NobleGamer ECHO Review

I recommend this in a game bundle or deep sale as a third person adventure-ish game centered on using stealth and/or action to get past learning enemies, with an occasional walking sim interlude to build the story through dialog. The game is unique and beautiful but not terribly complex, which presents a tradeoff that it is less likely to overstay its welcome when using a difficulty level that provides ample challenge, but at the cost of depth that some players may hope for. The core gameplay takes place in a seemingly infinite majestic Palace full of clones of yourself which must get past them by any means necessary, but after the Palace restarts, the clones can do any of the action types that you did while the lights were on during the last cycle. There is a time between the lights being on, and lights rebooting where the lights go dark and the Palace cannot learn your actions. I believe it took the concept as far as it could. First, I want to address some common complaints about the game: ?Complaint 1: The game is too hard - People can adjust this for any level at any difficulty, which is imperative if Normal is too hard or too easy, which I had to do with the first orb level and a few other levels. Two additional difficulties are unlocked after reaching the end of the story for the first time. -Save gates may not have been available in the first orb level (or I missed it?), but are available shortly after in later levels. +Any prior level can be revisited to pickup energy crystals that will increase max energy capacity, or audio files if you really want to decrypt the one (visual) message per act that is available. ?Complaint 2: Avoiding run & gun is tough - I have found that shove & run and some patience are my most common techniques if I cannot avoid being detected, but there is ample cover for hiding & crouching which I used less early on but very often in the final act. Whether run & gun is "necessary" in any situation is mostly a matter of playstyle preference, choices, and skill & difficulty. I lean a bit toward stealth, but I think I used guns on 5% or less of enemies. Gun use is a last resort, even in the dark, because it uses energy, and energy isn't always easy to access depending on your location. -Complaint 3: The ending of the story - It is not as intriguing to me as the rest of the story, and may be a let down for some people. I played this game for its adventure & enemy learning mechanics, not its story, so the ending wasn't very disappointing for me. I think the story ended at the right time in terms of exploring the gameplay concepts provided. Here is what else you need to know: ?The game starts with a long walking sim type introduction (<1 hr), and there are shorter walking sim interludes as little as a few minutes or as much as 15-20 minutes. My guess is that such dialog-only parts are about 2 hours total out of the 7 that I played to reach the end on mostly Normal difficulty. The dynamic between the main character, Em, and her assistant, London, is decent along with the story. +The mechanics and enemy abilities slowly build up, which makes for streamlined learning instead of a up front big bang tutorial. Ample help illustrations and text as such new things are introduced. +What clones learn next cycle while lights are on is a bit more simple than I expected, but it is no less challenging: Opening doors/elevators/bridges, vaulting walls, sprinting, crouch walking, walking across shallow water, which attacks/weapon(s) can be used, etc. +In the beginning and mid game, it is mildly terrifying but satisfying when clones jump down from a ledge or vault a table to come after you. +Lights off is well balanced because not only does make enemy visibility worse and enemies can't learn, but some things cant be used like energy orbs cant be collected and save gates can't be used. -When on a get-the-orbs level, and you get all the orbs instead of the small number to exit the level, then all it will do is unlock one specific item. First, see the Unlocks menu to see if you want any of the unlocks. If not, then don't sweat the large number of orbs. ?The psych horror elements go as far as clones wanting to kill you with their bare hands, what En has dealt with in her past, and some of what she learns. No other real horror here. Blood can be disabled, as I have done. -The clones' struggle/kill animation and stutter audio can get repetitive, but the goal is to avoid that anyways through your own stealth, shoving, shooting, or stealth strangles. Thankfully your own animations for killing clones do not have the same audio or animation. ?The music and ambient SFX do a couple of things: Indicate threat level or how close danger is, how close the Palace is to shutting lights off, and how close the Palace is to a restart (lights on). ?There are a couple of different times where there's a break from the typical means of progression, typical being: Get through a level, get keys (from places or enemies) to unlock next door, or collect the orbs to unlock the next level.