Here we have Echo Night Beyond, the last game in from soft's series of survival horrors about helping ghosts, this time however IN SPACE!! That's right, while the previous 2 Echo Nights were set in more standard horror settings(abandoned cruise ship or a haunted manor) Beyond takes place in space in the near future of 2044 on a haunted moon base. The atmosphere of ENB is excellent and it oozes through interactions with NPC's as well as the sparse sound design, visuals and descriptions. The intro sets the melancholic, lonely and hopeless tone perfectly and looks really beautiful even to this day. The graphics also aged surprisingly well, there's lots of surprisingly advanced effects present in this game like lighting that correctly bounces off of objects and wraps around models and reflective surfaces(however those ones are probably baked in reflections). The environments overall are quite detailed and often tell the story of what happened even if intentionally vaguely. The storytelling in general has an air of mystique I really appreciate in mystery games and the pay off at the end is very interesting. I should also note that the game has some of the worst interlacing I've seen in my life. I did some digging and came to a conclusion that the artifacting (which looks like horizontal lines) is meant to be visible for the theme of viewing it from a security camera, it will make more sense at the end of the next paragraph. The gameplay of Echo Night 3 is mostly similar to the previous games, there's however no option to pick up and move objects (which is kinda sad) and turning on lights has been replaced with turning on ventilation. Other than that you walk around, talk to ghosts, figure out what they need and usually just find it close by and bring it to them to help them ascend. Also unlike the previous games where you had a health bar and could carry loads of healing items ENB decided to take a more modern approach by only giving you 3 healing items at a time BUT also not giving you a health bar and instead opting for heart rate meter. Whenever you see a ghost, your heart rate increases, even seeing a friendly one will make your meter go up but only till a certain point. If you're up against a mean ghost your heart rate will keep going up the closer it is to you and he higher the rate is the more chaotic the screen gets and your vision darkens, combine it with the fact that ghosts are invisible until they get very close and you've got yourself a pretty nasty situation you'll want to avoid like fire. I think it's a pretty smart and effective mechanic that predates similar stuff from more popular games like Amnesia or King Kong for PS2. What makes it even more fun is that your heart rate also goes up when you run which makes it feel more realistic and connected. Thankfully running on it's own can't increase your heart rate past 100, so as long as you don't run into any hostile ghosts you can run as much as you like (which took me a long time to realize if I'm gonna be honest). Another important mechanic is Monitor Rooms. Generally at the start of each location you find one and you get to examine every room for clues and echoes of the past (marked with green glowy stuff). You can use them to also figure out the walking patterns of ghosts before you enter(very handy seening as they can kill you in seconds) and even distract them and move them away from points of interest. The only thing I disliked about this game is how slowly you move around. I imagine it's intentional as the PS2 is struggling pretty hard with this game at time and also it helps the theming. At the end of the day nothing is actually very far apart at the moon base and most locations can be completed on the first visit if you know what you're doing/ use an FAQ. Some puzzles were a bit obscure and at times finding items on the floor especially was a pain cause it's just easy to miss them when you're walking. Thankfully you can see most of the important objects by examining monitor rooms but missing an item is still a pain. Overall as far as both Horror and adventure games go Echo Night Beyond is among the most unusual ones out there and as long as you can put up with slow walking it is a unique experience.
@blackflame4506
4 ай бұрын
Great playthrough Nikodem
@nikodem123asdf
4 ай бұрын
thanks, I really enjoyed playing it even if a few parts were needlessly confusing.
@princessCashel
4 ай бұрын
I like how this game did the worst possible thing you could do with a franchise, put it in space, and made it one of the best ones
@Vik1919
4 ай бұрын
Well, if they made it one of the best ones then space theme definitely isn't the worst. I like it, in fact. To each their own, I guess. Besides, many games already take place in space from the beginning, like Dead Space and are mostly accepted.
@nikodem123asdf
4 ай бұрын
I enjoyed Echo Night 1 more to be honest but this game certianly is a lot more unique both in it's franchise and as a horror/adventure game. While most space themed horror games will end up being about viruses or aliens, this one's about ghosts and you don't even fight them instead you help them pass on. Also the game excels at creating an atmosphere of sadness and melancholy.
@9Godslayer
4 ай бұрын
I think what they meant was a series that already had an established setting that just decided to dump the premise in Spaaaaace! in order to make it cool. We've seen how that turned out for Friday the 13th, Leprechaun, Hellraiser, and Dino Crisis.
@Yvonnelim99
4 ай бұрын
Thx for the add a game.
@KevinKillNation
4 ай бұрын
The same Kevin Miller who did the voice of Sly Cooper?
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