MINI-REVIEW: Echo: Secrets of the Lost Cavern
Andrew Plotkin
(Review copyright 2007, Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com>)
(Or "Secret of the Lost Cavern". I guess a one-letter title change is better
than some we've seen; but I still have to mention the alternate title, for
full Googlage.)
This game seems to have come out of several studios collaborating -- or
maybe just passing a hot potato back and forth. Kheops is listed first, and
the engine has Kheops's tidy feel, but the credits also cite Totem Studios
(for the original idea and overall project management) and MZone Studio
(graphics work?) (But MZone also lists _Mysterious Island_ and _Voyage_ in
their portfolio, so maybe I should just assume that they're permanent
partners of Kheops. Or maybe I should lighten up on the authorship obsession
and talk about the game.)
_Echo_ has a nice premise; you're a Stone Age hunter and budding painter, on
a quest to reach the caves that today we call Lascaux. (If you don't
recognize the name, think of paleolithic cave paintings. The ones you've
seen photos of. That's Lascaux.)
This is educational gaming, of course, but then so was _Return to Mysterious
Island_. You get an in-game encyclopedia about Life In Those Days. More
importantly, all the game elements and story events are drawn from that
knowledge: you hunt, you fish, you use stone tools. And, of course, you
paint on cave walls.
This sort of didactic game can be smothering, but _Echo_ keeps it lively.
The game events occur from a genuine -- well, plausibly genuine --
prehistoric point of view. You are not a scientist in animal skins. Figures
drawn on a cave wall are spirits, capable of aiding you on your quest. And
they're *presented* that way. They come to life; some guide you, others give
you the power to achieve great feats. The game makes no attempt to put this
in a modern framework. You may be exercising your imagination or forcing
yourself through a physical trial, but in the game's terms, the spirits of
the wall are what's important. The matter-of-factness makes it work very
well.
Unfortunately, the dialogue and voice acting (at least in English) doesn't
support the effect very well. It comes off as distractingly modern. I'm not
saying that an "aungh throw rock" preposition-stripped pidgin would be any
better. But I'd be happier with -- well, I suppose I'm expecting the tricks
fantasy writers pull to make their characters sound
over-the-hills-and-far-away. It doesn't have anything do with with
historical usage per se, although that's a common source. It's the same
reason that ancient Romans always have British accents.
The game runs in a typical anamorphic panning environment, nicely detailed.
I never felt like the designers were minimizing animations, or blocking my
line of sight to reduce the number of scene variations they had to render.
And it plays like a typical Kheops game, with plenty of tools and things to
combine.
However... (I see I'm back to the "Yay, however, yay, however" review
structure)... it *doesn't* have the typical Kheops structure of many puzzles
surrounding you with many solutions for each one. In _Echo_, you nearly
always face one challenge at a time, and there's only one way to solve it.
So you can almost always feel your way through by trying everything in your
inventory. They try to put in variation by providing three or four tools to
work with, but it isn't really enough to create a dimension of choice. You
just try everything in your inventory three or four times.
And, indeed, this was how I solved most of the game.
Interspersed with the tool puzzles (which are tightly bound into the
environment and the story) are a few set-piece puzzles. These are,
unfortunately, of mixed quality, and go downhill as the game progresses.
Some are the cave paintings I mentioned earlier, and those fit in
thematically at least. But the theme gets thinner as the puzzle logic gets
more ornate.
And then, well, you know you're in trouble when you see a Tower of Hanoi
made of rocks. And *then* there's a slider puzzle. It's creative slider
puzzle, at least; but the creativity is in making the pieces get stuck on
each other in complicated and not-very-visible ways. Also, it lacks a reset
button. By that time, I felt the designer was jamming in puzzles that the
game neither needed nor benefitted from.
Which pretty much brings you to the end of _Echo_. Since the game is trying
to be historical, and we don't *know* much about the purpose and meaning of
the Lascaux cave paintings, the game peters out in a cloud of spiritual
generalities.
*Conclusion:* A lovely idea for a game, carried through in a way which is
mostly competent but not brilliant. Should have had some of the
classic-model puzzles kicked out in favor of more period elements.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Making a saint out of Reagan is sad. Making an idol out of Nixon ("If the
President does it then it's legal") is contemptible.
Jenny100
>
> However... (I see I'm back to the "Yay, however, yay, however" review
> structure)... it *doesn't* have the typical Kheops structure of many
> puzzles surrounding you with many solutions for each one. In _Echo_, you
> nearly always face one challenge at a time, and there's only one way to
> solve it. So you can almost always feel your way through by trying
> everything in your inventory. They try to put in variation by providing
> three or four tools to work with, but it isn't really enough to create a
> dimension of choice. You just try everything in your inventory three or
> four times.
I had bad problems with that in the Valley area where you meet "Toar."
Just scour the grounds looking for inventory and then try everything on
everything. And I didn't like the cave maze in the dark where you had
to make sure you had enough torches either.
> And, indeed, this was how I solved most of the game.
>
> Interspersed with the tool puzzles (which are tightly bound into the
> environment and the story) are a few set-piece puzzles. These are,
> unfortunately, of mixed quality, and go downhill as the game progresses.
> Some are the cave paintings I mentioned earlier, and those fit in
> thematically at least. But the theme gets thinner as the puzzle logic gets
> more ornate.
Yup. The earlier ones were a lot better. I liked the one with the bear and
the rocks and the one with the jumping antelope in the cave with the pool
wasn't bad. The later ones where you had to move the animals feet and
color them in the right order weren't so good.
> And then, well, you know you're in trouble when you see a Tower of Hanoi
> made of rocks. And *then* there's a slider puzzle. It's creative slider
> puzzle, at least; but the creativity is in making the pieces get stuck
> on each other in complicated and not-very-visible ways. Also, it lacks a
> reset button.
I got stuck on that one. I guess you have to start solving it from the
right end or something. I'd get all but one piece in the right position
and couldn't see how to change it.
>By that time, I felt the designer was jamming in puzzles
> that the game neither needed nor benefitted from.
>
> Which pretty much brings you to the end of _Echo_. Since the game is
> trying to be historical, and we don't *know* much about the purpose and
> meaning of the Lascaux cave paintings, the game peters out in a cloud of
> spiritual generalities.
And in the end they all sit around the campfire doing drugs. I thought
that was a hoot.
> *Conclusion:* A lovely idea for a game, carried through in a way which
> is mostly competent but not brilliant. Should have had some of the
> classic-model puzzles kicked out in favor of more period elements.
You mean more cave painting puzzles? More like the bear and the rocks
would have been OK. But I didn't care for the slider or the
painting-the-antelopes-in-the-right-order puzzle.
Andrew Plotkin
> On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 04:43:36 +0000, Andrew Plotkin wrote:
> >
> > Which pretty much brings you to the end of _Echo_. Since the game is
> > trying to be historical, and we don't *know* much about the purpose and
> > meaning of the Lascaux cave paintings, the game peters out in a cloud of
> > spiritual generalities.
>
> And in the end they all sit around the campfire doing drugs. I thought
> that was a hoot.
I mean, I'd be happy to get high with that chick... plus, she was
trying to invent dogs. I liked that. :)
> > *Conclusion:* A lovely idea for a game, carried through in a way which
> > is mostly competent but not brilliant. Should have had some of the
> > classic-model puzzles kicked out in favor of more period elements.
>
> You mean more cave painting puzzles? More like the bear and the rocks
> would have been OK.
Yes, exactly.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
It used to be that "conservatives" were in favor of smaller government,
fiscal responsibility, and tighter constraints on the Man's ability to
monitor you, arrest you, and control your life.