Everreach: Project Eden (PC) Review

Everreach: Project Eden revolves around the discovery and colonization of a planet that's almost identical to Earth in terms of habitability. Nora, a soldier assigned with investigating some "mysterious incidents," lands there, and must now shoot her way through mechanical drones and mercs in order to find out what is going on. One hour in, and it's pretty clear that Elder Games wanted to craft a Mass Effect on a budget. It's even clearer that it isn't though.

Is it because the protagonist is one more forgettable blonde, with a generic-looking sci-fi suit, and wooden delivery? Because of a world that lacks character, and has a very dull MMO aesthetic, with everything after a few feet becoming a blurry mess as if Nora has myopia? Because the story isn't something to write home about? Because of the awkward camera work in cut-scenes, which feels as if the cameraman is drunk? Honestly, it's due to all these combined. This just won't win anyone with its storytelling and audio-visual qualities.

Subpar-to-lame production values and presentation are easy to stomach when a game is enjoyable, but that's the main problem with Everreach - it just isn't fun. For starters, this is a chase-the-marker kind of deal, where you run from A to B, with nothing to do in-between, apart from the odd ammo crate… with some of those forcing you to play an annoying and/or boring mini-game to unlock. This means that the bulk of the experience revolves around reaching a destination, and then killing whatever is waiting there. Sadly, apart from the fact that the main strategy is waiting for your health and shield to regenerate, the shooting aspect is terribly flawed.

Aside from movement and gunplay feeling completely weightless, running behind cover, which is the only viable "tactic," is very unreliable, with bullets sometimes being able to hit you through concrete walls. Hit-boxes are usually larger too, but that issue mostly benefits Nora, who can exploit it and hit foes without ever leaving her safe spot. Does this make things any better? No, but it at least provides the player with the means to survive the many sudden difficulty spikes, which, coupled with checkpoints that are quite far apart, and the lack of a Quick Save feature, can really break one's will to carry on.

The problems don't stop there, though. Swapping weapons and reloading is way too slow, with swapping between weapons locking the character on the spot, and, finally, it's not possible to toggle between left and right aiming sides. As if playing something that's not fun wasn't enough, this lacks content too. You'll spend most of your time shooting the same couple of enemies, and with only two freaking weapons! There's an upgrade system that could spice things up, but that's just a network of nodes, which are basically passive perks, like better health, shield regeneration, and so on.

The really bizarre thing? This doesn't smell as something that was badly made, but as something that was simply left to die mid-development. It's common for many an indie dev to start doing something, running out of steam or resources, but deciding to "release the darn thing" anyway. Long story short, this isn't an unknown gem that just happens to be very rough around the edges, but a title that was abandoned by its creator; a creator that had the audacity to charge half the piece of a triple-A game for it.