A top tier concept trapped in frustrating execution. If the game worked flawlessly, it would be among my favorite puzzle concepts of all time.
echochrome is a puzzle game about manipulating perspectives to create optical illusions. Guide a mannequin to set points in the puzzle structure and back within a time limit using rules that make visual sense, but not physical sense. For example, if you position the camera underneath a structure and fall through a hole, you will land vertically below the hole - even if, in 3D space, you end up at the top of the structure.
There are enough methods for breaking the visual rules to allow every puzzle to have multiple solutions. I routinely solved puzzles using a fraction of the holes and springboards scattered throughout the level. I love puzzle games that never feel like you're being railroaded into a single line of thinking, and I believe the preset levels were designed with that flexibility in mind.
In practice, the game is just not consistent enough with its own mechanics to experience that freedom. If two planes are lined up in such a way that they share a border, their planes will merge, allowing the mannequin to walk between them. However, getting this merging of boundaries to work requires very precise camera alignment, and only activates at certain angles. This greatly increases the tedium of executing an idea, sometimes to the realization the game will not recognize your intention at any angle.
But most damning of all, you are fighting the camera every step of the way - for a game where transversal is controlled entirely through camera movements. Camera speed is slow, and jitters as if it has caught on environmental geometry - in a game where every level takes place in an endless white void. Worst of all, the camera will randomly move on its own to "correct" the angle if you don't fiddle with it for long enough - often when you have been waiting for the mannequin to finish a lap to make a precise maneuver to another section.
In my rating system, 2 stars represent an average, C rank game, and 3 stars represent a solid B rank game. My first impression of this game, after getting familiar with its concepts, was 4 stars at A rank, but the process of playing it eventually frustrated me to the detriment of its score. Which is a real shame, as the ability to create, upload, and download levels makes it a theoretically endless game. I strongly recommend giving this game a download while the PS3's digital store front is still online.
echochrome is a puzzle game about manipulating perspectives to create optical illusions. Guide a mannequin to set points in the puzzle structure and back within a time limit using rules that make visual sense, but not physical sense. For example, if you position the camera underneath a structure and fall through a hole, you will land vertically below the hole - even if, in 3D space, you end up at the top of the structure.
There are enough methods for breaking the visual rules to allow every puzzle to have multiple solutions. I routinely solved puzzles using a fraction of the holes and springboards scattered throughout the level. I love puzzle games that never feel like you're being railroaded into a single line of thinking, and I believe the preset levels were designed with that flexibility in mind.
In practice, the game is just not consistent enough with its own mechanics to experience that freedom. If two planes are lined up in such a way that they share a border, their planes will merge, allowing the mannequin to walk between them. However, getting this merging of boundaries to work requires very precise camera alignment, and only activates at certain angles. This greatly increases the tedium of executing an idea, sometimes to the realization the game will not recognize your intention at any angle.
But most damning of all, you are fighting the camera every step of the way - for a game where transversal is controlled entirely through camera movements. Camera speed is slow, and jitters as if it has caught on environmental geometry - in a game where every level takes place in an endless white void. Worst of all, the camera will randomly move on its own to "correct" the angle if you don't fiddle with it for long enough - often when you have been waiting for the mannequin to finish a lap to make a precise maneuver to another section.
In my rating system, 2 stars represent an average, C rank game, and 3 stars represent a solid B rank game. My first impression of this game, after getting familiar with its concepts, was 4 stars at A rank, but the process of playing it eventually frustrated me to the detriment of its score. Which is a real shame, as the ability to create, upload, and download levels makes it a theoretically endless game. I strongly recommend giving this game a download while the PS3's digital store front is still online.