ECHO and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice have much in common. Both of them were done by very experienced developers - behind the staff of ULTRA ULTRA studio work in IO Interactive on the Hitman series . Those and others this time did without the help of publishers, so their projects were positioned by many as independent games of the AAA class. But before this highest class they did not have enough of that saturation, the concentration of events during the entire passage, which is peculiar to really high-budget games.
Therefore, in ECHO , and in Hellbladea lot of empty walks and the same tasks / tasks, which makes players periodically fall into frustration. In the case of ULTRA ULTRA, this is especially noticeable at first. The main character, a pretty girl with blond hair named En and the voice of the star of the TV series "The Game of Thrones" Rose Leslie (Rose Leslie), comes out of suspended animation on board a spacecraft that flew to a certain Palace built by ancient civilization for dozens of years. There, according to rumors, the secret of immortality is kept.
Then she slowly wanders under AI for half an hour (and does not give a run) first along the shuttle, then along the long staircases of the huge complex on the surface of the planet, then along the corridors and rooms of the sought-after Palace. These corridors and halls, of course, are beautiful, in a style reminiscent of a cross between art deco and baroque. But they are large, long and cloned - explicitly by the copy / paste method.
Well, in the future there will be cloned opponents - copies of the En, which are released against it by the Palace, and cloned, identical tasks. At all levels, we are looking for clues to open huge doors and go to the next level, or we collect about the same purpose blue spheres - a dozen two or three in one location.
Such a description would be more than enough for an angry review and processing of a refund through Steam. However, as they say, do not rush to bury her. Indeed, a certain monotony is embedded in the principles of the game mechanics ECHO , but it is only in external attributes, in the shell, so to speak.
All the time we either sneak quietly, or fight (but often alternate, and this and that) with the clones of En, we perform the same tasks on similar locations. But in fact, under this shell hidden unusual mechanics and interesting, complex in terms of construction levels. Therefore, an exceptionally boring, monotonous throughout the entire game may seem only to those who do not know how or do not want to really use its unique capabilities.
The fact is that the Palace is a self-learning AI that examines the behavior of En and programs its copies so that they act in the same style. That is, if you shoot more often from a pistol, then replicants will also start firing at you. If you hide and choke opponents from the back, they will also learn to sneak, and sometimes even attack from behind. You run on the water, and the enemies also cease to be afraid of it, jump over the railing - and then they begin to shine there too.
Its style of passage in ECHO , it is clear, you need to adjust. But the Palace does the same. All his behavior is broken into cycles - he studies you, then the system reboots, the light is cut down, no one follows you, but soon everything turns back on, and the clones come to life with those changes that take into account your actions in the last cycle.
All this in fact opens a gap in the possibilities that allow to flexibly influence the style of passing and the behavior of enemies. You are, as it were, teaching the opponents yourself and using it against them. For example, if the clones are too many, it is difficult to sneak past them, then you can specifically approach the musical instruments placed here and there and play them or often jump over the railing to the floor below. And in the next cycle, opponents will also be distracted by music making and jumping, allowing En to quickly sneak past.
In addition, the game itself is quite tense and complicated. From the first attack, you can fight back in QTE, from the second - no longer. Yes, and shoot in all directions and constantly shine from a height, confusing traces, will not work - it charges energy, which is very little. And we increase them only gradually, as we find special spheres. Therefore, we must act carefully, trying not to raise a noise that everyone who has heard it run to, in extreme cases - to run away and in addition to a pistol use also special balls: they can be thrown far away to distract, or to throw directly into the forehead near to cut down enemy.
At a time when the Palace reboots and does not see you, the tension is completely off scale. In these seconds, he does not follow you, so you try to manage as much as possible and slip as far as possible - but the clones do not slumber, and the surrounding darkness tickles nerves.
Finally, in ECHO there is a special atmosphere of cold, detached loneliness, a chic visual style and a rather interesting story with philosophical notes. You are always alone (more precisely, one), you are followed by a strange ancient mechanism, it is not known what lies ahead, what dangers, and around your own clones - you will agree, this frightens and delays, in this there is something different from the usual fantastic clichés .
The history touches upon themes of guilt, redemption, eternity, immortality, and it is revealed gradually - through conversations with AI-satellite En yes thanks to the tuning forks, which are hidden here and there. If you have collected everything at the level, you can listen to some message in the spirit of "Eternity has no end and no boundaries. Everything is possible there already. Variation is repetition. Action is memory. Change is stagnation. " In general, everything is rather vague, difficult and serious, but this is also more intriguing.
ECHO , like Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice , is difficult to call an AAA-class game. Still, the independence of development and the limited budget are felt. There is a certain reptativity here, but firstly, it is largely explained by the philosophy and setting itself, and secondly, there is its own style, atmosphere, intriguing plot and truly unique game mechanics that allows you to flexibly change the style of passage and influence the behavior of enemies . And this all more than pays for all the shortcomings of ECHO .
We can all agree that this game is a pure 10 :)
Cheers!
