Echo Point Nova demo playthrough (Next Fest June 2023)
5This might take home the prize of most pleasant surprise out of all the demos I played during this Next Fest.
I came into this initially worried about its visual accessibility; based on the trailer, I expected a lot of high-motion long-distance sniping to be involved. While there is indeed some long-distance sniping, it wasn't forced in too many situations, and you can generally take it at whatever speed you want. More importantly, I played the hell out of this demo, to the point of 100% item collection.
The demo progressively tasks you with finding your scattered equipment, incrementally unlocking additional firepower, and more importantly, movement and barrier-destroying abilities. Given how much this game focuses on taking place in an open world, and incentivizes exploration to find both extra upgrades and cosmetics in hidden pockets, I have to wonder if the full game will capitalize on opportunities for metroidvania-esque backtracking.
Movement in this game is pretty fun, even if you're not terribly good at it. The grappling hook is surprisingly controllable, as the direction you aim influences the direction you travel, allowing you to swing around walls or over ledges. The hoverboard gives you plenty of speed, and also kind of breaks vertical mobility, since as long as there's a wall around, you can pretty much infinitely jump.
The game's visuals are pretty clear and streamlined for the most part (which is helpful, considering how fast it encourages you to move): enemies are typically yellow/orange, and various types of pickups are also consistently specifically colored. Enemies _can_ be hard to spot when juxtaposed against the sky, since both are rather light colors, and I get the impression that fog kicks in after a certain distance which can also hamper visibility.
Another thing that can be problematic against bright backdrops is the HUD, which unfortunately uses a "punch-through" color scheme where the HUD itself is white but text shows through to the world behind it... and is therefore unreadable when a bright color is behind it. The game does have a decent range of options, but I'd love to see one added to force dark-text-on-white for the HUD.
I kind of hope the full game will eventually offer an item that at least gives you a vague indication of where hidden items are located, since right now you have no choice but to wander aimlessly until you're within earshot of an audible ping sound effect. (It'd be cool if there were a layer for the map that would show rings about the same size as the effective range of the pings.) I also hope the full game makes fast-travel map inputs more specific - right now you can end up accidentally fast-traveling if you try to drag the map but just happen to mouse down on a fast-travel point. Also, ability to zoom the map seems like it will be pretty crucial, assuming it will grow significantly for the full release...
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the developers behind Severed Steel have managed to come up with yet another compelling movement-based shooter. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what they manage to do with the full game by the time it releases (slated for later this year).
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