Selasa, 18 Februari 2014
Official review by Tero Toivonen on Feb 18, 2014 at 1:15pm
Space, the final frontier, has always intrigued the human mind. Ever since the term 'sci-fi' was first used in the early 1950's, we've seen thousands upon thousands of writers and movie-makers creating their own visions of what outer space looks like.
These days space (and sci-fi in general) is so common in video games that we barely give it another thought. The latest game developer to give us their perception of space is Robot Entertainment with their newest game, Echo Prime. Is the universe really big enough to hold one more sci-fi game?
The story of Echo Prime begins when our hero (known simply as Enforcer) is aboard a freight ship on a routine trip somewhere in our galaxy. Suddenly a wormhole emerges and the Enforcer is sucked into a different part of the Universe. It's quickly revealed to the player that the universe is in trouble; beings called 'Slivers' are persecuting the rest of the populace and the player is the only hope in restoring order to the galaxy. The Enforcer isn't alone, though; as a part of his quest he must find godlike beings known as Echoes who will aid him. With the help of Echoes the player sets out on a galaxy-wide quest to bring peace ... and collect some loot on the way.
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| By The Power Of Grayskull... I Have The Power! |
The gameplay of Echo Prime brings to mind the legendary arcade games of the late 80's and early 90's; the screen scrolls from left to right as you move the Enforcer around and shoot things up. The simple mouse-driven control scheme takes roughly 1.4 seconds to get used to and is familiar to anyone who has ever played games like Diablo or Cannon Fodder; you move your character around by clicking on the ground and when you click on an enemy you shoot at it. You can also 'anchor' the Enforcer in place via the keyboard, which is handy for shooting at enemies who aren't on screen. If an enemy gets too close, your character will automatically attack it with his blade.
The galaxy map is divided into 5 clusters and each cluster has an unlimited amount of missions (talk about infinite replay value, eh?). Your character level determines which clusters are accessible. The story is driven by a few, separately marked missions that open up when you've reached a certain level. However, even though there are different missions types (from killing each enemy on the level to protecting a data console) the lazy level design and the constant reuse of textures unfortunately ensures you feel like you're just replaying the same mission over and over again.
The enemies you'll encounter consist of weird alien creatures and mechanized entities; some use weapons to attack you while others rely on close combat. There are also bigger champion versions of the base enemies that take a lot more beating to go down than their smaller brethren. Occasionally, usually at the end of a campaign, you'll also fight huge bosses that'll easily kill in one swift strike. These bosses require a bit of strategy to beat and are a welcome breeze to the base enemies which unfortunately come in only a couple of different variants. This endless stream of copied enemies adds to the overall feeling of boredom when playing for prolonged periods of time.
As you might have guessed already, the Enforcer is armed with a gun and a blade. These, along with your armor and helmet, can be upgraded between missions by spending your hard-earned credits at the store. Your character also gains experience by completing missions and killing enemies and (as with any other game of this kind) when you get enough experience, your character gains a level. The game is highly tied to your characters level; new levels unlock more gear at the store, more campaigns to play and so on. There's always something to unlock which keeps you playing until the early hours.
Alongside moving and shooting your character can also block by pressing the right mouse button. This is hardly necessary, though, since most projectiles can easily be avoided simply by moving out of the way or by dodging. Dodging is done with either the keyboard or the mouse. Sadly it uses the same button as moving so you're constantly accidentally dodging when you're trying to move or shoot a distant enemy. Very irritating, especially when most of the time your character dodges straight into a hazard on the level.
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| Collecting Echoes Is Fun And Rewarding. |
Now for the part that makes Echo Prime what it is; Echoes. As stated before, Echoes are beings of supreme power and your character can 'equip' them to take advantage of their powers. Some Echoes have passive abilities (increased defense for example) while others have active abilities (instant healing etcetera). Equipping the correct Echoes for a certain mission is the key to success and mixing different Echoes is fun and rewarding. There are a total of 68 Echoes to be found, and collecting them is the essence of the game. Equipped Echoes collect special Echo Points and, when they've gathered enough, they become Veterans with increased abilities.
Although the game doesn't have multiplayer (which is a real shame since coop would have fitted the game perfectly), you can borrow your friends' Echoes in missions. This is a great way to level up the least used Echoes your friends have and also great for your own Echoes that don't see much action. And if you don't have any friends (or friends that own the game) you don't have to worry; the game creates false friends whose Echoes you can borrow. pretty clever, since it creates a feeling that you're actually playing as a part of a bigger community.
The sounds of the game are pretty basic and familiar to anyone who has ever played a sci-fi game before; basic laser sounds and thumps. The graphics on the other hand look great the effects especially look excellent. Even though the textures are copied all over the campaigns they still look good even after hours and hours of playing. Technically the game also works great and should be playable with almost any rig imaginable. Echo Prime also supports multiple monitors but after hours of playing the monitors started acting up. Luckily the game looks good even with a single monitor.
Echo Prime is fun to play and extremely addictive; a true sign of a great game. The budget price and hours and hours of playtime are only brought down by repetitive missions and the lack of variety in the content. But all in all Echo Prime is a game which is definitely worth a try; just note that it might consume all the free time you might have. And then some.
