It’s amazing how far indie games have come. Just a decade back, an indie project was expected to just be a 2D platformer with some quirky mechanic to toy around with. Now we have games like ECHO - fully realized experiences on the same level as some AAA productions with the ingenuity of independent developers.
In many ways, ECHO is the long-lost sibling ofHellblade. Both games are lavishly detailed, star great female leads, and center around the sort of gameplay mechanic that more recent AAA productions would consider too risky. Where Hellblade leaned into clinical psychosis and schizophrenia, ECHO centers itself around memory and learning - both literally and metaphorically. It’s a game that learns from you how to best hunt you down in a manner simple in concept yet astonishingly clever in execution.
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ECHO stars En, one of the genetically altered progeny of a mysterious benefactor she affectionately remembers as “Gramps.” En is the only human face you’ll see as you play through the game, though she’s not alone. Her bitter companion, London, a shipboard AI that blames En for a past mistake, regularly chimes in, so she isn’t simply talking to herself. Though they’re not on the best of terms, their dialogue is superb - never outstaying it’s welcome, giving just enough spice and context to keep you engaged. To reveal more is to spoil the drip-feed reveals at the heart of the pair’s journey.
The level of precision to ECHO is like that of a Swiss watch. It all connects neatly into an unforgettable package.
All you need to know is that they’ve traveled far to find the mysterious Palace - an ancient station, larger than a Death Star, and even more cavernous. It’s a self-sustaining construct full of gorgeous Victorian and Neo-Gothic architecture, as well as a deadly security system: the ability to duplicate anyone who trespasses, and learn from them.
Due to a glitch in the system, the Palace can’t quite perfectly replicate an army of clones against you. Instead, they can only keep track of a handful of behaviors as they stalk you through infinite, gorgeous halls that go deeper and deeper. If you exhibit enough new actions, the system has to reboot, granting you precious moments where the Palace can’t track you and any duplicates you eliminate stay dead until the next reboot. This is a double-edged sword. With every system reset, your opponents gain and lose abilities in equal measure.
In most stealth games, you either have to ghost everything or just snap every neck between you and the primary objective. ECHO doesn’t settle for the traditional mold, demanding you take risks - calculated risks, but still risks. Every action has weight, whether it’s pressing a key on a piano or shooting an enemy in the head. You can encourage rather hilarious actions by your opponents, such as getting them to all play instruments like a band. In other cases, being too gung-ho can result in enemies as agile and lethal as you are appearing.
It’s a total paradigm shift despite being so simple in design. Suddenly every new action holds merit. Using the entire sandbox of possibilities is crucial to your survival. Whatever mobility and combat options your opponents haven’t learned might just be what saves you - even something as simple as mantling, or being able to traverse water. You’d think that with your duplicates being mindless, manipulable drones would make them unintimidating, but that knife’s edge risk of them getting the upper hand always has you on the backfoot.
This is on top of layered gameplay systems like your local radar being tied to your long distance scanner. What’s more important to you? A brief glimpse of the entire area, or a constant sphere of awareness to know when enemies might detect you or ambush from behind? Can you afford to waste time waiting for the radar to return to normal? This is what great stealth gameplay is made of. Your HUD is also fully integrated into En’s suit, keeping all tactical information clear, concise, and immersive.
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All of this is tied together wonderfully by ECHO’s atmosphere. The Palace is so unnervingly sterile, with faint musical cues stalking you like your duplicates, just waiting around the corner. The ominous drumbeats when the Palace goes into reset send your heart pounding, wondering if you’re able to make it just far enough before the ironically serene tones greet you to let you know that your clones awaken with fresh knowledge on how to track you down.
The sheer uncanniness of these luminal space, occupied with nothing but lifeless furniture and your duplicates, is absolutely eerie. En’s ruthless copies tap into that primal fear that crawls up your spine when staring at wax figures or old porcelain dolls. There’s enough emotion on their faces thatsomethingis going on inside, but whatever it is most certainly isn’t human. The Palace may pretend to be a place that people once resided in, but the deeper you delve, the clearer it becomes that you’re in the belly of an eldritch, mechanical beast. You do not belong here, and it will root you out of its bowels, one way or another.
That ECHO manages all this without overstaying its welcome or running out of ideas is a true masterstroke - the level of precision to ECHO is like that of a Swiss watch. It all connects neatly into an unforgettable package. It’s a real shame the team at ULTRA ULTRA had to disband before producing more games, because five years on, there’s no blend of uncanny sci-fi gothic horror stealth-action quite like it. So if you want something truly unique to play for a spooky good time in outer space, there are few options better than ECHO.
