a game that resembles a artform
Anyway onto the idea of Echochrome, it is a style of gaming that reminds me of my days in art classes and geometry, it uses basic illusions and very little to help stylize itself as a artful game. The game has you "play" as a little manniquin walking around levels which are based on Maurits Cornelis Escher and you create illusions to help create a path onto the idea of "following the echo." Or as I like to believe just following the shadow! The game sticks to the idea of 5 laws to help create the illusion of a path. The music also is a slow paced string based paced music.The game sticks to the idea of 5 laws to help create the illusion of a path which is as follows.
1. Perspective traveling - When two separate pathways appear to be touching, they are touching.
2. Perspective landing - If one pathway appears to be above another, it is above another.
3. Perspective existence - When the gap between two pathways is blocked from view and the pathways appear to be connected, they are connected.
4. Perspective absence - When a hole is blocked from view, it does not exist.
5. Perspective jump - When the mannequin jumps, it will land on what ever appears beneath it.
The controls are very basic and without a doubt easy, you have speed up the little manniquin, "think" which causes it to stand still and allows you to angle the level out. Changing the view angle will give you a different perspective and allows the level to actually change how it looks. The simple black and white also works to fix the level because if the level contained more color it would probably knock the style and calmness of the whole experience.
The game does not punish you for failing or causing the character to fall off the stage, instead it quickly responds you and keeps the game going and going. The only part that could lead to you failing is not being able to figure out how to complete the level and quitting out, which I found myself doing a few times but when I did figure it out I felt a sense of great accomplishment! The way this new puzzle game starts is with a quick tutorial about the 5 laws and then you start off simple and gradually go up the hill to the utmost complex and insanely hours upon hours of thinking how can I complete this fraking game!
My closing comments on this game are very simple, its a very cheap game thats only 5 dollars on the sony store with plenty of levels but I went ahead and bought the 15 dollar game with 50+ levels which will give for hours upon hours of gaming. This game will be perfect for puzzle freaks, and artist geeks, and anyone getting ready to go on a very long ride especially when it goes from slutty easy to insanely tough to tap, and I highly recommend it for those who fit this description. Anyway take care and thanks for reading.