Echo Reviews

The game follows En, well voiced by Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones), a woman traveling in space with her A.I. partner, London. After the pair reaches the Palace, a vast and seemingly limitless structure, En sets out to use its own technology to bring back another life. ECHO’s story is filled with dialogue between En and London as both argue the necessity of her objective on the Palace. The story is driven by En’s curiosity in both the world and herself, while London’s harsher personality puts the pair at odds. I like the premise of this sci-fi story but the constant back and forth of the two characters is verbose. Their dialogue stretches in between levels and I think the story’s theme of introspection is buried in its own speech. The story does compliment the gameplay in a thoughtful way however. ECHO’s gameplay is interwoven through the story, and for me it stayed fresh and fun through most of the game. Its mechanics have a solid rule set that offers enough nuance for players to exploit. The game will record any drastic moves you make and when it’s ready, will force the Palace into a blackout. Once out of the blackout, every enemy will start to mimic your actions that stood out. For example, if I decide to open a door or jump off a balcony onto a lower floor, the enemies will start to perform those moves after the blackout. Once you perform enough actions that diverge from the previous cycle, the game will reboot and update all of its enemies with those new behaviors. They recycle after every reboot, so actions won’t stack.

Echo is an idea born out of experienced developers getting bored. This almost feels like an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The opening images reveal an odd yet majestic slab, floating through space. Our protagonist, En, wakes up from a deep sleep. What follows is an exercise in experimentation, subtlety in game design and - for the player - any play style they choose.

ECHO tries to reinvent the wheel with its new take on enemy AI. While the game ultimately succeeds in doing so, the end result is having a fancy new wheel on an otherwise mundane sedan. The rest of the game simply doesn't do the enemy AI system the justice it deserves.

There’s definitely room for ECHO to improve and expand, but it’s a smashing debut nonetheless. Ultra Ultra has performed a deft balancing act here and one that carefully avoids over complicating things, much to the benefit of the player. It’s far and away one of 2017’s best sleeper hits and we can’t wait to see what the studio has coming next.

And while the story and mystery carry you through the game, the gameplay scenarios can be a little repetitive.  ECHO is a short-ish game though, clocking in around 8-10 hours, so it doesn’t quite overstay its welcome. It’s a slow burn, but when it gets going it doesn’t really let go. If you’re keen on tense stealth games, with a good sci-fi story, then look no further. ECHO is destined to be a cult hit like the movie Event Horizon, and that’s no small praise from me.

Stop hitting yourself.