Fossil Echo

FOSSIL ECHO is more an interactive cartoon than a platformer. Graphics, animations, music are good, but you'll spend more time as a spectator than as a player. Your character wakes up, then you move right : animation. You approach another character : animation. Then you enter a door : animation. The platform phases are... the exact term is : boring. It's repetitive and finally not rewarding. The difficulty is medium and depends exclusively on the timing. Generally you have no second chance when you fail - some elements disappear and you have to kill yourself... The stealth phases are equally boring, the pace isn't mastered. Two stars for the graphics and animations. Only two stars for everything else.... (note : I win a key of this game and had not buy it)

From the moment the first musical notes are struck and the beautifully rendered in-game artwork appears, it becomes obvious that Fossil Echo is going to be a special experience. Controlling the unnamed protagonist, you make your way up a huge, mysterious tower, sneaking past (or attacking) the guards and sentry robots that oppose you while slowly uncovering what brought you there in the first place. The game is at times quite challenging, especially in the optional "moon phase" rooms, but the game controls very well, and because the action takes place in small self-contained rooms death is a minor setback rather than a crippling punishment. Fossil Echo's greatest weakness is its overall length. Experienced platform gamers will be able to complete the game in less than two hours. But, similar to other short atmospheric platformers like LIMBO and Another World, it's about the journey rather than ultimately how long it takes to arrive to your destination. Highly recommended.

The visuals and music are exceptional, the storytelling is very nice, the platforming ranges between ok and challenging. The completion time is short (about two hours, depending on how good are your platforming skills), which is not necessarily a bad thing on its own, although it becomes a minus at the full price being asked (9.99 at the moment). If you like what you see from the trailers/screenshots, buy it on a discount (or when the price drops below 5.00) and you won't be dissapointed.

I'll start with saying that Fossil Echo is is a minimally competent game, which I find many games on GOG are not. The game it most reminds me of is RiME, which is a much better game overall IMO but sadly has some technical issues with the audio on my system. I'd still recommend that one over this one by quite a lot, as the experience of RiME is a unique and memorable one while this one feels like a chore and the story leaves me scratching my head at the end and wondering if they are pulling a Lume and intend to release the real game that this is an introduction to later. However, there is no "to be continued". I personally like the cinematic feel quite a lot (and give it three stars for that), but both the story and platforming are severely lacking. The controls are quite time sensitive and seem to depend on your movement (and sometimes the movement of the platform you are on) both before and after you jump. Often you are jumping between two walls, but if you change your direction too early after jumping in preparation for the next jump you won't make the wall you are jumping to. Possibly using an up and right movement when jumping is slightly different from just right movement and jumping. At least the difficult optional levels (that make up most of the game by time) seemed easier after I thought of that most of the way through, although maybe it just happened to help me hit the exact times needed. You need to hit the jump button to climb up quickly (or will often die as another reviewer mentions). It does not to me feel input lagged at all, although I think slowly so I can't guarantee it doesn't for everyone else. Also, the game lacks a "no blood" option and there are small drops of blood when you get shot during the main game. I was able to make it since almost all of my deaths were falling. Hopefully the developer will correct the flaws and make excellent games in the future, however I recommend avoiding this one.