I never expected a game about a test pilot sprinting and jumping around, shooting and slicing all sorts of enemies, to remind me of Trackmania of all games. However, after spending around 2 hours immersed in the demo, this thought jumped out to me above all others. Even though you’re not driving a car and definitely not racing through any loops, both games focus on constantly improving your times on reasonably short (mostly sub-minute) levels. And in both cases, the feeling of slowly grinding towards that ultimate finish time is amazing.
Echobreaker is a game developed by Upstream Arcade, where you play as a test pilot attempting to push the boundaries of an armoured rig in a bunch of different test suites. Each one consists of a bunch of levels that require you to go from point A to B as fast as possible while also destroying all enemies in the area. The humanoid vehicle you pilot is capable of sprints, wall runs and jumps and has a rudimentary short-range weapon for dealing with hostiles. However, far superior instruments of destruction are spread around the levels as pickups, featuring unique and useful mechanics that help in efficiently destroying adversaries and at times have certain traversal perks.
The game has a fixed isometric camera, which is ideal for this type of precision-based gameplay. The game recommends using a controller, and the sleek control scheme is indeed an essential part of the experience. The left stick controls the character, while the right stick can be used to aim melee and ranged attacks. All other controls such as jumping and attacking are accessible from the shoulder buttons and triggers, allowing you to keep your thumbs on the sticks at all times. Any level can be instantly restarted by the press of a button, resulting in the classic gameplay of reattempting a level over and over until you get the perfect run.
Visually, the game is certainly interesting. The abstract and neon virtual reality style is effective and fits the narrative. However, there is also a large number of effects, making the result feel like some futuristic pixelated CRT television. The environment is also filled with strange polygonal shapes pulsing and waving around. While I found the result bold and unique, it was a bit much at times and even gave me a slight headache after playing for a while. I must admit that I am extra sensitive to this type of stuff, but I hope the final release will have more options to modify the density of visual effects. Currently, you can only modify the scanline effect, but even with that completely turned off, the graphics felt too noisy to me.
Each level feels meticulously hand-crafted to achieve a flow state. Enemy placement, pickup locations, and the shape of the obstacles all have a clear, non-stop, natural motion in mind. At first, this gave me the feeling that there wouldn’t be much freedom to find an optimal route, but the game offers tons of mechanics that can be used to shave off seconds. One thing, for example, is the ability to sacrifice player health for certain momentary perks, like a double jump or a speed boost. There is a complex trade-off there between survival and speed, and pushing this to the limit is extremely satisfying. These extra abilities also allow for all sorts of wacky shortcuts, dropping your time with multiple seconds in a single move.
Technically, the game runs rather well. I tested it both on a desktop PC and on a Steam Deck and experienced a stable framerate on both. I was especially impressed by the performance on the Steam Deck: the game maintained a rock-solid 60 fps while keeping the fans quiet and power use reasonable. The UI is quite basic at the moment and felt a bit janky at times: certain screens would hang for a bit or not react to my input correctly, and at times the information was displayed in a non-intuitive way. However, as this is still a preview, I am confident that they will iron out this stuff in the final release.
Overall I enjoyed my time with this demo. I am by no means a speedrunner or an extremely skilled gamer, but I took pleasure in slowly understanding the mechanics and improving my personal times. The game is at its peak when everything starts to click and you’re able to pull off all the moves you have lined up in your head. Doing stuff you didn’t think possible before and improving on a time that seemed unbeatable – that’s the stuff these sorts of games thrive on. In all those areas, Echobreaker does not disappoint. Let’s hope the full game will be able to polish and grow the strengths of this promising demo.
Echobreaker is planned for release later this year and can be wishlisted right now on Steam. You can also find the demo there if you’d like to try it out for yourself. Echobreaker was also part of the Galaxies Spring Showcase, which you can find more information on here.
