Appropriately, I would like to open things up by discussing the meaning of the term ‘Vestige.’ A trace or a remnant of something that no longer exists. Sony’s near-monopoly on the blockbuster action-adventure space in recent years has meant that we have seen fewer and fewer of these contenders, or vestiges, appearing within the industry.
Action-adventure epics that don’t need a Kratos or a Nathan Drake to sell copies, but still offer a worthwhile adventure for fans to enjoy. These are becoming more of a rarity in recent years, and it means that we need to treasure and appreciate them when they come along.
Echoes of the End is one such game, placing you in the shoes of Ryn, a powerful Vestige seeking to protect her home, and maintain the Wards of the realm. But as you might expect, it won’t be quite as simple as wandering around taking in the pretty sights.
It’s a game that promises top-tier action, heartfelt moments, dynamic combat, and much more. But the question remains, is this AA underdog able to mix it with the big boys? We find out in our Echoes of the End review, conducted on PC.
Fantasy Paint By Numbers
Diving right into the core narrative, let me tell you up front that Echoes of the End is very thrifty and resourceful when it comes to storytelling. As it offers very little in the way of detail, intrigue, or new ideas within the fantasy arena. Yet, it manages to stretch it out like a big string of taffy for tens of hours.
The core of the plot revolves around a group of enemies called the Dalsmen, who happen to have their own Vestige to rival your protagonist, Ryn. However, she’s not so keen on keeping the peace, and instead is out to destroy your home and take over by any means necessary.
This leads to the capture of your brother, thus giving you motivation to chase them down and stop the inevitable end of the world. You gain a new companion along the way, you visit new areas and biomes on your journey, and you gain some understanding of the world’s make-up into the bargain. But the story doesn’t really develop much beyond that.
There is a great reliance on the two traveling characters, Abram and Ryn, to flesh out this narrative through conversational dialogue and ramblings, which succeeds to an extent. But the issue is that everything feels so generic, templated, and archetypal.
Never did I feel like the game was working to make me care for the major players that make up this world’s society. Nor did I feel that the lore was anywhere detailed and deep enough to allow me to do so, even if I wanted to.
You simply work through a series of cookie-cutter fantasy environments from one chapter to the next, aiding your magical good guys chase down the magical bad guys, with a few convenient spanners thrown into the works to keep you at arm’s length.
The one positive is that the growing bond between Abram and Ryn as the story develops is clear to see, and even though these characters are born from typical archetypes, like Ryn being the hardened veteran with childhood trauma, for example. These characters serve as the glue holding this lukewarm story together.
But even with some interesting character development present, I assure you that long before you start hearing the echoes of the end credits, you’ll be ready and willing to call it a day.
The Wards Are Corrupted
One thing that has to be praised about Echoes of the End’s pre-release is that the developer chose to showcase a bucket-load of actual gameplay, so players who have been eyeing this game for a while have a pretty good idea of what they are signing up for.
However, it seems that the choice to showcase a lot of footage captured on PS5 was a calculated one, as the performance on PC has been pretty shocking to say the least.
I’ll caveat this by saying that, at peak performance, this game is a visual spectacle, as is obvious when you look at the slew of beautiful snaps of vistas and glorious eye-candy I’ve included. But it’s when the facade drops that you see the cracks.
I don’t have a rig boasting an RTX 5090, because, quite frankly, who does? But I do have one that far outperforms the minimum requirements, and even having dialed the game down to potato settings at times, Echoes of the End kept faltering at every turn.
Not to waste your time, I’ll just give you a taster of what you can expect. Expect frame rate drops and stuttering that grind action to a halt when loading in a new area. Expect pop-ins, enemies spawning out of thin air, and hard load screens in a game that clearly takes pride in its seamless cut-scene to gameplay transitions.
So, in a way, it’s nice to see a game within this genre come along that knows precisely what it wants to be. Echoes of the End, without a shadow of a doubt, wants desperately to be God of War.
Plus, expect extreme performance drops when engaged in battles with a lot of things happening on screen, or during busy cutscenes.
I would love to caveat this by saying that a day-one patch will likely come along and leave me with egg on my face. But, considering just how bad these issues were at times, and how baked into the bread of the game’s design some of these issues are, I wouldn’t count on it.
If you may struggle through the bad parts, I would say the other 90% of the time spent with the game will run smoothly, making it a worthwhile venture. But, undoubtedly, these problems will leave a sour taste and detract from the impact of these marquee moments.
Midgard Or Bust
So, let’s talk about the Spartan-shaped elephant in the room.
I have always seen the action-adventure genre as a very vague and versatile category filled with games that never really know what they want to be. You’ll have games that go big on set pieces, games that throw endless environmental puzzles your way, and gamesthat masquerade as RPGs, relying on a skill tree and item upgrades to achieve that ruse.
You can see and feel the similarities from the moment you begin this adventure, and this imitation comes with its perks and pitfalls. But we’ll touch on what works about this first, beginning with the puzzle design, which, for me, is the standout aspect of Echoes of the End.
Gameplay variety is not something this game can boast across the board, but credit where it’s due. The puzzles are well-designed, varied in approach, and introduce a steady stream of new gimmicks making use of the environment, Ryn’s vestige powers, and your trusty companion.
…platforming to something between the self-aware wonkiness of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the unintentional wonkiness of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.
Whether it’s using water wheels and magical dials to move around ancient structures, or using your powers to manipulate the fabric of time itself, each puzzle hits that sweet spot by offering challenge without being overly tough or frustrating.
Mercifully, these puzzles are what you’ll be doing most in this game, which means, if you like them, you’re in for a treat. As I assure you, everything that serves as an aside won’t be quite as appealing.
The Raw Magic Can’t Be Channeled
Aside from the puzzles the game cooks up for you, you’ll spend your time doing one of two things—platforming or fighting.
Platforming is certainly the most middle-of-the-road but inoffensive of the two, as this will mainly see the player shimmying across climbable structures, leaping across small gaps, and making use of traditional additions like double jumps and the like when the game deems it appropriate to give you that luxury.
It’s far from as refined as either of these games, but I would liken the platforming to something between the self-aware wonkiness of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the unintentional wonkiness of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.
At its best, it serves a purpose and effectively scratches the rat-brain when you clear a gap or make it through a platforming sequence. But, fair warning. Expect a whole bunch of cheap deaths that aren’t a skill issue in the slightest, and obligatory action-game mudslides to lower areas.
That said, the platforming looks pretty damn polished when compared to the combat. Which is a real shame, as this is where the game takes some of its biggest swings. But alas, good ideas and wasted potential don’t equate to a good combat system.
There is fun to be had with the combat, as the game gives you awealth of Vestige powersto experiment with, which only strengthen as you unlock more of your skill tree. Allowing you to use telekinetic powers to slam one enemy into another, force blast enemies in close proximity, and stun enemies with the help of your companion.
It’s clear that this setup is supposed to mirror the Kratos/Atreus setup within GOW, and at times, it does. But the problem is that the combat is just too slapdash and unreliable to ever feel like you’re in control.
You see, unless you are playing on the story difficulty, the parrying doesn’t register consistently, nor do some attacks in a combo, for that matter. Enemies have no stagger, allowing them to attack you despite you getting the jump on them. Dodges and rolls don’t feel super consistent or responsive, and generally, the combat just feels stiff and underwhelming.
Couple this with the fact that mana is the only real way to get through battles consistently, but unless you parry, it’s in short supply. Not to mention the fact that aside from a limited drain health power, you’re able to’t heal when needed, it leads to combat lacking fluidity, feeling like a chore, and simple encounters feeling artificially difficult due to unrefined systems.
I say this having beaten just about every demanding Souls game out there. Just play the game on story difficulty if you want to stand a chance of enjoying yourself, as the combat on higher difficulties will only lead to you putting this game down, possibly forever.
As mentioned, this game is a God of War clone from a gameplay perspective, but one issue I had with this is that it seems the developer doesn’t thoroughly understand what made the modern God of War games successful.
For clarity, I don’t always find direct comparisons like this fair or helpful, but when a game makes no effort to do its own thing, it backs me into a corner.
That said, it helps me highlight the game’s shortcomings with the added benefit of a reference point, and one I latched onto early was the brain-dead puzzle hints and constant monologue.
The game simply doesn’t trust the player to work things out for themselves, and usually, right from the moment you approach a puzzle, your companion will point out exactly what you need to do, which will be followed by a ‘do you want a hint’ prompt on screen soon after.
These puzzles aren’t tough. They simply require a little bit of trial and error, and I just wish games like this would trust the player to work things out on their own, as this guided approach effectively cheapens, or even downright steals that eureka moment from the player.
Second, the game has a god-awful checkpoint system that will place you sometimes close to a minute away from the segment you’re actually working on, which led to me giving up on optional puzzles and platforming sequences simply because of the inflated run-backs the game was forcing me through. Mechanical attention to detail, you simply take for granted in top-tier games of this ilk.
Then, third, to complete the hat-trick, you also have surreal moments that will take you out of the action and break immersion, such as companions leaping fifty feet in the air to clear a chasm and reach where you are after a fall, rather than just subtly spawning behind you out of sight.
These are all small foibles, but with each minor fumble, the feeling of inadequacy snowballs, and you can’t help but feel that the game as a whole was always destined to live in the shadow of the bigger boys within the genre.
Closing Comments
Echoes of the End is the epitome of a serviceable but ultimately underwhelming PS Plus or Game Pass fodder game. The game is visually striking, to be sure, but performance issues detract from the overall graphical splendor. Then, as for the gameplay, despite the puzzle design being a constant highlight, the shoddy combat and platforming lead to quite jarring peaks and valleys in the action. The onus is then left on the narrative to make this endeavor worthwhile, and while there is impressive character depth, the core narrative is a paint-by-numbers fantasy tale that does little to set itself apart from the pack. If you like action-adventure, and need a quick fix, this can scratch that itch. But, a game to rival the AAA goliaths, this is not.
