Echoplex (PC) Review

In Echoplex, players control an unnamed test participant, who has to run through weird mazes and collect memory fragments. There's a time limit in each level, before the test subjects eyes get all blurry and they get dropped at the beginning again. Levels are filled with intentionally minimalist architecture, most likely to keep the player from memorizing paths.

In order to progress, the player must unlock certain doors by stepping into different coloured force fields. They must be wise, though, as if they take too long, they may run into their Echo. This is the game's biggest draw, and to be fair, it works pretty well. The basic idea is that during a test, the Echo will show up a short time after the player. The Echo will imitate the player's every action, and should they collide with the Echo, they will fail the test.

All of this requires quick thinking, and to an extent it works fairly well. The puzzles tend to be small enough, and you get to retry quickly enough after each failure, that everything feels okay. This doesn't work, though, because it's hard to grasp how you accomplished certain things at such a breakneck speed. The player may find themselves going through doors they previously couldn't, not sure as to why. It's easy enough to figure out what you just did, but it makes it hard to build an action plan.

Also, a lot of the action just feels aimless. Moving at such a quick speed is very rollercoaster in nature, as it's easy to miss important points because they become a blur. This makes the screen shaky and difficult to read, and figuring out how to reach the goal can be exhausting. This isn't just a failure on the basic mechanic, but on the minimalism. Also, a lot of the corridors are very tight, and with the mouse sensitivity, it's easy to get turned around a little bit too quickly.

The central idea is sound, but the very things that make Echoplex its own experience are the things that hurt it. The simple colours make the world feel sterile, which makes it too easy to get lost in. The haunting images of your former self are absolutely mesmerizing, but they create so much pressure, it's hard for the player to get a good grounding. It can be quite dizzying, but if you can get past it, there's a unique little experience here that's definitely worth your time.