Eternal Strands reminded me just how much fun games can be, even when they clearly draw inspiration from other titles. Despite its influences, this game will offer a unique experience. It’s an ambitious action RPG that blends creative, physics-based gameplay with epic battles against colossal enemies. The game’s strengths lie in its improvisational combat, environmental interaction, and open exploration. However, these high points are diminished by a slow story pace and repetitive fights with smaller foes. While Eternal Strands excels in its most creative moments, it suffers from monotony and occasional frustration.
The story focuses on Brynn, a Weaver rejected by society following a magical catastrophe known as the Surge. Together with her allies, Brynn investigates the mysterious Enclave, uncovering its secrets and exploring the origins of the Surge. While the premise is intriguing, the pace of the narrative is genuinely slow, with significant plot twists only occurring halfway through the game. This makes the early stages often feel repetitive and demotivating.
Brynn is a likable protagonist, but the game doesn’t offer enough motivation to engage in lengthy conversations with various characters. Although the voice acting is impressive and the world is rich with history, the presentation often feels “lukewarm.” Side quests somewhat elaborate on the history and relationships between characters, but they lack a certain urgency and depth, further slowing down the story’s tempo.
While every character has their charm, I found it difficult to connect with them. Many dialogues felt meaningless, and I personally skipped conversations that didn’t interest me. I’m not sure why such an emphasis was placed on the story in Eternal Strands. It’s not bad, but it lacks the necessary depth and intrigue to fully captivate you. However, the game excels in its dynamic and action-packed gameplay.
One of the most striking aspects of Eternal Strands is how the game encourages experimentation with various tactical approaches in combat and exploration. The combat system is simple and easy to grasp, making it highly accessible. You can use a variety of weapons, such as a sword and shield or a bow and arrow. There is also a well-implemented parry system, as well as the ability to dodge various enemy attacks. However, the true highlight of the game is its elemental powers.
For example, the power of ice isn’t limited just to freezing enemies. You can use it to create bridges, extinguish fires, or even pin a Titan’s limbs to the ground during intense fights. Telekinesis adds an extra strategic layer, allowing you to manipulate objects to disable enemy shields or activate environmental traps. Fire powers let you melt ice and unlock new areas. The versatility in applying these abilities adds a certain dynamism to both exploration and combat.
Since combat is physics-based, there’s a degree of unpredictability that makes it exciting. Colossal creatures can knock you away, you can take fall damage, or even end up in traps like a ragdoll. This creates numerous opportunities for creative problem-solving and keeps the gameplay engaging and fresh.
The battles against the Great Foes are not just a matter of physical fighting; they also incorporate puzzle-solving, demanding careful planning and the creative use of your powers to exploit their weaknesses. Whether it’s climbing up a dragon’s wings or freezing a giant’s hand to the ground, these conflicts feel epic, diverse, and extremely fun. They also offer a meaningful choice: if you defeat a Great Foe in a certain way, you gain power upgrades, while more traditional methods earn you rare crafting materials. This unexpected system is interesting in its own way and should be fully utilized.
The battles against the Great Foes were not overly difficult. True, they try to shake you off, grab you with their hands, and require you to attack specific weak points. You also have to strategically use magic and carefully manage your stamina during the fight. However, once you understand the mechanics, each creature becomes relatively easy to defeat. Yet, despite quickly learning their behavior patterns, these fights remain incredibly fun. You’ll often find yourself wanting to engage in more such conflicts simply because they are a blast to defeat.
While the Great Foe battles are genuinely exciting, the smaller-scale combat is disappointing in comparison. It quickly becomes monotonous due to a lack of variety in enemy types and a limited weapon selection, which boils down to just two basic archetypes. Furthermore, the core combat mechanics remain almost unchanged throughout the game, resulting in a weak sense of progression.
The versatility of your powers helps somewhat to break the monotony, but it’s not enough to fully disguise the repetitiveness. It can be particularly frustrating when facing groups of enemies, for example, three archers attacking you from different directions. In such situations, the best option often seems to be to flee rather than engage them.
Exploration in Eternal Strands features an open approach, where you can climb almost any surface and break surrounding objects to gather crafting materials. However, the incentive to explore feels minimal, as the most valuable rewards, like gear blueprints and crafting materials, are tied to story progression rather than world discovery. Additionally, the climbing mechanic leaves a lot of room for improvement. Climbing consumes a lot of stamina, feels sluggish, and can be frustrating, especially when trying to escape enemies.
Eternal Strands introduces a dynamic weather system that affects exploration and combat, but instead of enhancing the experience, it often acts as an unnecessary obstacle. My biggest complaint is the Miasma effect, where the world is enveloped in a magical purple fog. Stepping into it is practically a death sentence, and the thick haze makes it nearly impossible to track what’s happening on the map. Similarly, Frosts and Droughts force you to regulate your temperature using potions or gear, but the game doesn’t offer clear feedback on the effectiveness of your preparations. Instead, these weather effects frequently disrupt the flow of the game, making navigation and combat needlessly frustrating.
Eternal Strands ties all progression to the Gear Mechanic, which allows for upgrading and forging using materials. While this ensures that even starting gear can remain useful, the system feels tedious. Swapping out armor for specific situations, such as increasing stamina during a Great Foe fight, requires manually equipping each piece separately. There is no option to save different gear sets, making frequent changes cumbersome. Additionally, the lack of significant health or stamina upgrades outside of the gear system lessens the feeling of progression. While managing gear is fun initially, it becomes repetitive and time-consuming over time.
Another issue is the limited inventory space for carrying resources during exploration. To craft legendary or epic armor, you’ll need to constantly gather materials. Although resources are relatively easy to find, the combination of environmental hazards and enemies makes the entire process tiresome rather than rewarding. The larger creatures attack as soon as they see you, and for some reason, enemies have an incredible ability to detect the player from great distances, often pursuing you relentlessly. This unforgiving pursuit, combined with environmental challenges, can make the gameplay feel more like a tedious struggle than a true adventure.
Visually, Eternal Strands is vibrant and rich in color, with striking character design and seamless performance, even during intense combat. The anime-style animated sequences emphasize key story moments, adding a certain dynamism and drama. Austin Wintory composed the beautiful orchestral soundtrack, whose magnificent compositions further heighten the tension and epic feeling of the Great Foe battles. The overall sound design is extremely polished, with effects and music that perfectly complement the intensity of the gameplay.
Eternal Strands is a game of contrasts. While it possesses numerous strong elements, certain flaws prevent it from fully realizing its potential. For fans of action RPGs and games inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, Eternal Strands might be interesting, but its inconsistencies could test your patience.
The creative abilities and the epic battles against the Great Foes are the game’s biggest assets, delivering some of the most innovative combat mechanics in recent memory. However, the repetitive smaller skirmishes, slow pacing, and overly complicated systems occasionally detract from the overall experience. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and can confidently recommend it. Just give it some time to win you over; you might be surprised how much you end up liking it.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Epic battles against large creatures. | Fights against smaller creatures are tedious. |
| Creative use of elemental powers. | Slow story pace. |
| Impressive visuals and sound design. | Frustrating time system. |
| Very good soundtrack. | Unconventional gear progression. |
Review copy provided by the publisher
