ECHO was developed and published by the Danish indie studio Ultra Ultra, and was released on the 19th of December of 2017. Unfortunately, the game was not a financial success, and ended up being the only game released by Ultra Ultra before they shut down.
After spending a century in stasis, En arrives at her destination call “The Palace”, an enormous technological construct the size of a planet that bears a resemblance to the Palace of Versailles. En is a designer baby called a “Resourceful” that was freed from her Bread and Circuses life by a man named Foster. Foster was heavily injured during the rescue, and En was forced to “translate” him into a small, red cube. In an attempt to pay him back, En plans to traverse “The Palace” to find a way to restore him to his original body.
Soon after entering “The Palace” and turning it on, En finds that “The Palace” is seemingly alive and filled with numerous clones of her, all attempting to kill her, that she gives the title of “Echoes” And this is where the gameplay loop of Echo comes in.
Because of the power that “The Palace” takes in having the “Echoes” AI learn from your movement, “The Palace” runs on five-minute cycles in which every 5 minutes, “The Palace” shuts down and then reboots. Whatever moves you make during these 5 minutes, the AI will have learned to use, and then apply after the reboot. Thankfully, they only learn the moves you used in the last cycle, and it’s not a cumulative learned experience, which means if you did something last cycle, but didn’t use it in the current cycle, the “Echoes” won’t use it the next cycle.
In between cycles, the is a blackout where “The Palace” is teaching the “Echoes” what you did during the last cycle. During this down period, “Echoes” won’t learn from your actions, but it’s short, so you should plan your actions in advance and use your time wisely.
Graphically, the game looks great. Like I mentioned earlier, each area involving the “Echoes” resembles the Palace of Versailles, and have quite the sense of scale to them, even if the gameplay area isn’t as big as the visuals give off. Graphically, the game looks great, even if it ends up looking a bit samey by the end of it. The soundtrack is also pretty good, also does a good job of adding a haunting empty feeling to the large halls of the “The Palace”, and is quite nice in a lot of places.
The game is on the shorter side, and unfortunately, does feel a tad underwhelming by the end of it. I don’t know how much you can expand on the game without the gameplay loop getting tiring after a while, but there is a universe here and I wouldn’t minded more of it. Sadly, the development company behind this game, Ultra Ultra, shut down not too long after this game came out, so there’s not much of a chance of a sequel coming out. Here’s hoping that if there is a chance of a sequel coming ever coming out, it keeps the low-scale story of the first game.
Apparently a film adaptation is in the works too, but I don’t think it will ever see the light of day.
Unfortunately, Echo is just OK. While I can recommend it, it’s a lukewarm recommendation. If you’re eying this game, you should probably wait for a sale.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/551770/ECHO/
Cult Classic Corner - Video Games 