Playing Echo Point Nova is like diving through someone's dreams after playing too much Titanfall or Tribes

Echo Point Nova plays like a dream. By that I don’t mean that it’s a responsive, satisfying FPS with lots of intuitive and intelligent movement technologies (it is, by the way), but playing it feels like diving through someone’s dreams after playing a lot lots of Titanfall, Tribes and Minecraft adventure maps. Despite taking inspiration from some of the best in the genre, this film arrives as different in a very good way.

Released in the last week of September, Echo Point Nova is the second game from Greylock Studios, the one-man team that brought us the excellent bullet-time shooter Severed Steel. The family resemblance is clear to see: Echo Point Nova seemingly uses the same glossy and (optionally) ray tracing voxel engine as its predecessor, but inverts the design in many ways. While Severed Steel was all about optimizing a path through a narrow series of corridors and rooms and occasionally blasting a hole through a wall, Echo Point Nova gives you the sky and a pickaxe that destroys everything but reinforced metal.

There’s no story here other than “There are powerful artifacts on these floating sky islands, guarded by generic villains, shooting and snatching.” The few characters that occasionally pop up on the islands in voiceless plot nodes mostly just serve to lure you into the next thing Point out objectives or break the fourth wall, and remind you of mechanics you may have forgotten. There is no drama, nothing is at stake. This is a game that you play purely for the fun of playing. That’s a good thing, because it’s a thoroughly enjoyable experience, punctuated by some spectacular mega-vehicle bosses that you have to climb into and dismantle from the inside.

I have to catch them all

(Image credit: Greylock Studio)

So what’s the draw? A feeling of escalating adventure and chaos. Within the first twenty minutes, you’ll get your basic toolkit – a handful of weapons, grenades, a hoverboard that lets you glide smoothly over any wall or vertical surface, and a grappling hook that lets you swing from anything (including clouds) . ). You start out powerful and your enemies feel fragile – everything grows from there. Winning multi-wave arena battles, exploration, and secret hunts rewards you with a drip full of new weapons, upgrades for them (which you get when you hit a kill target for that weapon), perks for customizing your character builds, and hats that look fancy look and get even better your perk capacity. It’s a captivating loop even before you begin the horrifyingly grueling Crackdown-style hunt for Agility Orbs, which further enhance your ability to stay airborne.

By mid-game, you’re a fragile but unstoppable god of war, able to triple jump, triple grab, and launch yourself 50 feet into the sky using extendable jump pads. With a running start, a ramp, and a little ingenuity, you can practically fly and weave through gunfire with ease. The nature of Echo Point Nova’s combat (mainly against human-sized enemies, with bullets that have a long duration) means that the faster you are, the more skill you need to land those shots, which makes for a good balance . Sure, you could Slow down, but where’s the fun in that?

This is a game that almost never says “no” to the player. Aside from a few objectives that require a certain amount of boss power to access, you are free to do anything if you have the appropriate skills and movement techniques. Do you think you can plan a sequence-breaking route by grinding down floating rocks, then holding on to a cloud and triple jumping over the abyss? Do it; The game gently warns you that if you go off the beaten path you will return to your last checkpoint, but it will never stop you.

Friendly sky

Echo Point Nova

(Image credit: Greylock Studio)

While Echo Point Nova is great on its own, it’s even better in multiplayer. You can roll (float?) with up to three friends who enter or exit freely, with enemy spawns automatically adjusting based on the size of the group. The overwhelming odds mean that death can come quickly, but instead of forcing the party to search for and revive a fallen teammate, survivors can bring a fallen comrade back into battle by killing a certain number of enemies, which encourages even bolder play. Pressure. A simple system, but it makes every second spent in spectator mode that much more exciting.

While I enjoyed the game the most when the difficulty was set to high and there were no assists, Echo Point Nova is only as hardcore as you want it to be. In addition to the varying difficulty levels, there are a range of accessibility options, right down to smart auto-aim that shows moving targets for you, and a toggle to make bosses stationary, auto-melee attack anything in range, and prevent them from being attacked They fall from ledges. It’s an impressively comprehensive package for a solo developer, and given the years of free updates Severed Steel has received, I can only imagine it improving. Oh yes, and there is also a level editor.

I can’t wait to get back to the game and continue my chaotic kick-flipping co-op adventure through the clouds, but for now I want to give you one full recommendation: If you’ve ever dreamed of zooming through an FPS, If you Gliding over walls and through the sky, you should at least check out the Echo Point Nova demo.

Playing Echo Point Nova is like diving through someone’s dreams after playing too much Titanfall or Tribes

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