonist En. Additionally, each enemy learns certain abilities that you perform through their breakdown cycle mechanic. When the lights are on, the palace records all actions performed by En. Break someone’s head with a drink? Strangled someone to death? Did you fire your gun? Good luck. You just taught them some dangerous moves. Once the palace systems have restarted, every enemy will know how to hit your head with a drink, choke you to death, and shoot you. Every enemy killed in the previous breakdown cycle will also respawn at the exact spot they died, now armed with deadlier skills.
Echo’s blackout system is also an unlearning process for the AI. Each system restart will only record actions taken in the previous light cycle, meaning enemies can be deadly predators in one light cycle and brain-dead AI in the next. This can lead to interesting game plans and scenarios. In a light cycle, I ran, punched and shot everyone in a crowded area. In the next one, I sneaked around, not only to avoid getting yelled at by skilled enemies, but also to have them unlearn their abilities.
In a way, Echo lets players control the difficulty of the game, but there are a lot of difficulty spikes and there’s no one to blame but yourself. Throughout its six to nine hour runtime, Echo remained a constant nerve-wracking mind game where you must consciously weigh the consequences of your actions. Even simple moves such as running, crouching, opening doors, and running down ledges can be learned by enemies. “Make as few actions as possible,” I thought to myself first after hearing about Echo’s blackout cycles, but before learning that the grand ornate marble interiors of the palaces are also home to Well-designed levels with each enemy strategically placed. to test my skills. It’s proof that Developer Ultra Ultra has talented developers who excel at game design, which you’d expect from a team made up of former Io Interactive employees who worked on the Hitman series. .
Doing as few actions as possible to make the game less difficult only seems easy on paper. Sometimes you have no choice but to open doors or cross water to reach your destination. However, it also creates more strategic options for players, forcing you to plan accordingly whether to perform a certain action before or immediately after each blackout cycle. The game also requires you to teach new skills to your enemies as it is a kill or be killed scenario once you are spotted, and outwitting them will prove difficult and likely result in your demise when you severely limit your actions.
Echo never fails to impress whenever the game accurately equips all enemies with the abilities you grant, even when traversing from sector to sector. Unfortunately, Echo doesn’t feel as polite as it should. Frame rate issues are apparent whenever there are a lot of echoes visible on the screen. A few power outages also coincided with the screen freezing for a few seconds, which seems disruptive for a stealth game where positioning and area awareness are crucial. These issues don’t creep in too often, but it’s certainly frustrating when they do.
AI pathing is also quite predictable as enemies strictly follow their patrol route. They are also deaf to the sound of your footsteps, which means players simply have to avoid their line of sight. However, Echo’s brilliance in AI programming shines once you’re spotted and give them more abilities. Whenever this happens, enemies leave their delegated positions and can explore more freely while still being efficient at their job hunting you down. Seeing enemies jump up and down or open doors was always fun and off-putting (in a good way).
In Echo, following your path carefully and becoming familiar with the layout of the levels is crucial due to the lack of a map in the game. In its place is a minimalist HUD that indicates enemy presence and your visibility to them. Worse still, once the palace begins to reboot its systems, its well-lit interiors go black with only a pair of flashlights equipped on the shoulders of En illuminating the way, making it difficult to see anything around. from you. This continuous reboot of the system is accompanied by a stellar sound design that makes the palace feel like a living, breathing entity. The reverberating, pulsing sound of the punchy bass also kicks in once the lights go down, accentuating the ghastly atmosphere. After the palace successfully restarts, the screen goes black. Before the lights come on, the game gives you plenty of time to think about if you accidentally positioned your character near a group of enemies.
While the breakdown cycle is a unique mechanic that revolutionizes the stealth genre, Echo’s gameplay fails to realize this potential. Unlike his other contemporaries, En lacks the finesse and fluidity of combat and quick stealth maneuvers of Metal Gear Solid’s Snake and Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher. En also doesn’t feel as satisfying to play due to its simplistic moves and abilities. Every action she performs is pretty straightforward, without the punch you’d expect from snapping someone’s neck or pushing them off a ledge. Gunplay also lacks complexity, using a gun that can kill all enemies in a straight line with a single bullet. As his movements are mirrored by enemies, the game can feel quite predictable and repetitive.
That doesn’t mean the gameplay isn’t enjoyable as its simplicity highlights the uniqueness of its game mechanics. However, when you repeatedly complete the same missions in the same palaces, it can get tiring. If the missions didn’t consist of repetitive orb gatherings, key acquisition objectives to open a door, and point-A-to-point-B tasks, Echo would have been enjoyable from start to finish. Still, the breakdown cycle mechanics are enough to spice up the experience. Also, when the game starts to drag on, Echo adds a few new things to partially refresh the experience. Some sections are also primarily for changing the pace and taking a break from tense missions, simply asking you to navigate in and out of palaces without any enemies bothering you. It’s during these moments that the game’s storytelling comes into play.
Echo’s story is entirely dialogue-based, with Rose Leslie of Game of Thrones fame voicing Constantly bickering with her ship AI London voiced by Nick Boulton (Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Nioh, Mass: Effect Andromeda) . Echo’s world-building hinges on the consistent engagement of both characters, delivering an excellent performance portraying a nuanced and idealistic character who seems fueled by determination and courage but with enough restraint to leave a bit of frailty and doubt; this contrasts with London’s cold personality, which focuses on practicality and the impossible. Despite its attempt at storytelling, Echo never tries to give players enough breathing room to catch up on the plot, and the entire story can seem incorrigibly complex and obtuse to those who aren’t paying enough attention. Although the story was compelling, it felt like it was written purely to support the game’s intriguing mechanics.
Echo doesn’t overstay its welcome. A full playthrough averages six to nine hours, with collectibles and more punishing difficulties available for those who want to replay the experience. This playtime already includes its snail-paced opening sequence that slowly unveils the mystery behind the palaces. Although frustratingly slow, the opening scenes do a great job of setting an enduring and heartbreaking mood for the entire game. It’s not a horror game, but it has a chilling feel that pervades the whole experience through its presentation and sound design. The mammoth scale of the palaces, while marvelous in scope and design, is something you don’t want to step on in real life.
Echo thrives on its conceptually impressive mechanics and simplistic gameplay, but suffers from repetitiveness. Nonetheless, Echo is an enjoyable game that fans of the stealth-action genre should check out, especially when there’s nothing like it on the market.
Rating: 3.5/5 – Fair
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