Echo Weaver

This game is just brilliant. Short summary: it’s a MV focused on platforming, exploration and puzzles. There’s technically combat, but it’s never the focus, and there’s not even bosses so far (I’m pretty far into the game), in case that’s an issue. Which is very funny, because I hadn’t realised that there are no bosses until I typed this, for real, LOL. That’s how good this game is: it doesn’t really need them. The big (enormous) difference this game brings is that it’s technically a MetroidBrainia. It draws the most inspiration of Outer Wilds, a game that despite its frustrating controls, it’s a unique piece of art. The way it applies knowledge is closer to how Tunic handles some of its knowledge-based ‘upgrades’. But unlike Tunic, there are no traditional blocked upgrades: every time you gain a new ability, you just are revealed how to do something that you could have done all along. Every single ability is available from the start, you just don’t know how to activate them. And trust me, they’re really clever. Almost every ability feels novel and sometimes mind-blowing. Every new upgrade you “unlock” feels like a revelation that changes how you’ve seen the world and interacted to it. No simple “ah now I can climb walls I guess” power-ups here. If you were to replay the game with all the knowledge, you could speedrun the whole thing and “break” everything, just like with Outer Wilds (the only “downside” to this kind of games, the first experience can never be replicated!) The only real locked power-ups are the typical health/healing upgrades that are the only pickups from the map. If anyone is willing to try something different that brings the MV formula to entirely new grounds, please give this game a go! It deserves all love it can get. It’s plain brilliant, the art is awesome and it shows how much love, care and fun ideas were poured into it. Oh, and I’m liking the plot too, very much. In a year with awesome MV releases, Echo Weaver is definitely in my top 3 of the year, even if just because of how much it innovates and does things no other MV has done so far. Despite how good some games we get are, and how good we’re eating, I’m personally getting tired of gaining the same exact few abilities in every single MV I play, you know? This game, however, felt so fresh and fun to puzzle my way out. (I haven’t finished it yet, but I think I’ve unlocked almost all of the power-ups by now).

I have not beaten this game yet, but I'm about 4.5 hours in and can give you the experience up until there. When the formula works in this game, it WORKS. Its great to learn that a shortcut to a place much later was near you all along. The game is very clever with its use of mechanics and how it unveils them. All of this worked really well until I got to the "fix the pipes' area. Then...some cracks started to show. Ambiguity and vagueness work best with a limited array of options. Being able to say, "I've crossed this section off, lets try here" is essential to figuring things out. The relatively contained maps up until this point let you do that. But here? The maps are too big. I'm unsure if I've explored every nook and cranny. Did I miss a direction? A note to read? Should I have learned an ability to get past this or come back later? Instead of finding one or two clues to fix the major problem, its now several scattered across several stages of maps. I'm starting to feel stressed at this time that I've simply missed something. This was fine in a contained map, but these open maps mean lots of backtracking. That's not very fun, but the tolerance for this may be different for others. For me, after around 30 minutes to an hour of searching with no avail, I'm generally done or look up a guide. But I'll still recommend this. A lot of effort went into this and the first couple of hours of puzzles and secrets are fantastic. Be prepared for a large mid game though and prepare to comb over the same area several times.