Fighting goblins and exploring villages is the common thing to do in Echoes of The End, a great tribute to Icelandic folklore, but not a great game.
In this action-adventure third person entry, we follow Ryn, a warrior capable of manipulating ancient magic, while she adventures in Icelandic-inspired lands trying to rescue her kidnapped brother with Abram, her companion. Echoes of the End began production in 2016, but was only released in 2025 by Myrkur Games, developer located in Reykjavik. This game was received with mixed reviews, by critics and the public, but not everything is bad, just half of it!
Echoes of the End premise is the classic revenge/rescue tale. Ryn is a warrior set to protect the magic “shield” of her reign, Aema, and she’s also a vestige, people who can control ancient magic. One day, the shield is attacked and Ryn fails to protect it and not letting her little brother get kidnapped. The true story starts after a strange man, named Abram, rescues her and helps throughout the journey of saving the girl’s little brother. We play only as Ryn, but Abram is the side kick who is always a part of the puzzle needed to be solved. Expect to fight in beautiful Icelandic inspired landscapes and fight a lot of mythological creatures.
The story, in a critical way of thinking, it’s just more of the same rescue tale, but with the side-kick character being a thing. Ryn’s brother, Cor, probably has a screen time of 15 minutes in a 10 hours-long game, creating a difficult connection with the player. Everything that happens in Echoes of the End is so predictable and monotone that it feels like the producers didn’t put effort into the writing, preferring to focus on Icelandic mythology. The ending is actually sad, not because something emotional happens, but rather the producers thinking this series could receive another entry.
The Icelandic setting and inspiration are probably the best part of the game, because it looks like it’s the only section that the developers cared to be good at. I discovered things that I never thought I would about this mythology, and I think that presented these stories in a very dummy-proof way, but all the other plots were forgotten in the meantime. We have a big diversity of fantastic enemies, but every time another one is presented just feels a little bit overwhelming, because the game has a lot of foes with a lack of variety between them. Also, you’ll be very confused in the beginning of the story, since the only explanation given is a 30s scene, but after chapter 2 the things will be clearer.
Another important point to understand the mixed reception of Echoes of the End is the combat system. It’s just like God of War(2018), but worse in every single aspect: we have a parry system that just doesn’t work very well, powers are a thing, but nothing else than an easier way to kill enemies. Speaking of foes, we have A LOT of them! Every single area you’ll enter in this game will not have some fun thing to explore, but rather 15 enemies waiting for you, and that becomes tiring in the third chapter. One positive section that I have to highlight is the heal system! In this game, a heal potion or bandages isn’t a thing, instead we can drain enemies’ health to restore our health bar.
We don’t have an open world with a lot of side activities to do, but rather a cinematic solo experience that follows a linear story in levels, and that’s the biggest problem of all. The game doesn’t have an amazing story, nor a good open map, making it difficult for the player to engage in the narrative. The world is beautiful and really well idealized, but it becomes a repetitive enemy-filled zone really fast. Without any type of collectible rather than some chests used for upgrades, Echoes of the End doesn’t create a replayability factor, and not even a “playability” factor, because just more of the same every time you enter a new zone.
The graphics are the most important part of this game, because they told a story apart from the game. With beautiful and stunning landscapes, Echoes of the End made something amazing with the budget and brought some mythological places that exist in the game. In fact, if we remove the graphics from this game, nothing else will stand out, because the story depends on it for emerging players in the game. The visuals help the interest in the game, but they alone cannot make a full experience.
Sentence
This is a beautiful game and impressive for its budget, but it’s lacking two most important things in an action-adventure game: a fun combat and a fun story. The graphics are the best feature in this game by far, and I’d put the mythological references as another positive point, but at some moment in the story, Echoes of the End starts being an expositor of Icelandic culture for the world rather than a good game.
Leave a comment