Our Review of Lost Echo
Last week we were talking about the fun and innovative Milkmaid of the Milky Way, so this week we thought we’d double down with the also intriguing IOS adventure Lost Echo. Much like Milkmaid presented the pleasures of simple country living (before those aliens interrupted), Lost Echo doubles down on life in the future, complete with beautifully designed futuristic environments, an endlessly helpful AI, and a plot centered around new technology run awry. And just when you think this game can’t get any more futuristic, you run into Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen who actually partners up with you for the rest of your mission. This game makes life in the future look really fun.
You will never find a more retched hive of scum and villainy. Oh hey, there’s Tom.
The plotline of Lost Echo is pretty creative. You’re an engineer in the future living an idyll life in modern metropolis. You and your girlfriend are visiting the park one day when an explosion knocks you senseless. You wake up in the hospital and discover that no one has any recollection of your girlfriend and all evidence of her existence seems to have disappeared. It’s a pretty compelling mystery and would arguably translate well into a movie or TV show (particularly given some of the game’s later twists). It helps that this interesting story takes place in a beautifully realized world whose graphics keep you excited to see the next area. While the plot gets a little twisty, the environments are consistently beautiful throughout the game.
Hm, I’m starting to understand why Chloe disappeared.
Lost Echo has some unusual puzzles that stood out to me and some of these worked better than others. There’s a great sequence where you have to re-assemble film footage with three different colors into a single picture. There’s fun a sequence where you have to catch a card thief using your point-and-click interface. There’s a surprisingly difficult chess puzzle (that is totally fair but I am just terrible at chess). However, there were a couple of other puzzles I didn’t enjoy involving knocking on doors and arranging dots (it’s important to note that the game lets you skip this last puzzle). To me, though, this is a testament to designer willing to experiment with puzzle creation and not simply relying on tried-and-true item location and combination. Overall, the puzzles are interesting and difficult enough to keep you engaged without ever wanting to pull your hair out.
Man, were sales from Deus Ex so bad that Jensen’s slumming in other people’s games now?
THE BEST PART
The graphics and story are really top notch. While not all the puzzles work, the more innovative ones are really memorable.
THE WORST PART
The game holds pretty tightly to the traditional point-and-click adventure gameplay, which can be slow for some folks. Also the game’s cute sense of humor might not appeal to everyone.
OUR RECOMMENDATION: BUY IT
For $3, you get a great adventure with a smart story and some beautiful graphics. If you’re into adventure games, this one is a no-brainer.
