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ECHO review
by Merlijn Eskens

This will be a short review, I might re-visit this one at a later stage to clarify things a bit

What it does well:
- The story is compelling and intriguing.
- The world feels real and is amazingly crafted.
- The clones work, trust me on this one. Its super tense to play against yourself and one mistake can make a chain of action occur.
At some point you will learn how the flow of "shooting, hiding, opening doors" works and it will feel great. This is the goal of the game, and the flow is by far Superior to playing any other way. You just have to keep moving. (that's a hint)

What it fails at:
- The ending is terrible, it does not answer any of the posed questions, and hints are given in "collectable" way that requires you to go back and find all the hidden items. The story suddenly ends. I didnt even realize I was nearing the end until the game more or less told me "Hey, you did it, well played".
- Sometimes, it takes too long to get to the next stage if you do not understand the above mentioned flow patters. This means the game can stay in one "mode" for too long (talking / shooting / exploring). Its as if the developers expected you to "get it" way sooner than I actually did.
- The time it takes to change scenery is too long, and near the end too short.
- Sometimes, the AI grabs you, even after you have pushed them away :( (It is also a little unclear if you can push sometimes, as the bar does not indicate when you have enough stamina to actually use the button!)

Other:
This game is pure sci-fi. The way it handles this is awesome.

If you are here purely for the gameplay, give it a shot
if you are here for the visuals; BUY IT, BUY IT NOW
if you are here for the story; yea... you might want to buy a book instead.

Overall, I really wanted to give this an exceptional since I enjoyed it so much, but felt like "recommended" just fit the bill that much better.
«Blew my mind»
«Underrated»
«That ending!»