With massive budget open worlds like Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed, or linear blockbusters such as The Last Of Us or God of War, it’s hard for smaller scale titles to make a mark in the world of third person action adventure games. Yet, Iceland-based AA studio Myrkur Games debuts precisely with that, a fantasy cinematic romp in Unreal Engine 5 beyond the end of our world. Here’s our review for Echoes of the End, tested on PC and Xbox alike.
A world that once was
The player hops into the shoes of Ryn, a capable magic-wielder who’s roaming the once thriving world of Aema, now torn apart by endless conflict with very few left alive to tell the tale. The tale begins with Ryn and her brother, tackling some troll-like mountain creatures, from human-sized ones to way larger than that, through a combat system not too dissimilar from what you can expect in a grounded fantasy game like this. Sword, a bit of telekinesis and magic, dodges – you know the drill. It doesn’t take long before the adventure goes sideways, as the brother gets captured by the rivaling faction of Dalsmen, with Ryn having to save him. While she’s at it, the world too, I guess, since that’s how these adventures go.
Through some well-made dialogues, dubs and cutscenes (with even some answer-picking of our own), we get to learn a lot of every characters’ backgrounds, motivations, but also of this captivating end of the world scenario in Aema, with the dialogue playing just as an important part as exploration and combat. Before long, our journey will find a new companion in the form of Abram, a skilled warrior with some spooky secrets of his own, whom the player can even interact in combat to form some deadly combos and double-manned finishers. Likewise, the exploration features a lot of puzzles with boxes, levers, moving platforms and more, with our companions’ powers (be it Ryn’s brother or Abram) that we can dictate ourselves, indicating where and how to use ’em to solve the situation at hand.
Holding your hand to the very end
Other than all the puzzles and combat, most levels follow a very linear structure, with very few alternate pathways usually leading to some collectibles, power upgrades and so forth. They tend to be quite easy to find, though a couple do require some surprising amount of walking and platforming – to a point that you’d almost think it is the main path. Don’t fret it though, because as it often happens in today’s games, our characters tend to talk – a lot. This is normally hardly an issue, since there’s some quality banter and nice character arcs to follow, but way too often our heroes shout the solution to the puzzle or the direction to go, making an already linear game that much more predictable.
Indeed, Echoes of the End falls into the trap that a lot of smaller budget third person action adventure games can hardly seem to avoid – be it the surprisingly exciting Scars Above or last year’s sadly overlooked Bandai Namco multimedia project’s videogame, Unkown 9: Awakening. That is, the gameplay is way too safe and formulaic. The combat feels like something we played countless times in better forms, and while telekinesis and a few powers add some spice to it, it’s hardly anything we haven’t seen before. Indeed, the puzzles too and most of the modern Tomb Raider/Uncharted-esque climbing, jumping, rope-swining and such feel like a mish-mash of things I’ve seen and done way too many times to be impressed. The last two God of War games, in particular, seem to have been a large inspiration in a lot of ways – all the way down to an awfully familiar boat sequence.
I like it here
That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot to praise about Echoes of the End, as the general worldbuilding and story are definitely sound. I’ll avoid spoilers, but there’s a not too surprising, yet certainly engaging plot, enriched by strong characters and the aforementioned well-written and well-dubbed dialogue. The sights in the world of Aema, too, are quite great, especially considering this game was made by a relatively small 40-member team at their first such experience no less (though, as quite famously the case with the hit sensation Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it is very possible the team has employed external contractors in abundance).
What is less great is the game’s technical presentation, which on PC was certainly uneven. Be it on a weaker laptop or the MSI Claw or a beefier gaming rig, a not particularly optimized implementation of the powerful Unreal Engine 5 left me with all sorts of stutters, poor framerate and all sorts of glitches, on top of a handful of faulty hit detections, invisible barriers and more. Fortunately, the situation is better on console, but even on Xbox Series X the game seems to be running around the Low-Medium settings of the game, with a “soft” look that betrays a dynamic resolution that dips way too low for a 4K TV most of the time. The situation improves when playing in Graphics Mode, which toggles a 30fps cap instrad of Performance mode’s 60, but the game becomes a tad too choppy that way. Without the tools, I can’t say for certain what the resolution was, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it averaged under 1080p in many situations.
A budget action adventure that may be worth your time
With a decent skill tree, some collectibles to find and a handful of difficulty spikes, it took me just over 10 hours to get through the game’s one and done story, one I enjoyed pretty much all the way. As said, some of the gameplay was old even in the opening minutes, let alone by the end, but that didn’t dramatically impact my enjoyment of Echoes of the End.
It’s a good-looking, if not very well-performing Unreal Engine 5 game that shows us a cool world, it populates it with an interesting lore and rich characters, and gives them just enough meat to get through a couple sessions’ worth of single player third person action adventure campaign, with a combat that is just enjoyable enough to last the ride. If that sounds like your jam, it’s cheaper than most AAA games of this kind, launching at under 40USD/EUR, with even a 10% launch discount. The lower budget is felt in a lot of areas, but fans of the genre who can close an eye on such things should have a good time with Echoes of the End.
Echoes of the End
Played on
PC, Xbox Series X
PROS
- A lovely fantasy world that's been torn to pieces
- Great characters and dialogues
- Ends before it gets boring
- Inviting launch price
- Enjoyable combat...
CONS
- ...though rather formulaic
- Exploration and puzzles, too, are very safe
- Not very well optimized
- Not much player agency
