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[More_Badass]

I started Echo since I was intrigued by its gameplay concept: stealth action against “Echoes” that copy your recent moves. Do a stealth takedown and the next cycle, you’ll have to worry about being taken down from behind by enemies. Shoot them, and be prepared to dodge energy blasts, and so on. While the game is far from the complexity of Hitman (part of the dev team worked on Hitman), you can see the stealth-action-puzzle roots in Echo, how you have to plan ahead and consider how your actions will affect you down the line,

But while the gameplay is intriguing and clever, and one of the few games that tackle the "AI learns and adapts to you" concept, Echo’s real treat has turned out to be its science fiction trappings. Far future transhumanism. Biologically engineered beings. A classic “big dumb object”. Sentient AI. Sprawling architecture straight out of Bowman’s 2001 bedroom. Echo’s imagery and story are actually its greatest strengths, delving into the culture and character of biologically engineered protagonist En through conversations with her ship AI companion London, voice-acted by Game of Thrones' Rose Leslie and Hellblade's Nick Boulton. Even the Palace, the aware planet-size labyrinth of extravagant architecture and mythical technology that is Echo's setting. becomes a character in itself, through its aggressive aesthetic and the oddly uneasy contrast between interior and exterior design and its mysterious purpose.

My biggest gripe so far has been that the beginning dragged on for much too long; if it was shortened, the opening would probably be one of my favorite openings in a recent sci-fi game, in how it progresses and gradually, creepily introduces its core ideas.

Purely judged as science fiction, it’s up there with Prey and Horizon IMO. Nothing else this year is tackling these concepts of transhumanism and such in as lean and confident a vision as Echo is. I’d might even call it “The Swapper” of 2017, not gameplay wise but in how it revolves around a single concept and delves deep into some really fascinating sci-fi concepts and themes with a surprisingly well-written and acted story.

Also it has the best main menu design of the year

 

[The Technomancer]

This game is rad. Its the closest a game has ever gotten, for me, to capturing the high-sci-fi space weirdness of the words of Ian Banks, or Alastair Reynolds. The actual gameplay loses a bit of steam towards the end, but its overall one of the tightest integrations of aesthetic design, narrative design and gameplay design I've ever encountered. Its almost perfect?

 

[Hagi]

Wow it looks gorgeous, what platforms is it on? Any idea of length?

 

[The Technomancer]

Wow it looks gorgeous, what platforms is it on? Any idea of length?

PC and PC4 I believe, although I hear PS4 has framerate issues. I beat it in 7 hours

 

[More_Badass]

This game is rad. Its the closest a game has ever gotten, for me, to capturing the high-sci-fi space weirdness of the words of Ian Banks, or Alastair Reynolds. The actual gameplay loses a bit of steam towards the end, but its overall one of the tightest integrations of aesthetic design, narrative design and gameplay design I've ever encountered. Its almost perfect?

The Palace alone could be the subject of some weird crazy sci-fi novel, let alone all the other elements.

 

[Thanati]

Huh, thanks for the heads up. I'm going to try this out!

 

[StereoVsn]

Huh, that looks quite interesting, just for sci-fi concepts alone. To the wishlist it goes.

 

[DangerMouse]

Yeah, this looks so cool, I definitely intend to buy it.

 

[sn00zer]

Hmmm saw this and it looked neat but felt like one of those games that could be super jank. Glad to hear its not.

 

[MisterShine]

Weird sci-fi stealth action game?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand bought

 

[FairXchange]

I think I'll have to try this out, I'd like to see this interesting AI system for myself.

 

[Indelible]

I have it on my wishlist, looks really cool but I have way to many games to play right now.

 

[More_Badass]

I think I'll have to try this out, I'd like to see this interesting AI system for myself.

The AI isn't particularly smart, but it can become quite dangerous. It's more puzzler in that sense, since making things easier for yourself makes things harder on next cycle. This is a game where the enemies will do stealth takedowns on you

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Never heard of this, but it does sound like something I'd like.

 

[dr_rus]

Bought it after reading some reviews praising the story. No idea when I'll be able to play it however.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Yes! I've been meaning to post in the OT. This came out of nowhere for me, and I'm definitely going to be voting for it in the GOTY thread. All of the praise for its audiovisuals, writing, mechanics and the unity between them is richly deserved. I've completed it on Ultra Hard in Legacy mode and I'm still hungry for more. Simply adding a timer and leaderboards to the scenarios could be interesting.

The game doesn't fully overcome its budget limitations sadly; the soundtrack, though brilliant, is limited - you're probably going to get a bit sick of the main encounter theme - and the late game areas' asset repetition is more visible. But the clarity of vision and quality of execution easily outweigh these in the scheme of things.

If there's a weakness in this game it's at its very core: the gameplay is fairly simple and doesn't evolve very much over the course of the game. There are a few tricks that work a little too well, making for some probably unintentional repetition. The core concept of the echoes learning from your actions also encourages a conservative playstyle; the main impetus you have to move a significant amount of the time will probably be to just get things done already. The same core concept is also a reason for the general mechanical simplicity since the more complex the player's options are the more complex the AI must be to imitate it, and great pains were taken to keep the game's scenarios comprehensible despite the scale of some of them. It's hard to fault the developers considering all this. I'd truly love to see what an even more ambitious execution of this concept could look like, with more mechanics to play around with and more complex level design.

Regardless, this game is a true gem. If you're even a little intrigued, go for it. And go for the collectables! The game is at its best when the scenario demands that you do more than get from A to B, and the more you explore the more opportunities there are for you to slip up, to teach something to the echoes that you didn't want to and to have to adapt to having it used against you on the next cycle. The scramble is much of the fun here; getting caught just before a blackout then turning the tables or nailing a clutch maneuver in the brief moment when the echoes "reboot" at the beginning of a light cycle is thrilling.

This post has mostly been gameplay focused, but like the OP said the writing is remarkable and totally worth discussing, though I'm not sure this thread would be the place. I also adore the high sci-fi concepts the game brings up (the setting alone is just... man) and the performances from the two actors are just phenomenal. I don't know if the writing is the strongest part of it though, it really is a product of unified vision, accomplished in basically every regard. Whatever Ultra Ultra does next, I'll be there.

 

[pakkit]

It's next on my list. I really love the idea, and once i heard critics talking about how the story is actually pretty good and that the first hour just builds the lore and introduces the world, I was sold.

Damn and you compared it to the Swapper which is one of my GOATs.

 

[More_Badass]

It's next on my list. I really love the idea, and once i heard critics talking about how the story is actually pretty good and that the first hour just builds the lore and introduces the world, I was sold.

To be honest, the first hour could probably be cut down to 30-45 minutes, but the world-building and gradual introduction and how it all builds is fantastic.

This post has mostly been gameplay focused, but like the OP said the writing is remarkable and totally worth discussing, though I'm not sure this thread would be the place. I also adore the high sci-fi concepts the game brings up (the setting alone is just... man) and the performances from the two actors are just phenomenal. I don't know if the writing is the strongest part of it though, it really is a product of unified vision, accomplished in basically every regard. Whatever Ultra Ultra does next, I'll be there.

I'm with you on this. Most movies or games don't ever come close to touching these kind of concepts, you rarely ever get it outside of novels and short stories. Echo is one of those games where I think another iteration or two would really refine the core mechanics, but even when the mechanics are lacking, the visuals, the story, the characters, and just the fascinating ideas present in its setting and concepts keeps me playing.

 

[StaffyManasse]

Oh, this game! I remember a trailer got me interested, but I had completely forgotten about this. Thanks for the reminder.

Also, yet another badass thread by the op. Keep it up!

 

[casiopao]

That main menu does not look cool at all lol. Annoying yes.

 

[chugen]

i dont like to see an eye that close. but sound good

 

[Renekton]

Oh man I have an issue with games that force you to change things up all the time.

Even something as mild as Zelda weapon durability is tripping me up.

 

[NimbusD]

Aww I thought this was about lone echo which could fit under the same title. But this looks super cool. I'm gonna check it out.

 

[Felensis]

Trailer hooked me instantly even though I've never heard something about this game beforehand. Jumped in day one on PS4 Pro.

This is the third Echo thread on GAF and the third one where I seem to be the only one with major issues.

Played only until chapter 2, gameplay hasn't even started, but thus far I've had two crashes to home menu, black cutscenes and huge drops in fps and resolution (intro level seems to be native or cbr 4k @60fps, afterwards it seems to be only 1080 plus fps drops).

Am I the only one?! Reported this to the devs on Twitter, they only said they'll look into it.

 

[kikiribu]

I want to get this for PS4 Pro but if the frame rate sucks, that’s not gonna happen. I’ll support the game when they fix the frame rate.

 

[Danjin44]

Why in hell haven't heard of this game till now!!? It looks really cool, especially digging the main character's looks and the visuals looks beautiful. Im definitely getting this.

 

[Bishop89]

Looks cool

 

[thekiddfran]

Looks great and only 23 Euro on PSN

 

[spineduke]

thanks for spotlighting this - definitely got me intrigued.

 

[raviolico]

Looks cool and gives me BLAME! in white marble vibes.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Had my eye on this for a while. Tragically, I don’t have either the funds or the time to dig into this right now.

 

[Dance Inferno]

Didn't even know this thing existed. Looks great, I'll check it out.

 

[More_Badass]

Hmmm saw this and it looked neat but felt like one of those games that could be super jank. Glad to hear its not.

There is some jank. The crouch animation looks weird, the AI can seem dumb at times (although in this case, it kind of makes sense narratively), the gameplay could be refined more to really draw out all the potential of the concept.

But the overall vision and design is very strong. The story, aesthetic, and concept have been outweighing any lacking elements in the gameplay and such so far for me. Even when I hit snags gameplay-wise, I want to keep playing to see what happens next and learn more about the world and characters

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

I am officially intrigued.
Thank you for bringing this game to our attention, OP!

 

[Piichan]

Never heard of this, but it looks pretty sick. Thanks for putting this on my radar. I'll look for it next time I'm browsing the PSN store.

 

[Plumpbiscuit]

The problem with this is how strictly linear it is even with its advertised mechanic of "adaptive AI", it only goes so far and only mirrors certain actions. There's also a lack of unlockables, variety in locations, a structured and deep story and janky stealth mechanics. But for its price, I'd say it's worth it if you can overlook the game's lack of complexity.

 

[doemaaan]

Ok, it's on the list. 👍

 

[raviolico]

The reference books that line the shelves of developer Ultra Ultra's modest Copenhagen office offers insight into the aesthetic of its first game, Echo.
There's a book of 19th Century Interior Design and a book of Venetian photography.
Prometheus: The Art of the Film and Star Wars provide sci-fi reference points,
while Metal Gear Solid, Blame! and Neon Genesis Evangelion—all three of which are represented in some form on the shelf—provide the inspiration for character design.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/08/echo-hitman-preview/

Nice article. And yup, BLAME! Inspiration.

So...PS4pro or PC? hm.

 

[DyslexicAlucard]

I definitely want to pick it up when it's on sale (as I have a ton on my backlog.) Also, I'll use any excuse to link this Giant Bomb clip.

 

[Patrick Young]

Before looking I was gonna say I can't add another game because Mario is coming, but once I saw the screenshots I realised this is the game with one map repeated a million times that Vinny played.

You're right, OP. Definitely not playing.

 

[TitusTroy]

pre-release I was intrigued but felt that it might get repetitive fast...does it hold up well over the entire game?

 

[Turin Turambar]

This game is rad. Its the closest a game has ever gotten, for me, to capturing the high-sci-fi space weirdness of the words of Ian Banks, or Alastair Reynolds. The actual gameplay loses a bit of steam towards the end, but its overall one of the tightest integrations of aesthetic design, narrative design and gameplay design I've ever encountered. Its almost perfect?

Banks? Reynolds? This post convinced me, I have to try this game!

 

[DocSeuss]

Before looking I was gonna say I can't add another game because Mario is coming, but once I saw the screenshots I realised this is the game with one map repeated a million times that Vinny played.

You're right, OP. Definitely not playing.

Could you explain this bizarre post? Who is Vinny? Why is this a bad thing? Why waste your time on the billionth mario game?

 

[pakkit]

Could you explain this bizarre post? Who is Vinny? Why is this a bad thing? Why waste your time on the billionth mario game?

Vinesauce, he's a Let's Player that plays a lot of indies. He isn't very critical though, so I can see why people might be dismissive of indies on his channel.

I have heard repetitive design is the drawback here, but visually? This game looks incredible.

 

[Intel_89]

You're right, I'm not playing it. It seems really interesting but I already have a lot on my plate, will grab it on sale.

 

[AudioEppa]

The art looks cool, but everything else looks so-so.


I’ll think about it whenever it’s on sale.

 

[Kuksune]

It looks good, i'll probably buy it on PC when i get my paycheck.

 

[Ratrat]

Stealth and science fiction? I want it.

 

[SomTervo]

Wow, this looks brilliant, and super unique concept. Will look into it.

 

[smashballTaz]

Been very interested in this since I heard about it and watched Giantbomb's coverage. It's high up on my wishlist. Might even splash out on it later today.