Echoes of the End review — Vestige of hope

I love the indie game scene. It’s always been remarkable to see what a small team of passionate, driven individuals can do. 2025 has been on fire as a year where smaller teams shine. Games like Echoes of the End and Expedition 33 are sound reminders that the development landscape is changing. It doesn’t take a team the size of Ubisoft to deliver what feels like beautiful triple-A experiences anymore. I came into the magical Icelandic-inspired Echoes of the End with tempered expectations. After all, it was a title I hadn’t heard of from a studio I’d never heard of. I had seen virtually no marketing, save a single, short video on social media. To their credit, that was enough to pique my interest. I’m glad it did.

Echoes of the End puts you in the shoes of Ryn, a ranger from the land of Noi Syrouve. Born as a magic-wielding vestige, she spent her life learning to suppress her powers to protect those around her in case she lost control. After Ryn’s brother is taken hostage by leaders from the rival nation of Reigendal, she sets out to save him. When a clash with Zara, a vestige from Reigendal, leaves her stranded, she meets up with a mysterious old gadgeteer named Abram, who has an agenda of his own. The two will have to travel across the lands of Aema to make their goals a reality.

Echoes of the End does an excellent job with its storytelling, worldbuilding, and character growth. Ryn and Abram are likable, relatable characters with satisfying narrative arcs. The magical world of Aema, with its fantastical creatures and warring nations, feels like something Brandon Sanderson could’ve crafted himself. The landscape is gorgeous and varied, and the game does a great job establishing its lore with the vestiges and their magical capabilities. While it isn’t all the most original writing, there were some great twists and beats built into the story that kept me wanting to see it to its conclusion.

As much as I enjoyed the story, the experience wouldn’t have been worth it without the gameplay to back it up. With a game that delivers on so many mechanics, Myrkur Games has done a great job crafting an experience that will satisfy action-adventure gamers. First, they’ve designed a fantastic set of traversal mechanics. You’ll be climbing, swinging on ropes, and surfing down slick inclines one minute and double-jump air-dashing the next. It’s a blast, and it feels fluid. From that aspect, Echoes almost feels like Tomb Raider had a child with Mega Man X. 

The traversal mechanics meld seamlessly into intelligently designed environmental puzzles. Like a magically-charged Uncharted game, you’ll have to trigger switches, make jumps, and more to navigate the world of Aema. You can tell a lot of care went into the puzzle design, too. There are a few that may have you wracking your brain, but more often than not, you’ll be able to fluidly tie things together without hitting the point of frustration. On top of that, as is often the hallmark of good puzzle design, they’ll leave you feeling brilliant.

When you aren’t zipping around the environment solving puzzles, you’ll probably be taking on a room full of Reigendal soldiers or some of Aema’s hostile wildlife. Encounters almost feel like miniature combat puzzles to solve, particularly with the soldiers, since their range and capabilities vary considerably from soldier to soldier. Ryn herself feels like a capable fighter. As the game progresses and you can fill out her skill tree, the growth reinforces her experience as a warrior. With standard combat, she can slash, dodge, and parry for an advantageous counter-attack. The vestige has some extra tricks up her sleeve as she gets more powerful, too. Like a medieval Icelandic Jedi, she’s able to target and throw enemies. Throwing them off ledges is fun, but it can be equally satisfying to slam them into another combatant, injuring both. She’s also able to siphon health and mana from foes, keeping her in the battle longer. Along with Ryn’s powers, you can order Abram to zap enemies with electricity, stunning them for a short period. He’ll also occasionally grab foes for Ryn to stab or knock them down, buying her some time.  Combat itself feels good, but you should come to terms with the fact that you’ll often be facing the same six or seven soldier archetypes in almost every room. It can begin to feel a little long in the tooth, but it’s rarely boring or unfair.

While I would argue that combat is Echoes of the End’s weakest gameplay aspect, I still think it’s a lot of fun. It just begins to feel a little repetitive, especially near the end of the game. That said, the game’s boss battles do a great job breaking up the monotony while providing a fun, often cinematic action sequence for players to enjoy. I want to give a particular shout-out to the wonderfully implemented checkpoint system. When you beat a phase of a boss, the game locks your progress there. Dying in a subsequent phase will let you respawn with full health at the beginning of the new phase. It respects the player’s time and effort. I love that.

Echoes of the End’s aesthetics contribute to a world that feels like a living, breathing alternate reality. From mountains and volcanoes to frozen wastelands and idyllic cities, Echoes features top-tier environmental design. They provide a welcome change of scenery that keeps things from ever feeling stale. The game’s character design is excellent, too. Ryn and Abram’s aesthetics show us a world full of magic and warriors, where the battle-hardened survive and scholars thrive. With such fluid animation and emotive facial features, it almost feels like the dev team spent time with Kojima in his motion capture studio. With that in mind, the soundtrack is passable, if a bit weak. The tracks feel like standard fantasy-game fare, but there’s nothing standout that will have me coming back for the soundtrack like Expedition 33 did. 

It’s worth noting that I experienced some occasional framerate hiccups on my somewhat-outdated RTX 2080, but those were largely when entering a new landscape. These were rare and brief, then we were back to solid performance. It did make for some tense situations at times, though, as I was often jumping gaps or doing something else perilous when it occurred.

Echoes of the End is probably going to go into the record books as my favorite surprise of 2025. This gorgeous action-adventure title delivers stunning visuals, great gameplay, and a well-delivered, engaging story that’ll suck you into the world of Aema. I want to see more from this incredible world they’ve begun to build. Echoes of the End is a great experience that deserves a chance to grow into something more.

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