Echoes of the End Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

Indie developers continue to flood gaming with clever ideas, ones we haven’t quite seen before. And when they are similar to already staple franchises, they impress with their ambition, despite a low budget. Echoes of the End is one of those games whose premise might be familiar to action-adventure gamers. Its combat is certainly nothing new, borrowing from genre tropes we’ve seen before. However, there are subtle creative ideas and some bold, unforgettable ones, certainly with their emphasis on Icelandic nature. Wondering if this game is right for you? Find below everything you’ll like, love, and probably detest in our Echoes of the End review. 

Ends of the Earth

When your brother is taken away, you swear to go to the ends of the Earth to get him back. There are, of course, more intricate bits to the story besides this overall motivation to keep forging on. The fact that you’re the only one who can wield magic without wearing a certain bracelet on your arm. And for this reason, you’re hunted by a totalitarian organization looking to use your abilities for ill-fated ideas.

On your brave quest, you also run into a family friend who carries motives of his own. But since your intentions and theirs find a common goal in seeking the kidnappers of your brother, you decide to work together to save him. And the world. Let’s not forget saving the world while at it. 

To Be a Vestige

Rushing over the story because it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, particularly if you’re an avid player of action-adventure. In fact, the similarities in the story will seep over to the combat and overall exploration of the world. However, there are subtle differences you’ll notice. The story here, for instance, is rooted in a unique culture and lore.

A world of Vestiges, the protagonist, and warriors, intermarrying Vestige’s powerful but volatile magic with the thirst for power and control. The lore is compelling to discover and understand, although rushed at points, or failing to have its intended emotional or otherwise impact. 

It’s not a perfect story, certainly not one you’ll reach the credits roll with tears welling in your ears, your soul craving more exposition, among other wants profound, compelling stories usually leave you with. You might even be relieved to have wrapped it up, with the writing and voice acting hardly the strongholds holding the plot up. If anything, character development carries the most weight, with the protagonist and her companion likable, and even undergoing a keen growth in trust and identity. 

To the Naked Eye

What’s the story’s saving grace? It's the worldbuilding. By God, does Echoes of the End look stunning. The marketing material is enough to draw curiosity over the lavish vistas and breathtaking rolling plains featured. The snowy mountains of Iceland are jaw-dropping and a complete joy to be traversing.

From the impeccable detail to the stunning variety of the biomes, all do justice to the untamed beauty of Iceland. And as you forge on ahead, discovering fiery lava fields and weathered ruins, you can’t help but yearn for more. More of the glacial mountains. More of the volcanic valleys. Gimme it, gimme more. 

And there’s the balance between the real adaptation of these regions to Iceland, but also the recreation of fantasy lands. Quite the perfect balance between a world so surreal and dangerous, but also with that special fantasy feeling of stepping into a world different from your own.

Broken Pieces Together

With the stunning world creation comes environmental puzzles, endearing and pleasing to solve. You navigate through the world using your everyday toolsets: climbing up highlighted regions, double jumping and air dashing, and swinging on ropes over gaps. It’s all standard until you begin to play around with the magical abilities. These are the game changers. Your companion can freeze elements in place.

Meanwhile, the protagonist has a more diverse toolset, enabling her to manipulate gravity, cast illusions, and even reshape the world. It’s a time manipulation ability that allows you to rewind, fast forward, and freeze time. And how you use these abilities is pretty versatile, be it creating illusions to manipulate what you see, revealing hidden pathways, destroying objects, and reshaping environments.

Environmental puzzles are where Echoes of the End’s greatest effort is at full display. It’s pretty deep and strategic, challenging you to often think outside the box. Being linear, you’ll hardly get lost, and the solutions will often be hidden somewhere before you. However, some puzzles can be challenging to figure out on the go. They can take a bit of while, though it's never impossible to fan out. That’s the beauty of Echoes of the End’s puzzles, that they find that sweet spot between challenging and solvable. Still, if you happen to get completely stuck, you can always use the hint system to move forward, which will, a bit annoyingly, always be offered to you, even when you’re all good.

A Little Sword, A Little Magic

Echoes of the End has swordplay at the core of its combat system. And your go-to are the usual slashes, dodges, and parries. It does feel a bit stiffer than I’d like, with the strikes not quite feeling satisfying. The dodges and parries, too, can be pretty unresponsive, which is quite frustrating when you’re in the heat of battle. You’ll be facing streams of enemy soldiers and hostile wildlife.

So, having your defense system fail you by no fault of your own is a no-no. If you can time the dodges and parries, though, anticipating the enemy’s attack before you get into a combo or attack, you might get away with defending yourself, though that shouldn’t have been on the table as far as a smooth and fluid combat system is concerned. 

Your magic abilities are reliable, on the other hand. You’ll strike down foes with a powerful blast, grab and swing them around, over a ledge if you like, or slam them into one another for double impact. Your companion can also come in pretty handy when they inflict frost damage on enemies on your command or otherwise freeze them in place for a counterattack. He can stun enemies, giving you the perfect opening and window of opportunity to strike. 

Glitch or Two

However fun it can be at times, the enemy variety soon thins out. You’ll fight similar soldier types to begin to grow on you. Fortunately, boss battles relieve you of any frustration before it permanently sets in, and you quit ahead of the credits. Still, it’s sad that combat isn’t the weakest point of Echoes of the End. If anything, the environmental puzzles are more creative and clever.

Perhaps even more in number than you might perceive of an action-adventure. If combat received the same TLC as puzzles, or maybe even more TLC, Echoes of the End might have left a more significant impact, alongside a stronger story as well. 

Sadly, the issues extend to the performance, where, well, everything in the bug book exists here. Despite the visually stunning and striking world, it can be drastically let down by frame rate drops, awkward camera angles, stuttering, texture pop-ins, and more technical issues. While some of these will likely be fixed in patch updates, some run too deep to perceive any intervention. They are integral to the combat and world design, which might take a more extended effort to fix them. 

Verdict

While there are lots of good ideas and certainly memorable segments to love and adore from Echoes of the End, it can be bogged down by one too many faults. The puzzles and worldbuilding are certainly its strongest suits. Be it variety, intricate detail, and deep thought process behind the designs, you’ll find lots to love and appreciate in the puzzle-solving and exploration gameplay elements. 

Aspects like combat do have their strengths, but equally, weaknesses. It’s fun at times to rid the world of enemies looking to destroy it. Yet, movement can feel stiff and unsatisfying. And some of the controls, mainly parries, can be unresponsive. When in the heat of the battle, the last thing you want is for your parries not to work, resulting in taking damage you might have otherwise avoided. Still, you cannot deny the joy of wielding magic against opponents, supported by your companion’s frost-based abilities. You can grab and throw enemies around, and even siphon health and energy from them. 

The story, as well, suffers the same fate as the combat. It has its moments, especially when following the growth journeys of the protagonist and her companion. Yet, the weak voice acting, writing, pacing, and general predictability of the story result in an overall bland narrative. A few twists will get you, and certain interesting lore will even keep you around till the credits roll. But will this be a story you remember weeks on? Certainly not.

There’s no denying the untamed beauty of the Iceland-inspired fantasy world of Echoes of the End. It’s only certain bits that still need more baking in the oven for it to truly reach the heights of the Triple-A action-adventure games it’s up against.