Echo Night
Score: 76% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Agetec Developer: FromSoftware Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure/ Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: The first thing that I feared about this game was that it was completely first person. I immediately popped a few Dramamines to counteract the upcoming vertigo and prepared to put my mind to the test. I was somewhat impressed by the three dimensional graphics that the programmers were able to pull off. They used a few PC tricks (i.e. Quake 2 - dark shadowing on walls) to cover up some of the blocky pixelation problems generally found in 3D PlayStation games. The textures hold together from a distance, but then fall slightly apart when you move up close on objects. As for sound, Echo Night shows nothing overly extraordinary. The only apparent music is a somewhat classical score which only initializes when you run into a ghost. The voiceovers are drab and monotonous. They almost make you feel like the voice actors were bored when reading their scripts.
Gameplay: O.K., basically you are warped through time onto a ship filled with ghosts. Each ghost cannot pass into the next realm of death because something in their life was left behind; or rather, something was left unfinished. Therefore, you must read books, collect notes, and examine items in order to solve puzzles that the ghosts you meet give you. Echo Night focuses on the thinking gamer. There is relatively no action whatsoever in this game, so if you wanna kill something, put this game down and keep your hands where I can see them. Therefore, if you like to spend a little time adding a few more convolutions to those wonderful gaming cerebellums, then I would definitely recommend this game to you.
Difficulty: For a puzzle-based game, I found Echo Night to be slightly on the easier end of the difficulty spectrum. The puzzles are not extremely complicated, it is merely a matter of listening carefully to the ghosts and using a little common sense to decipher what it is that they want. I also found that many puzzles get repetitive, and the game is relatively short. However, I believe the programmers were more interested in creating a quality gaming atmosphere and experience over extensive gameplay or difficulty. Echo Night appears to really use a large lump of the PlayStation’s capabilities.
Game Mechanics: First and foremost, Echo Night moves at an extremely slow pace. When you start the game, immediately go to the Options to increase gameplay speed. The game interface is well thought out and is extremely user friendly. You can simply grab an item and use it whenever you think it is necessary, or you simply click on the Select menu to access items found throughout the game. The environments are not overly complex, and the control is very responsive, which of course is always a plus in a first person game. However, if first person games make you a little queasy, Echo Night is no exception, so get your barf bags ready and play lying on your side. I’ll admit that Echo Night is a nice change of gaming style for PlayStation owners, but I suggest renting it first to see if you like it before buying it.
-Sabumnim, GameVortex Communications AKA Larry Callier
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