Echochrome review (PS3)

I challenge anyone to review Echochrome without using the word Escher (damnit). The reason why it’s so difficult is because of the obvious inspiration from M.C. Escher’s designs. Essentially based upon impossible geometrics that couldn’t exist in reality, but tricking perception through believability, Escher’s works lend the simple concept of changing perception to the game.

Echochrome takes a minimalist look at gaming, and gives you control not over the character, one of those wooden mannequins, but over the camera angle that you view the world through. By rotating the camera around each of the gradually more complex levels you’ll be using the laws of Echochrome to influence the reality of the world and achieve your goals. Sound complex? It basically means that if there’s a hole in the ground and you rotate the viewpoint so that you can’t see it, it no longer exists.

Holes, jumps and echoes

That’s really all there is to it. The character starts at a set position and must navigate the world (always turning left if possible) collecting echoes; black shimmering versions of itself, only to return to the starting point for the final echo. The levels themselves are geometrically quite simple using a block based 3D structure, with staircases to walk up, holes to fall through, and jump points that launch the character into the air, for him to land wherever there is a solid block.

The perception shift occurs with rotating the viewpoint so that your target is visually underneath a hole you are falling through (whether or not it is, in the 3D reality of the world is irrelevant) or making it look like your target platform is just above a jump point. A simple and effective tutorial explains the laws, culminating in a rule (which is my least favourite) that if you move two platforms together (or rather make it look like they are together), they will join, and the black lines between them will disappear, making a larger platform, until you move the viewpoint again.

56 basic levels

The game comes with 56 levels designed by the developer, eight in each of the seven difficulties from the most basic of geometry to a confusing series of shapes that will take you a while to comprehend. Atelier (workshop) mode gives you a chance to play all of the levels in whatever order you see fit, each difficulty as one course, or individual levels, and all modes will treat you to a replay of how you performed on conclusion (and later on the title screen), starting with a spread of all of the levels.

Then there’s canvas mode, which gives you a blank… canvas… and lets you design your own levels with a relatively intuitive system that could well have been used to create the whole game. On the forefront of console user generated content, your constructions can be sent to your friends, or uploaded to the Echochrome developer who regularly select the best and both automatically and speedily send them to each player’s game on startup. This does replace the last batch, but it means that you’ll often have a new batch of (free) levels to work through, so the content keeps coming, and because they’re developer chosen, don’t expect to be flooded with phallic shaped levels other than from your friends.

Playing these levels

You’ll need to be playing freeform mode to try these extra downloaded levels, and rather than selecting specific ones, you select a general level difficulty (without explanation) from a simple sliding scale and the game will give you levels you haven’t tried yet first. It seems a little disorganised, hoping that you’ll get new content, but it all seems to add to the experience, heightened by the engaging and varying classical music chosen to underscore the whole product.

While you’ll hardly be using this to explain your HDTV purchase to a judgemental other half (then again, you never know, they might like it), but the simplicity is what makes the game work without confusing you more than necessary. That said, certain moments, like the character walking up stairs and landing after a jump show clipping through the geometry, and this is something that should have been addressed in such a simple product.

Repetition

Sure, with the ever changing level library, and the ability to create your own, repetition shouldn’t be an issue, but the simple fact is that after you’ve played a few levels, you’ll just be doing the same thing over and over again, with a more complicated layout, more precise manoeuvring necessary, and while it remains a healthy relaxation and mind testing product, it won’t appeal to the fast action twitch gamer, or anyone yearning for a deep story. Those that enjoy it, however, will find in Echochrome a puzzler that they will be able to play and create with for a long time.

At £6.99 it’s a fine purchase, but I consider a fiver being a more fitting price for the game. No-one’s going to argue over a couple of quid really, and if you’re looking for a lateral thinking puzzler, there can be no doubt that Sony has brought another unique product to the ever diversifying PlayStation Network. Just try not to fall off the edge; you’ll respawn without anything more than a time penalty, but hearing the tutorial voice exclaim ‘oops’ or ‘oh no’ does slightly remove you from your lovely Escher fantasy.