Alter Echo

"A strange, but enjoyable game"

Alter Echo is the story of Nevin, a “shaper.” Shapers are psychics with the ability to manipulate a substance called Multiplast into almost any other substance or device they need. After Paavo, the greatest of the Shapers, goes insane it is up to Nevin to stop him, with the aid of the EchoPlast, a living intelligent version of the Multiplast.

Sounds kind of weird? It is, and the game is a lot stranger than it sounds, but that’s what makes Alter Echo unique. Unique is the best word to describe this game: far from innovative, yet still able to stand out without resorting to a cheap gimmick.

Throughout the game you will be using your ability to manipulate the Multiplast in order to fight enemies, solve puzzles, control time, and basically do anything. The most common manipulation is the use of your battlesuit, custom made for you by the EchoPlast. Your suit has three different forms, each with different abilities and advantages. Each form has unique abilities and is best suited for certain situations. The three different forms are Sword, Gun, and Stealth, and there functions should be apparent. You begin the game with just the Sword form, which has the best maneuverability and jumping ability of the three, however you are limited to melee weapons. Soon afterwards you will be given the Gun form, which has the size and maneuverability of a small tank, but a very powerful gun and grenade launcher. Finally you will get the Stealth upgrade which has very limited offensive abilities, but can turn invisible and climb walls.

Each form is useful in certain situations (combat and non-combat), so learning to quickly switch to the appropriate form is a must. Switching forms should be a natural as firing a weapon, since many times you will have to use different forms in a single battle. The planet is also a gigantic puzzle, so different suits will have to be used even outside of combat, though the Stealth form will probably be used the most.

There is more to effective fighting than choosing the right form. Each form has a variety of impressive combos that can be chained together to make yourself into an even more formidable fighter. Switching forms in the middle of an attack can also be used as part of a combo, with what suit you were in and what one you are changing into determining what morph combo you pull off.

By forming combos you will defeat enemies with ease as well as be rewarded with health, power ups, and plasm, which basically the currency of Alter Echo. As the game progresses there will be various points that you can spend plasm on suit upgrades.

The most powerful attack you have is Time Dilation, which you use to attack by solving a type puzzle. Enemies will be displayed as icons on a map, as will your character. By moving around onto the icons you attack them and cause damage. The catch is you have to hit the buttons to move at the right time or the attack will fail. A marker is quickly sliding back and forth on a scale, and in order to pull off a successful attack you must move your icon as soon as the marker is in the correct place. If you press the button at the wrong time or not at all, Time Dilation ends and you carry out the attack prematurely. This makes planning your movement on the map extremely difficult since you have almost no time to think about what to do next.

The controls are laid out very nicely and are easy enough to learn. As in many games, the left thumb stick moves you and the right moves the camera. X allows you to jump while the other three buttons are your various attacks. The triggers allow you to instantly switch between to another form, which is a necessity since you will have to switch in mid attack sometimes.

The only problem with the controls is the camera. The camera basically does not move, except to go forward or backwards as you do. When you turn to the side, the only way to get the camera to rotate is by manually moving it with the right thumb stick. This can get annoying when you are moving left/right instead of forward since you will have to either stop and rotate the camera or learn to rotate it while moving.

It is hard to describe the levels in Alter Echo. Each map is a bizarre mixture of pinks, purples, blues, and other colors you would not associate with a game map. The levels have a variety of sections, from winding tunnels to open fields and chasms. Levels get progressively stranger and more complex, with more puzzles to solve. The maps are fairly well designed, and despite all using the same color scheme, do have a nice variety.

Scattered throughout the levels are special nodes, which can have a variety of different purposes. Some nodes restore health or act as switches, while other nodes can spawn enemies or supercharge your suit while you are standing on the node.

The biggest problem with the levels as a whole is that the first couple of levels are a “tutorial,” so you will spend a lot of time in the beginning sampling the different puzzles and enemies, as well as getting your new suits. This would be fine if it was just the first level or so, but the introduction phase goes on for a fairly long time and eventually gets boring.

Alter Echo is about average when it comes to difficulty. Combat is not the most difficult aspect of the game, but it can be a challenge the first time through while you are still learning to switch between forms. However once you pick up on that, it becomes a bit easier and smoother. The game gets progressively difficult as you go on, but the beginning is very basic and the first three or four levels are the tutorial and lack any kind of challenge. In latter levels the enemies become much stronger, smarter, better placed, more defensive, and manage to make you think on your feet.

Time Dilation can be a challenge because you need to have fast reflexes to be able to response at the right time. However, like form switching, once you practice it a few times, it becomes more natural.

This is not to say that the game is incredibly easy; everything becomes easier with practice. The Time Dilation puzzles are challenging and require fairly good reflexes. Fighting will always require skill, as the enemies' challenge comes from their strategy and placement as well as their numbers.

Alter Echo does not have the most brilliantly written storyline, but there are many games with worse plots. The premise is the bad guy (Paavo) has taken over the world and is trying to kill you because he is an evil mastermind. Yep, the bad guy is doing bad things because he is a bad guy. However, the concept of the entire planet having a consciousness and actively aiding you in healing it is somewhat unique. There are also a variety of other characters you will encounter, both good and bad, which does add a bit more to the storyline. Like Paavo, the other characters are underdeveloped and don’t create any big surprises or plot twists. Because this is an action game, the storyline is not as important as other genres like dialogue heavy RPGs, where a bad storyline can kill a game. The story is shallow and underdeveloped, but the game tends to focus on combat and puzzle solving, so it does not detract from the game too much. Most of the story is explained in cut-scenes or in the introductory phase of the game.

Alter Echo’s graphics are very well done. The color scheme is bizarre, but works well in the bizarre world. The enemies are fairly well detailed and designed, and there is a fair amount of variety in the enemies, both in terms of there looks and their abilities. The environment itself is not very detailed, but like the color scheme, it helps create the appropriate atmosphere of the strange world.

The only bad thing about the graphics is the character designs of the humans. They are not the best designs, and the humans’ faces are not detailed as much as they could be. The alien creatures have much better facial designs, and you will be seeing more aliens than humans in the game.

The music works very well with the game. While the soundtrack is not something to run out and buy, it is good background music and adds to the overall environment the game is trying to create. Overall the sound effects are fairly quiet, so it is not really noticeable.

The voice acting is actually pretty good. All of the dialogue matches the characters lip movement, and the voices match the personality and physiology of the characters. The voices generally come in fairly quiet during the game and sometimes it is difficult to hear what is being said over the other sound effects and background music.

Alter Echo lacks replayability for several different reasons. The first is that it is completely linear, with no multiplayer or level variations and enemy placement being strategic instead of random, so you will end up playing almost exactly the same way each time through. Another reason is that once you solve the puzzles your first time through you will know what to do in subsequent plays, eliminating a lot of the challenge. The long introductory phase at the beginning is unavoidable and becomes boring if you are already familiar with the gameplay and plot.

Conclusion

Alter Echo is a unique experience simply because it is so bizarre. As a budget title, it is certainly worth looking into because it can be a lot of fun the first time through. The way that the game integrates the combo and suit systems make combat different than in any other game, even ones with combo systems. The shortness and lack of replayability are major deterrents to purchasing the game, but the massive combo list will keep players interested for a while. A longer game with better developed levels and storyline would have helped a lot, but there is enough to make it entertaining.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/03, Updated 03/24/04