Echoes of the End

Echoes of the End was provided by Deep Silver/PLAION for review. Thank you!

Some of my favorite games are the story-driven action-adventure games that define the PS4 and PS5 eras. The Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, and Spider-Man have all been incredible experiences worth playing through, with cinematic storytelling and addictive gameplay loops. These games are awesome, and that's a big reason why I was drawn to Echoes of the End. Developer Myrkur Games has created one of the most beautiful games I have seen in a long time, and it's great when everything works, but there are a bunch of small problems that compound together to end up hurting the overall experience.

Visually, Echoes of the End is stunning. The world and set pieces look phenomenal, with highly detailed textures and models. There were a couple of times that the world stunned me, with light hitting rock formations just perfectly to illuminate the fine details in the rocks or the luscious foliage around me. Trekking through the land of Aema and seeing the splendor around was a pleasure. There are some odd, less detailed textures here and there, with the most prominent being in Chapter 3, but it isn't noticeable unless you look very closely.

As for the story, it's a bit of a hit-or-miss. We take the reins of Ryn, a magic-wielding Vestige, who travels with Abram Finlay to save her brother, who has been taken by the invading The Reigendal Empire as a guide. As we travel across the world, we will discover the mysteries of the land of Aema, and watch as Ryn discovers more about her powers and herself.

I love stories like this, and for the most part, I enjoyed learning about Echoes of the End's world. It's intriguing seeing how Aema ended up the way it has, and I was curious to see what being a Vestige meant. Finding ways to weave fantasy stories like this into more meaningful, dramatic stories always keeps my interest, and there were a couple of twists that I didn't expect. They were minor; most of the story follows the predictable path, but those little bits were appreciated.

I also liked how Ryn evolved as a character. Initially, she distrusts and takes the lead, feeling that she has to look out for herself since everyone despises her as a Vestige. She can be aggressive and lash out, with the belief that she has to stay away from everyone and will only hurt those close to her. I felt her development and growth throughout the story was solid, feeling more gradual and realistic compared to many other dramatic stories I have witnessed.

Still, it has its issues. The voice acting and some facial animation can make the experience feel disjointed, and some chapters linger far too long. While Ryn's voice acting was solid and believable, I found her brother, Cor, and one of the main antagonists, Aurick, to be especially hard to believe. Aurick's voice in particular was just too quiet, and I had to rely on subtitles to understand what he was saying. Cor's voice didn't feel like it belonged, standing out too much in discussions. The intro tutorial chapter also feels too long, though it gets better afterwards.

The story is passable and has interesting moments, but it didn't all feel like it stuck the landing. Whether it was the voice acting, some minor animation mishaps, the predictable beats, or the sound effects, it never fully brought me in. I like the fluid cinematics they were going with, reminding me of games like God of War, but it just felt awkward at times. There were also some characters that didn't have the impact I would have thought.

The combat feels very similar to the story, with it being a hit-or-miss. When all the elements work together, it's awesome, but half the time, it doesn't, and it ruins the entire encounter. You'll face groups of enemies and utilize your sword and magic to kill them. We have a regular combo and assortment of magic attacks, which can be upgraded with new moves from the multiple skill trees. Finlay will join us in battle and attack, with a special attack we can utilize to help us kill enemies quicker or stun them.

The magic powers, combined with sword strikes, feel fantastic when they all work together. It was so satisfying throwing enemies into each other and swinging my sword or creating a vortex to bring all the enemies around in one place, then slamming them into the ground, and while they are getting up, using an attack to channel magic into a blade strike that can cut them all further. The combat felt slow in the beginning, but as soon as upgrades came into play, it got significantly better.

However, there are too many issues that can affect it. Sometimes, locking onto enemies for magic attacks just doesn't work, and unless you turn and face the enemy, attacking could go in a different direction entirely. We also can't cancel attacks, which means going into a combo and trying to block an attack will not block. I had to be very careful about how long my combo would be, and I worried more about when the enemy would attack rather than what I would do next.

As I mentioned earlier, Ryn does have skill trees, which can be used to get new abilities. We get a set amount of exp per each encounter, and can use those skill points to get new sword attacks, magical abilities, making other abilities more powerful, and augmenting our companion powers. The game itself is very linear, so there aren't many extra encounters or grinding involved, but I would say skill point distribution is balanced, though some of the best powers and abilities are further in.

This can completely ruin combat encounters. I regularly died due to missing attacks or magic not locking onto an enemy, even when I had enough mana. Some attacks from enemies also shine, noting whether they can be blocked or parried, and sometimes attacks won't have any shine to them. It can be confusing and obnoxious. I understand only having a shine for attacks that can't be blocked, but the shine for some attacks that can be parried makes it harder to discern when regular attacks with no shine are coming.

Outside of combat, there are tons of puzzles we will encounter to solve and progress. The majority of these puzzles are well-made, and as the game progresses, the puzzles get more and more unique. The mechanics change with the different chapters, but progress naturally. I was impressed with the variety, with some areas surprising me, like the invisible bridges and echoes. There were a few puzzles that were extremely difficult or didn't have enough instructions, but I ultimately did figure them out.

The biggest issue I have outside of combat is the movement system. While it's pretty standard movement in general, jumping around feels floaty due to how momentum will continue after jumping. This can make any platforming puzzles, or challenges to find secrets like more documents for extra story lore and extra increases to health and mana, and it becomes aggravating to try to maneuver.

Echoes of the End - Steam Deck Performance

While Echoes of the End is decently playable on desktop and seems to be optimized, it is not Steam Deck playable at all. On the lowest possible settings with TSR upscaling at 33% render scale, I was getting around 27 FPS in the opening area standing still, and there's nothing I could do to increase performance further without completely destroying the visual quality. This is not going to be a game to play on the Deck.

アクセシビリティ

The game does have an accessibility tab, which allows us to change difficulty, subtitle options, and language. We can also toggle how much gore is shown, invert camera controls, change sensitivity of the controller, turn vibration on or off, and change audio sliders.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, as well as cloud saves and controller support. It also recognizes the OLED HDR screen and has options to turn it on or off.

結論

Echoes of the End is a solid production, but it just has many instances that take me out of the immersion. It's small things here and there, but in the end, it's enough to make the experience suffer. When the mechanics work together, it feels fantastic, and the visuals are top-notch, but when it doesn't work, it is frustrating and made me want to stop playing. The story is intriguing as well, even if the voice acting was off and plot was predictable.

Unfortunately, the game isn't in any state to be played on the Steam Deck. Even at the lowest settings, it can't hit 30 FPS, and I wouldn't recommend playing on the go.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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