Echo: Secrets of the Lost Cavern review:4 stars (Echo-puzzles etc) - Echo was a fun game with some very inventive puzzles which I really enjoyed. The only real problem that I had with this game was that it was wayyyyyyyyy to short! Enjoy!4 stars (Hard puzzles) - I really liked this game and liked learning about our ancient history. There was no way I could do the puzzles without the strategy guide. For that reason alone, I dropped the score to 4 stars.5 stars (Unique Story, Tremendous Fun) - I don't know why someone hasn't thought to make a game around this setting - about 20,000 + years ago before, and still respect what we know about the period. Don't let this scare you. Forget the muscle bound club and kill stuff.
Although several of the puzzles are variations on puzzles I've met in several other games, here they are totally in sinc with the story line and tremendous fun. Others are new to me, challenging, and still totally appropriate to the story line.
The graphics are extremely good, and in some places - especially good. I really felt like I'd been transported back to that world of our own earliest direct ancestors - the people who did those cave paintings. Not Neaderthal, by the way. The characters' interaction with their world of that time (end of last Ice Age) was neither grating, nor silly.
It IS true that the plot isn't all that unusual from the other games I've played, but the way it was done here, given what I've already said, made it totally fresh and TREMENDOUS FUN!
There are games that I HAVE played that I enjoyed just as much - for different reasons - but few I've enjoyed more. (Warning: I AM a terminal Syberia fan.) Even the acting was OK!
All in all, I couldn't recommend it more highly. Even the price is reasonable! It wasn't difficult giving ECHO 5 stars in BOTH categories. |
