Looks very interesting, saw some gameplay on YouTube but still not sure what you are suppose to do in the game. I might get it for my birthday next week, wishlisted for now.

From what I could tell from the video, that's the idea. If you play sub-optimally so will the AI, because it doesn't have the context needed to know that it shouldn't, which you in turn can exploit. You're weighing playing well and getting where you need to go, against making the AI more competent and a greater obstacle. That is, if it works as advertised.

Wishlisted! Looks impressive and the price is friendly!

Now this is a nice surprise! I wasn't expecting this game to show up here at all, let alone on release day. I guess a stealth release makes sense for a stealth game. ;)

Action/stealth isn't usually my thing, but this does look very interesting (and beautiful), and the pricing is more than generous. I may even buy a copy to trade, if only for the sake of supporting day-one AAA releases here.

In case anyone's wondering - it controls just fine w/ keyboard & mouse and seems very well optimized graphics- and performance-wise (to be expected if the game just has to render rooms/in-door areas of varying sizes).
The main gameplay-mechanic (the opponents learning from/mimicking what you are doing) does what it's supposed to do, and actually forces you to think about your approach. The blackouts happening at regular intervals not only leave you in the dark for a few moments but also reset/respawn all opponents in the current room or series of rooms. So if you went in guns blazing as opposed to sneaking through the area while avoiding the opponents, you can expect them using guns and trying to shoot you as well after the next blackout. If you don't want them to be able to use guns anymore, just avoid using yours (and use takedowns from behind instead) and the opponents will have "forgotten" how to use them after the next blackout.
Very cool mechanic that adds just the right amount of urgency but also leaves you a bit of control over how offensively the opponents are able to act.

Imo Echo's worth getting for the gorgeous presentation and the really unique art deco-infused spin (I wonder if this: youtube.com/watch?v=GLZdnR7Nkus was one of the inspirations) on so-called "soft sci-fi" alone.

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Any chance ECHO will also have a Linux release?

It's Rimmerworld with art deco and creepy white haired ladies.

How good is the actual USP of this game. I remember when left for dead came out there was a big song and dance about how it would intelligently control the zombies but in the end it felt like it was running off basic instructions.

The concept of echoes sounds great & original to me and even though the graphics (mainly the textures) look a bit plastic-y and sterile, i think they suit the gameworld nicely. The first things that came to my mind when i saw the videos were Matrix + Mass Effect (2) + QUBE (too much white!) + Human Revolution (those takedowns!) but the quick-time events it features aren't very confidence inspiring (the bloody things should stay in console gaming). Anyway, wishlisting it until i make some time for gaming and by that time, reviews will be all over the place.

Not only Hitman but also Freedom Fighters which i hope we'll see on GOG someday.

Well sale never started for you, this isn't in the sale.
It's a new release that picked a bad week to launch.

Could be woese, at least GOG's now putting the New Releases, above the sale.
Previously a new release was buried at the bottom of the pile, during a sale.

Do you buy games that you don't want to play?
I only buy the ones I do want to play, they may not get played immediately, but I still want to.

Lastly
It's not a AAA game, or to be more accurate from a AAA publisher,
I don't know why anybody would even hope that it was.

AAA = $60 Loot Box SPG, with Season Pass on 6 month's Preorder. Denuvo added as a free bonus feature.
Nope, it's definittely not AAA, which is a good thing.

From their About Page
About Ultra Ultra {Edit} I assume "Icons below" are social media rubbish, I block all those type of links, didm't notice that last line until now.

What is that even supposed to mean? The times when "console gaming" or "PC gaming" were two wildly different things are long gone. These days you'll find more or less the same genres on both platforms, and most big releases are cross-platform anyway. If anything, you could say that such game elements should stay in console games, not console gaming -- and this does look much more like a console game, rather than a traditional PC release.

The real question is whether quick-time events are universally a bad gameplay element to include in games, and opinions on that vary. Personally, I think they work in certain genres/types of games. I think the important part is, they should grant you a reasonable time limit to react, and maybe the devs should include an option to disable QTEs, or make them easier. If I remember correctly, in Heavy Rain there was a difficulty setting for the QTE events, which would affect their duration/time limit and probably also their complexity.
Yeah, I don't understand why people keep throwing around the term AAA, just because it has impressive/modern graphics. I'd say, with today's engines, it's perfectly possible for small teams with limited budgets to achieve such visual quality, but they need to focus and limit the scope of their project. They can't go all out with open worlds, hundreds of characters etc.

Well, that's what i wanted to say. :P And honestly, i don't have a clue about what's happening in current generation console's gaming market.

I assume it means all QTE, are awful, and should be limited to the few "Console exclusives", we never see on PC,
I'm not that cruel as to want to force QTE's on even that.

Seeing as the general consensus is that QTE spoil too many decent games, a cool concept that fails in action.
I've yet to find a single QTE, add to the quality of a game.
They are annoying interruptyons that far from addinfg to the drama of the "Cutscenes" they infest.
They interrupt the narrative flow, and the player's to busy looking for the next button prompt, to even take notice of the cutscene.

QTE's fail in the very thing they attempt, and only result in the constant missing of button prompts, causing multiple repititions.
Especially when they randomise the buttons, they are an annoying fad that needs to be killed off.

But is that the general consensus? Given that they have been a part of certain genres for... what, about 20 years now, I would conclude that most gamers and game designers actually enjoy them, or at least don't have any strong feelings about them either way.

Quite to the opposite, they allow for highly cinematic games and game events, while still giving the player opportunity to interact, and affect the outcome of scenes. Also, in the case of Heavy Rain or Until Dawn, screwing up a QTE does not mean you have to repeat the scene over and over -- it simply means events take a different turn.

Now, whether someone enjoys such games to begin with is of course a matter of personal preferences. But I'm not sure it would be possible to create such a cinematic, interactive movie like experience as in the games I've mentioned, without the use of QTE sequences and similar elements.

I'll agree that they probably don't belong in certain genres -- I can't really imagine them working well in traditional PC genres, such as RTS or tactical RPGs. And even in games where they tend to work well, such as fast-paced Action-Adventures, it depends largely on how they are used. Any game element can potentially be annoying, if the Devs don't know what they are doing.

I'm actually surprised that some people have such strong feelings about quick time events. Out of curiosity, have you always been primarily a PC gamer, or did you play many console games as well? And do you play exclusively on mouse and keyboard when playing PC games? I wonder if it's partially an issue of background/ personal gaming history. I grew up with consoles and only later got into PC gaming, so I'm used to games which require quick reactions or button combinations. I also wonder if many PC ports of console games simply have badly optimized controls on mouse and keyboard. I remember the old PC port of Resident Evil 4 had awful controls AND quick time events, so maybe releases like that fueled the hate against that game element among PC gamers.

Edit: Just wanted to add, in general traditional QTEs probably work better on gamepads, since you're dealing with a smaller amount of buttons, and the important action buttons are "color coded", so it's much easier to hit the right ones. In PC games it can work, if the QTE game elements are specifically designed for PC input. In example, TellTale's Walking Dead games, or D4 do have action elements similar to QTEs, but as far as I remember, they use only the cursor and mouse buttons, which works quite well and intuitively.

Clive Barker's Jericho is a first person shooter with QTEs. Fast annoying game-ending ones. There's a cheat to disable them fortunately because they do ruin the game for me. Only Sid Meir's Pirates has ones that added to the game for me and only on the console version. They were part of a small dancing minigame and failing them didn't end the minigame or the whole game.