A while back, when I wrote a piece regarding my love for the so-called AA gaming sphere, I expressed my admiration for those games being the perfect middle-of-the-road between the visuals and production values seen in AAA titles, and the niche appeal and creativity seen in indies. I did not mention that I wanted for AA to become “small teams trying to make the same exact thing as AAA games”. That would only result in teams taking too long to come up with the same results as titles made by teams comprised of 300 people, and the financial and skill-based shortcomings would become apparently pretty quickly. Echoes of the End, by up and coming Icelandic studio Myrkur Games, is the perfect example to what I’m saying.

Echoes of the End is a super ambitious game set in a mystical, totally not-Icelandic setting (irony included), where you play as Ryn, a so-called “vestige” (essentially wielders of a mysterious magical source who cannot touch people due to the volatility of their powers), who sets off on a journey to rescue her brother from an invading empire, also fronted by a vestige with even bigger powers than hers. Accompanying Ryn is a scholar named Abram, who’s not completely helpless, as he wields a gauntlet that lets him shoot projectiles at nearby enemies.

I wanted to dedicate a small paragraph to the premise because, sure, it’s alright, but I don’t think the story itself was that interesting. One of the main issues with Echoes of the End is that the plot is really uninteresting. This nothing burger of a story is also hampered by a cornucopia of bland characters, with Ryn being the main culprit. An overly serious, badly tempered, grumpy character who desperately wants to hide her feelings behind a Kratos-esque facade which got on my nerves pretty quickly. The fact the game has a lot of dialogue sections only added insult to injury. While I don’t think anyone in Echoes of the End delivered a poor performance, I just didn’t care about anyone in it. They were all bland and boring. Well, maybe not the villains, but they didn’t show up often enough anyway.

But let’s not focus too much on the plot for the moment, let’s talk about what Echoes of the End even is as a video game. Well, it’s a standard linear action-adventure with equal amounts of combat and environmental puzzle-solving. In fact, it’s the quintessential bog standard action-adventure in this regard. This might be my biggest gripe with the game as a whole: it features zero creativity whatsoever. Every single gameplay sample, every single mechanic, every single level design idea or cliché, I’ve seen it before in AAA games from many years ago.

It apparently took Mirkur Games nearly nine years to fully complete Echoes of the End‘s development cycle, and it shows. It clearly shows that the game was initially conceived when the PS4 was still the go-to system, and when SSDs still weren’t widespread as they are today. Every single dumb cliché used to mask loading times, such as narrow passageways and cinematic transitions involving having two characters hold a heavy object or open a heavy door, is present in here, showing up constantly. Climbable objects feature the traditional smear of white paint plastered on top of them, there’s the occasional mandatory walking segment meant to artificially extend a level’s runtime, and so on.

The same can be seen in the combat. In essence, Echoes of the End really wants to be 2018’s God of War. Ryn attacks similarly, and can dodge and parry just like Kratos did with his axe. Abram can be used in battle as well, acting exactly like Atreus, being a support ranged attacker who can stun enemies with his projectiles. There’s no equipment system, but a very traditional (and by that, I mean uninventive) skill tree is also present.

The main “unique selling point” when it comes to both the combat and puzzle solving is that Ryn can use her pseudo-psychic powers to either move enemies around the field, or even partially drain their health with some arcane magic. You consume mana by doing so, and replenishing it isn’t that simple, so these additional elements don’t take front and center in the gameplay as they should.

And I guess this is one of this game’s main issues: it tries too hard to be a AAA game, but Mirkur Games just doesn’t have the infrastructure or manpower to develop such title. Furthermore, they took so long to fully develop Echoes of the End to the point that most of its design features and overall gameplay elements feel painfully dated, and not even in a nostalgic manner.

I have to admit that the graphics are absolutely fantastic, but there’s also a major caveat. When static, everything looks magnificent. Environments are breathtaking, and the usage of Unreal 5’s terrain and lighting features was masterful. You’ll look at all pictures in this review, and notice that Echoes of the End occasionally looks as good as Hellblade II. But when in motion, you’ll be reminded that Echoes of the End is still a AA title, with frequent janky animations, the occasional glitch, facial expressions looking a bit lifeless when outside of cutscenes. There’s also an issue with the framerate, but it wasn’t as severe as other outlets have mentioned. I noticed framerate drops, without a doubt, but they weren’t too harsh – just a handful of drops to the high 40s instead of your rock-solid 60.

I won’t say that there aren’t some impressive features in Echoes of the End, namely the impressive visuals and the occasionally smart puzzle, but not a single thing in it felt original. It’s a clear case of a smaller team wanting to create an experience akin to a AAA title, but including all of the clichés and annoying technical trickeries that used to infest big-budgeted titles from the PS4 era. Nothing about it felt egregious, no game-breaking bugs were detected, and you can clearly see that Mirkur Games is a talented bunch of individuals, but the last thing I want to see from a small team is for them to create the same watered down AAA experiences bigger studios come up with in order to satisfy their investors. Give me something unique, something more creative.

Graphics: 8.0 The environments and lighting effects are truly spectacular, but facial expressions and character animations are really janky. The framerate isn’t entirely stable as well.	Gameplay: 6.5 Not a single speck of innovation in the gameplay department. A bog standard combat system with slow movement, a clunky magic mechanic, basic puzzle solving, and a lot of level design assets meant to hide loading screens, stuff that should have been abolished after the dawn of SSDs.
Sound: 7.0 I’m not going to say the voice acting is bad. The actors do a good job, but their monotone delivery, excessive inner monologues, and really bland script bored me quite a lot.	Fun Factor: 6.0 An odd case of a AA team wanting to make a AAA game, complete with all of the pointless and annoying clichés that were all the rage in big-budgeted action-adventure games from a decade ago. Even if it’s really pretty, it’s got a bland plot and bog standard gameplay.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Echoes of the End is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Echoes of the End was provided by the publisher.