Echo: Overview Video Games

Question on the backfill: as a reviewer reaches the game, which at first resembles the most boring trip simulator, irritating and shifting his truly Scandinavian (and did it Dane from the studio Ultra Ultra) Promotivity? The answer can be very unexpected – he will take effect on it as one of the most unusual and interesting indie speeches of the year, somewhere at the level Helblad: Sanua’s Sakriphic.Finding Tambletones with hidden messages is not so easy.

Palace of clones

Indeed, W Echo And Helblad: Sanua’s Sakriphic much in common. And that and the other did quite experienced developers – behind the staff of the studio staff Ultra Ultra work in Io Interactive above the series Hitman. Those and others cost without the help of publishers, so their projects were positioned by many as independent AAA-Class games. But before that the highest class, they did not have enough saturation, concentration of events throughout the passage, which is characteristic of truly high-budget games.

Therefore, B Echo, and B Hellblade Many empty walking and identical tasks / tasks, why the players periodically fall into frustration. In case of work Ultra Ultra This is especially noticeable at first. Main heroine, Cute girl with blond hair, named En and voice of the star TV series “Game of Thrones” Rose Leslie (Rose Leslie) comes out of anabiosis on board the spacecraft, which tens of years flew to a certain palace built by ancient civilization. There, by rumors, the secret of immortality is kept.

Then she slowly wanders under the pass from AI half an hour (but they don’t give it) first on the shuttle, then by the long stairs of a huge complex on the surface of the planet, then along the corridors and rooms of the famous palace. The corridors are these and halls, of course, beautiful, in style, reminiscent of the production of Ar Deco and Baroque. But they are large, long and cloned – explicitly using Copy / Paste.

Well, in the future, cloned opponents will appear – copies of the EN, which produces a palace against her, and cloned, the same tasks. At all levels, we are looking for keys to open huge doors and go to the next level, or we collect about the same goal of the blue sphere – a dozen two or three on one location.The punching force of the gun allows you to dump several clones that are at about one line.

“Do as I do!”

This description would be more than enough for an angry review and making money back through Steam. However, as they say, do not hurry to bury it. Indeed, a certain monotony is laid in the principles of the gaming mechanics itself Echo, But it is only in external attributes, in the shell, so to speak.

All the time we either sneak quietly, either fight (but more often alternate and that) with clones of en, perform the same tasks on similar locations. But in fact, this shell is hidden unusual mechanics and curious, complex in terms of building levels. Therefore, solely boring, monotonous game on all throughout the game may seem only to those who do not know how or does not really want to use it unique opportunities.

The fact is that the Palace is a self-learning AI, which explores the behavior of the EN and programms its copies so that they acted in the same style. That is, if you shoot more often from a gun, then the replicants will also start to actively politic. If you hide and cut opponents from the back, then they will learn to rush, and sometimes even attack from behind. You run on the water, and the enemies also cease to be afraid of it, jump through the railing – and then they start to smoke there.

“We are a long echo of each other”

Your style of passing in Echo, It is clear to adjust. But the palace does the same. All his behavior is broken into the cycles – he studies you, then there is a reboot of the system, the light is cut down, no one watches you, but soon everything turns on, and the clones come to life with those changes that take into account your actions in the last cycle.

All this actually opens the burst of opportunities to flexibly influence the style of passage and on the behavior of enemies. You like themselves teach opponents themselves and use it yourself against them. For example, if the clones are too much, it is difficult to sneak by them, you can specifically approach it, then, then there are musical instruments and play them or often jump over the railing on the floor below. And in the next cycle, opponents will also be distracted by musitizing and jumping, allowing EN quickly stumble past.Levels have an interesting and sufficiently complex architecture.
In addition, the game itself is quite intense and complicated. From the first attack you can fuck in QTE, from the second – no longer. Yes, and to fill in all directions and constantly smoke from the height, in full swing, it will not work – the charge charges are spent on it, which are very few. And we increase them only gradually, as we find special spheres. Therefore, it is necessary to act neatly, trying not to raise the noise on which everyone who heard it, in extreme cases – to run away and besides the gun to use more and special balls: they can be thrown away to distract, or reject straight into the forehead.enemy.

At the time when the palace reboots and does not see you, voltage and excavation at all. In these seconds, he does not follow you, so you try to catch as much as possible and slip as far as possible – but the clones do not dreamed, and the surrounding darkness tickles the nerves.

Echo eternity

Finally, B Echo There is a special atmosphere of cold, excited loneliness, chic visual style and a fairly interesting plot with philosophical notes. You are constantly alone (more precisely, 1), you are watching a strange ancient mechanism, it is not known that it is waiting ahead, what dangers, and around your own clones – you agree, it scares, and delays something different from ordinary fantastic cliches.

The history addresses the themes of guilt, redemption, eternity, immortality, and it is disclosed gradually – through conversations with AI-satellite EN DAY THANKS THERE THERE. If you collected everything at the level, then you can listen to some message in the spirit “Eternity has no end and there is no borders. Everything is possible there already. The variability is a repetition. Action is memory. Changes have stagnation “. In general, everything is foggy enough, it is difficult and serious, but from this and stronger Intrigue.This is called “taught to your head” … ***
Echo, like I Helblad: Sanua’s Sakriphic, It’s hard to call the aaa class game. Still, the independence of the development and limited budget is felt. There are definite repexts, but firstly, it is largely due to the philosophy itself and the setting, and secondly, there is its own style, the atmosphere, intriguing plot and really unique game mechanics, which allows you to flexibly change the style of passage and influence the behavior of enemies. And this is all more than paying for all flaws Echo.