Recent reviews by Mysafir

ECHO is a third-person science fiction adventure, but that's where the conventional genres end. It is an action game, and it is not an action game. It is a stealth game, and it is not a stealth game. It is a walking simulator, and it is not a walking simulator. It all depends on how you play.

In the far future, when mankind has conquered and colonized the Universe, a "Resourceful" named En travels to a "Palace" only known in legend, spending a century in cryostasis as the ship's AI, London, heads off the beaten path to a distant world, all to revive a person who shouldn't've died -- a man named Foster.

When En arrives, she reactivates the Palace -- but it also spawns strange black chunks, which slowly anthropomorphize more and more until En realizes they're copies of her.

And they hate her.

They really, really, really hate her.

Later down the road, En soon notices statues of her, apparently made of ice, that form whenever she does something. She pays them no mind until she notices the clones, which she soon calls Echoes, copying her actions.

"They do what I do," En realizes. "They learn from me!" From then on, she has to act carefully -- one wrong move, and the Echoes can use it against her.

ECHO's main selling point is a unique one, which I'll discuss first: its AI. In a genre where you can figure out an enemy's strategy and then either circumvent it or use it against them, indie studio ULTRA ULTRA has taken that idea and reversed it -- the game is trying to do this to you.

By default, Echoes are hydrophobic. But if you cross a body of water yourself, they'll follow suit. If you open doors, slide across tables, or vault over railings, they'll do the same. And if you shoot your gun at them? Start praying.

But there's a few catches. The Echoes can learn all these actions (and more!), but not right away. (Though that would make for an interesting gamemode.) Every so often (and no, there's no timer), the Palace reboots itself to update the Echoes with new behaviors -- all the lights go out, and when the lights come back on fifteen to twenty seconds later, they know how to do everything you did before the reboot. During this blackout, you have complete freedom. Fire your gun, drop down, cross water -- the Palace will never know.

Additionally, when the Palace updates their behaviors, it also wipes the previous behaviors -- which means, for instance, if you choose not to cross water, after a reboot the Echoes become hydrophobic again. ULTRA ULTRA's intention is to pit you against the ultimate enemy: yourself.

I found the best way to beat the Echoes is to avoid being spotted at all. Pay attention to the HUD sphere and the music (which I will go over in a moment). Brief flashes of yellow (accompanied by a snare drum stinger) serve as a warning that you've been glimpsed. The Echoes won't act upon it, though. It's when you see a flash of red (and hear a heavier drum sound) that you should start panicking. It helps that the Echoes have extreme tunnel vision and rather selective hearing.

Now, the music (and the rest of the game's design in general): I can't find the words, in English or in any other language, to describe how decadently gorgeous the design is. Bjarke Niemann did a wonderful job with the music in this game. In the Palace's halls, more than once I stopped and asked myself, "Is this what Heaven sounds like?" In the spaces outside, the music switches to something more desolate, yet still beautiful, to reflect the deserted, decaying appearance of the Palace world. My only gripe is that there is no official soundtrack album -- I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

With level design, Morten Heldegren did more than a fantastic job portraying the Palace as a sci-fi space Versailles. From the themes of the Palace's five layers (I especially adore Chapter III's clean white appearance), to the haphazard, gnarled labyrinth of the outside, even the sterile ship and the snowy surface, the maps' designs all help set the stage (literally) to a beautifully-handcrafted world. It makes me yearn for a gamemode where the Echoes leave you alone, so you can just explore a pretty Palace.

Including in-game collectibles encourages players to explore the Palace. But if you've collected all 145 Voices, all 72 cell crystals, and all 292 Caste Orbs (yes, I counted), there's no point in keeping the game on hand. One thing that can boost replayability would be to add procedural generation -- to really sell the idea of an infinite Palace. Since every new Palace would be different, it would present new challenges to you, since you can't rely on your memory of the layout to survive.

I'm even impressed by the design of the HUD. Unlike most games, this HUD doesn't hug the screen; rather, it rings around En. You can monitor your energy cells and stamina just by looking over her shoulder, thanks to the third-person perspective. Plus, since the HUD sphere doesn't extend to all the way behind the camera, it actually allows you to see Echoes coming up behind En.

Now, I firmly believe any great game starts with a great story. And ECHO doesn't disappoint in that department either. Christel Graabæk weaves a story reminiscent of classic science fiction. And not the "Mantis Men from Venus!" dime-a-dozen stories that you'd find in pulp magazines; no, I mean the classics. Asimov's Foundation series, Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus, and Stapledon's Star Maker all come to mind. I would not find ECHO's story out of place in a 1950s issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

The voicecast may be minimal -- only two voice actors -- yet ULTRA ULTRA makes it work. Rose Leslie, of Game of Thrones fame, voices En, the hopeful, determined Resourceful trying to revive Foster. Nicholas Boulton voices London, the staunchly cynical ship AI who guides En through the Palace. Their interactions reveal the history of their universe, and emphasize the sharp distinction between hope and realism, faith and skepticism, determination and resignation.

However, to switch gears for a moment, I'd like to address the prerendered cutscenes, and the issues I found with them. To wit:

• The game contains several unlocks, which don't get shown in the cutscenes.
  
• A few Voices of Harmony drop a frame, which I find jarring.
  
• They play at 30FPS, regardless of the game's actual framerate.
  
• Their resolution is 1920×1072, which won't scale well for players with 4K or 21:9 displays.

I suggest -- nay, I implore -- that ULTRA ULTRA replace these prerendered cutscenes with real-time-rendered cutscenes. This would solve all these problems right away. I imagine it sounds difficult, but it's possible -- another UE4 game, We Happy Few, does this.

To conclude: this is by no means a casual game. You, the player, need to approach this game with an open mind and a willingness to change your strategy. Stealth is key in this game; run-and-gun enthusiasts need not apply. Above all, observe the Golden Rule: do unto the Echoes as you would want to have them do unto you.

If you want something simple where you can just shoot at targets with toaster-level artificial 'intelligence,' then go play Call of Duty. If, however, you want "great challenges and equally great rewards," namely the satisfaction of defeating yourself at your own game -- then I wholeheartedly recommend ECHO.