Review - Eternal Strands... Straight to the Point

 

Image Courtesy of Yellow Brick Games

It's difficult in this day and age to come up with something that's going to stand the test of time. Not every game that releases is going to be the next The Last of Us or Baldur's Gate 3, and it can be tough for developers to find that niche that they can use to set themselves apart. Eternal Strands is one of those games that tries to do it all and then some, but struggles to stick the landing a bit.

    Eternal Strands was developed by Yellow Brick Games, an indie company headed by four veterans of the gaming industry with credentials ranging from Bioware's Mass Effect and Dragon Age titles to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series. As such, it has some pretty solid bones with which to build a foundation upon. I was eager to see what these industry veterans had come up with in a brand new IP, and for the most part I got what I was looking for.

    Yellow Brick Games's debut title utilizes a mix of different elements to construct something less than new but more than the same old that gamers might be used to. It blends elements of Assassin's Creed, Shadow of the Colossus, Monster Hunter, and even a bit of Control to create a game that emphasizes gameplay while striving to stay true to a definitive narrative along the way. We play as Brynn, a "point" who has taken over the lead scouting responsibilities of her boss, Oria, in a band of adventurers called "weavers." While they were initially investigating a loomgate, or portal, near a closed off wondrous city... things begin to go awry and the weaverband find themselves in the city that's not nearly as dead as they thought it was. Constructs and monsters run amok, and Brynn has to take down everything from ice wolves to towering arcs and fire-spewing drakes.

The Good

Eternal Strands does have a fun gameplay loop. Brynn is a point, basically just another word for a scout who uses some magic in her exploration, and is a versatile character that can use three main types of weapons: sword and board, two-handers, and a bow. While that may sound limited - hell, even Asterigos had double that amount - there are three different elements that you can utilize to build your weapons around too. Fire, ice, and kinetics change up the dynamic of different fights just enough to make things a bit more varied. Swinging your blade around isn't where the gameplay is fun, however. It's taking down the giant constructs, or arks, that make it enjoyable.

    There are plenty of big bads to go toe to toe with (toe to chin, I guess, whatever) and Brynn's climbing techniques inspired by Assassin's Creed make her a real go-getter when it comes to slapping enemies around. This is where that crossover with Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus comes about. Might as well throw Dragon's Dogma in there too, I guess. Combine all of those titles and then pepper in some of the Control type of telekinesis and fire/ice powers, and you have a battle-hardened Brynn ready to rip an ark's strands out of its chest in a way that would make Shao Kahn jealous.

    Animation in Eternal Strands is also great. The runaround reminded me of a more finely-tuned Wayfinder with a slightly-less cartoony vibe. It's still there, however. When Brynn lands in the dirt, the cloud that kicks up is a cartoonish puff that literally brought a smile to my face the first couple times I saw it. It's fun, and Yellow Brick knew how to keep the tone of the game in the animation. The hand-drawn cutscenes maintain that feeling as well. Although most of the dialogue consists of looking at the two portraits of the characters speaking, I can understand why. Voice acting was utilized for nearly every line in the game, and at the level they were doing it... it can be expensive. Portraits during dialogue did not take me out of the experience.

    The narrative itself is pretty good, but nothing groundbreaking. It's a story that you've certainly played before, and not done particularly better or worse. That's not what makes Eternal Strands stand on its own, however. It's the connections between the characters that do. Brynn's weaverband, and how much thought and emphasis was put into the companion development, bring Eternal Strands into its own. I've never played a game that did its best to illuminate things that aren't necessarily thought of by everyone in daily life. We've probably all played something that has a character from the LGBTQ community by now, and Eternal Strands has one as well, but they also honed in on a couple other things unseen by me in a game. A couple is teetering on the brink of a divorce, a wonderfully-voiced quartermaster struggles with intrusive thoughts and insomnia caused by them, loyalties are pushed to the limits by a new member, and a debilitating injury causes one character to have to rethink the future of their beloved career. It's great stuff, I just wish they had saved a bit of that beautiful writing for the main story.

The Bad

This is going to sound like I'm switching over to just fully talk trash on the game, but I'm honestly not. 

    There were things that could have been better. The narrative is the biggest letdown for me. And I'm not even saying that it was anything awful. It was just a typical story of an overarching enemy threatening all life as we know it unless it can be stopped by our amazing do-gooder adventurer. There are "choices" as we go through the game, but aside from who you romantically end up with... they really don't amount to much. 

    As far as the gameplay, while it was fun... I think that there was a little bit too much piggybacking on those other titles for Eternal Strands to stand on its own two feet. Like the games that it emulates, the loop in Eternal Strands can also get a little repetitive. Luckily for me, I had a bit of foresight in this and although I had fun taking down enemies in the beginning... I was focusing on pushing the narrative along. I could see that becoming a problem for some people if they got lost in the exploration aspect of Eternal Strands and didn't focus on the story. By the time they did get interested in pushing the narrative forward, the combat would likely be tedious and inhibiting regarding getting whatever materials are needed to go forth.

    My last qualm is a bit of an extension on the above. Eternal Strands overstays its welcome just a bit. I do mean just a bit, too. It's not like it's a slog. At 30 hours, how could it be? But I did start getting to a point where I was wondering when the end was going to come about. Some things just seemed to be wrapping up, but we still weren't getting to the point (pun intended).

My Ruling

I've been on a string of 7's this year, and this is another one. Eternal Strands is by no means a bad game. As a matter of fact, it's better than most. That said, it's certainly not going to win any awards. Yellow Brick Games have a great foundation that they can build upon to create some really cool things in the future, I just hope that they are able to do so. Should you buy Eternal Strands? Sure. It's worth it. Just make sure you get it on sale.

7/10

Good

For my own spin on adventures in a fantasy world, check out Fracture and the other books from The Sovereign trilogy.