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    There Came an Echo

    Game » consists of 2 releases. Released Feb 24, 2015

    There Came an Echo is a squad-based strategy game that relies heavily on voice commands. It was developed by Iridium Studios.

    wemibelle's There Came An Echo (PC) review

    Avatar image for wemibelle

    Fascinating story and characters, frustrating voice recognition

    The opening is practically flagrant with its resemblance to The Matrix.
    The opening is practically flagrant with its resemblance to The Matrix.

    NOTE: During my writing of this review, Iridium Studios was forced to change the name of their original release, Sequence, to Before the Echo due to copyright claims. The original text of my review still uses the name Sequence, since I feel more people would potentially recognize this name, but just know that I am actually talking about a game that is now called Before the Echo.

    There Came an Echo takes place in a never-defined future point in time where technology has advanced to a point beyond our means. Corrin, an average computer programmer, mistakenly creates an unbreakable algorithm called Radial Lock. This software could have made him unfathomably rich and famous, yet he instead made it open-source and faded into obscurity. One day, working at his pointless programming job, he receives a call from a mysterious woman named Val. She urges him out of the building before men come to kidnap him (Matrix-style), men working for someone who wants him to break the unhackable software he created years ago. All at once, he finds himself engaging in actual combat, using the voices in his ear for tactical guidance and support. With the help of various parties he meets in his efforts to escape, Corrin must attempt to learn just what his Radial Lock program is protecting that someone wants so badly.

    A lot of exposition is delivered on your jet between missions.
    A lot of exposition is delivered on your jet between missions.

    In the first few chapters of There Came an Echo, I found myself disinterested with what was going on. The events seemed a bit too much like rote science fiction to be worth my time. This all changed when it was revealed that this game is related to Iridium Studios’ first, and tragically overlooked, game called Sequence (a minor spoiler). As someone who was a fan of Sequence and its excellent story, I found myself intrigued by the connection. From this point of the story forward, the plot just became crazier and crazier, managing to somehow reach JRPG levels of absurdity and yet bring it back around in a logical way. There’s no way I can mention even a single detail of these later chapters without spoiling the entire thing, but they managed to do what Sequence’s story did before it: defy my low expectations to an extreme degree. Thematically, there’s just so much to love about the story: the humanity of artificial intelligence, belief in the divine, what makes a person who they are, and more. It all culminates in a subtle twist I wasn’t expecting and a promise for a sequel that makes me incredibly excited. I wish that Iridium Games hadn’t kept these interesting bits until the final hour, as I’m sure the boring moments early on might scare some players away, but it all manages to pay off in a way I could never have predicted.

    The voice cast is also worth talking about in detail, not just for its featuring of several big names. The main character of Corrin, played by Wil Wheaton, is the one stinker in the bunch. I never bought any of his lines, likely due to his overall inexperience with acting through voice alone. He just didn’t manage to sell me on any of his character’s emotions, not once. Laura Bailey also turns in one of her weaker performances here, bringing none of her usual fun and energy to her character. Everyone else is absolutely remarkable. Yuri Lowenthal manages to shake his usual “anime dorky kid” voice and delivers some excellent gravitas with his performance. The returning voice actors from Sequence are just as natural and fun to listen to as they were in the past game, even more impressive considering that they aren’t professional voice actors (one of them is actually the director of the entire game’s design team!). Most impressive of all, however, is Ashly Burch’s performance as Val. While I’ve not been a big fan of her in past games (namely Borderlands 2’s Tiny Tina), she positively kills it here, delivering one of my favorite voice performances in quite some time. Burch’s “quirky voice” does pop up here and there, but it actually makes sense in the context of her character’s personality. Each line is delivered with expert emotional weight and perfect comedic timing. It’s really fantastic, in a way that I can’t accurately describe here. Overall, the voice cast is a bit shaky, but there’s plenty to love as well.

    Your pre-mission loadout screen allows you to decide who takes what weapons into battle and what skill they use.
    Your pre-mission loadout screen allows you to decide who takes what weapons into battle and what skill they use.

    There Came an Echo does some interesting things with its gameplay. While it resembles a tactical strategy game similar to XCOM or Fire Emblem, the unique twist is that you command the party entirely with your voice (there are direct control options, but the appeal here is total voice control). By using a variety of commands, you can move members around various points, order them to shoot particular targets, and even queue up a series of commands to be executed on your mark--which feels AWESOME. Each member can carry up to three weapons of five various types: the pistol, a basic weapon; the charge gun, skilled at hitting groups of enemies; the screw gun, for suppression; the rail gun, for maximum damage; and a sniper rifle to hit far-off foes. There are a variety of skills to slot to each member before a mission, giving helpful benefits. Also important is managing each member’s shield levels, which drain when shot or when using the more powerful, non-pistol weapons. Battles are a tense affair of coordinating attacks on various targets and managing shield strength while not getting overwhelmed or confusing the game with your frantic commands.

    I’m just going to come out and say this first: without the voice controls, this game wouldn’t be interesting at all. The strategy gameplay is rather straightforward, and a few particular tactics--spread out your party, use the screw guns to suppress dangerous foes, etc.--are enough to get through the entire game without much issue. I will admit that the voice controls make the entire thing more engaging, particularly because there is no way to pause to issue commands, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. When everyone’s taking fire and losing shield at various rates, it can be nearly impossible to coordinate yourself fast enough to prevent deaths. This makes the later levels more of a trial-and-error effort, seeing where enemy placements are and finding the best possible path to avoid too much damage in order to make it through an entire level. I did enjoy using the voice commands (for the most part--see below), but once I got a handle on them, each encounter was more or less the same. If the game had been any longer than the three hours or so it took me to finish it, I would have gotten terribly bored with the concept. As such, it manages to just barely avoid overstaying its welcome.

    You can also remap every command to a different word or phrase, which helps some (but not enough) with recognition.  Obviously, I was a little annoyed when I made my change.
    You can also remap every command to a different word or phrase, which helps some (but not enough) with recognition. Obviously, I was a little annoyed when I made my change.

    Since voice commands are obviously the most important part of There Came an Echo, it’s crucial that they work without issue. I would love to say that this was the case during my time with the game, but I did have a few issues. On the whole, the voice recognition worked with most of the words I was expected to use. There were a few particular words that didn’t seem to like my voice, particularly the name of one of the party members, but it wasn’t my main problem. Instead, I couldn’t seem to find a happy medium for mic sensitivity and my voice. Most of the time, it would read my voice as being either too quiet or too loud, meaning that commands wouldn’t be executed even in intense situations that required fast action. I tried multiple mics, various distances for the mic, and volumes for my voice, yet I still had frequent issues with commands not registering. Maybe this is a problem with my mumbly voice in particular, as many other reviewers have not cited these issues, but it was frustrating enough to impact my enjoyment with the game. The inconsistency of my issues also makes me think the problem was on my end, but I have no real way of knowing for sure. All I can say is that it didn’t work as flawlessly as it needed to during my playthrough. As such, I advise any potential buyers to potentially expect frustration, particularly if you tend not to enunciate.

    There Came an Echo has a few of the same problems that Iridium Games’ previous release, Sequence, had. While the story eventually gets good, it starts out slow and predictable. The main gameplay system is unique and clever, but there’s a bit of tedium to be found after a few hours. Luckily, it also shares the traits that made Sequence so memorable for me: utterly fantastic voice acting, a story that leaves you thinking when it’s finally over, and an experience that you can’t wait to show to others. If There Came an Echo hadn’t given me so much trouble with its voice commands, I would have been recommending it to everyone I know. Sadly, my frustrations make it a bit harder to suggest to the average consumer. While the story is worth experiencing without question, there is no guarantee you won’t have the same troubles I did with the voice controls. As such, the final decision must be your own. In my mind, the frustrating moments were more than made up for by the story. Maybe you’ll think the same thing?

    Other reviews for There Came An Echo (PC)

      Actions no longer speak louder than words - the words are your actions... 0

      Innovation in the video game industry is seemingly becoming scarce as each year passes. Several AAA titles released recently have noticeably reiterated on the exact tower-climbing, microtransactions, or lack of variety that the last was already criticized for. There Came an Echo, 2015’s latest Kickstarter-funded project from Iridium Studios, attempts to distance itself from such derivations by emphasizing an advanced voice-based command system with real-time strategy gameplay. While the co...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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