ROSS’S GAME DUNGEON: ECHO

11 hours ago, Alyxx Thorne said:

I wonder if this game is trying to be a spiritual remake of Fade To Black where they took the title literally.

Now that you mention it, this game does seem like it was inspired by music. Maybe a song about obsessively introspecting and doubting the sincerity of one's feelings.

41 minutes ago, StrixLiterata said:

Now that you mention it, this game does seem like it was inspired by music. Maybe a song about obsessively introspecting and doubting the sincerity of one's feelings.

No not the song, the game XD

3 hours ago, Alyxx Thorne said:

No not the song, the game XD

Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. In the same way Quake was inspired by NiN, I think Echo might have been inspired by music

Well but I think she's talking about Fade to Black, so the game would be inspired by another game, not music.

Yeah I wasn't talking about Metallica lol

Ah, yes; The limitation to anti-aliasing options that comes with deferred rendering -- love the increase in how many dynamic light sources one can have, that it enables, but the aliasing is indeed an eyesore, and the blurry AA options that remain are IMHO almost universally *worse* than the aliasing itself.

Just in case somebody is interested: I posted this over on youtube before realizing that I actually had another option over here, where it won't just disappear among thousands of comments. So, repost:

 

Nice to see somebody giving this some attention! I'm only at the end of Chapter 4 right now, so I can't comment beyond that. Just a few points.

 

- Walking during narration: These bits are meant for narration, so it really doesn't matter if you are jogging or walking. You'll get there in the intended time, which seems like an agreeable outcome to me. Perhaps they could have integrated the narration differently, but I have seen way worse ways of doing it. Like when there is action going on and then you have voices trying to deliver narration at random moments, only adding to the mess. For some reason I have encountered that quite a few times recently. Both in Rage 2 and Fallout: New Vegas.

 

- Gameplay seems fine so far. It's not easy, but that seems mostly down to not having a Quicksave. Instead one has to hope for Save Arches. Especially the levels in which one needs to collect enough blue orbs to activate the elevator can be frustrating because of that. The second time this kind of level came up I had to restart from the beginning a few times after carefully stealthing around for a good amount of time. I eventually stumbled on some Save Arches, but this just isn't very reliable.

 

- Otherwise though I mostly like the gameplay. It offers a nice variety of gameplay-options and I have mostly felt so far that you just need to learn how to use the available options and how to string them together when needed. Personally stealth has mostly served me well and getting away after messing up isn't as difficult as I had assumed. Still a good bit of Trial-and-Error, but I feel like it's very much down to how the individual levels are set up. Also, doing a take-down in full view of a second clone and then just smashing a crystal ball into its face is pretty satisfying. Also not nearly as loud as the gun I think.

 

- Number of clones: It's not as bad anymore, but getting mobbed by three or more clones is pretty annoying and then you'll probably use your gun and then they will come running. In most cases it seems to be a good decision to just run and hope that they will lose you. Sometimes you can pull them into a line for a good shot and oftentimes it's too far for the other clones to hear the shot. Just vaulting a few times also helps. I haven't tried it so far, but I have just seen the developers play one level and closing doors also seems to be helpful.

 

- The Blackouts: I don't know, you can probably use them to your advantage, but I'm now mostly just sitting around and waiting for it to end. As Ross said it's kind of hard to see in the dark. Tagging would probably help and Area Scan could be useful, but I'm always loath to part with the energy. I found them somewhat annoying at first, but atmospherically they are quite nice and they are clearly part of the game's aesthetical and narrative identity - if there is such a thing.

 

- The game is clearly too long. Gameplay-wise it did arrive at the standard-loop pretty early and then it stopped evolving. Now I have already done the collecting of blue orbs-thing twice and the getting of two rods-thing twice as well. Mostly stealthing around and occasionally messing up. There are some levels which mix it up a little, but it's still mostly just those two goals with the usual gameplay and the familiar AI-patterns. Pacing-wise I don't like it much. The narrative bits outside the palace help, but that's about it.

 

In any case, Thanks for the Game Dungeon, Ross! If you like this kind of architecture, "NaissanceE" is also worth a look. It has been free over on steam for a while now. Other than that, there's also "Fibrillation HD" (cheap and short), which has the massive brutalistic architecture on some maps and "E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy", which is more cyberpunkish. Also, lots and lots of respawning ;-)

 

Edit: I forgot to add one thing on the Blackouts: On a number of occasions they have saved me in tight spots. Surprisingly often in fact. Somebody farther up mentioned that you can influence their frequency and I think an increased frequency might be intended to punish the player for playing aggressively, but also to give them a chance to get away in tight spots. Just speculation, but it would make sense.