Somber Echoes

Somber Echoes is the first Metroidvania from Norway-based Rock Pocket Games and Lav Games. While reading through the press kit, it was interesting to learn of their naivety towards creating a game in this genre, with CEO of Rock Pocket Games, Ivan Moen, calling Somber Echoes the biggest challenge the studio has undergone as game creators. As quoted from the press kit, “Initially, we didn’t see all the complexities of making a Metroidvania, and it turned out to be one of the toughest projects we’ve tackled. Getting through those challenges has led to a game we’re really excited about, and we hope fans of the genre will feel the same.” As a fan of the genre myself, I can agree that the developers have managed to capture the magic of a great Metroidvania through some wonderful exploration and intriguing upgrades. Unfortunately, the developers inexperience has had some negative influence on the game, which could be remedied with a few easy fixes. 

The story of Somber Echoes seems a simple one on paper. Adestria has been awoken to stop her twin sister, Harmonica, from acting out her evil plan of destroying the universe. Set in a science fiction world, on board a Greek-based space vessel, you need to explore, uncover new powers from Greek gods, and help refugees from a civil war that seemed to have occurred at some point. I had to read the story from the press release to get a full understanding of what was happening as in the game; it was quite hard for me to fully comprehend the plot. The main reason for this is how the script has been written; for example, this quote was taken from near the start of the game: “The ship was on the verge of civil war, between her worshippers and those who called her a blasphemer. By duty bound but also love, Adrestia returned, the bloodshed to avert.” All this is very lovely, but I need this to be more simple English, as if it were, I would have been able to follow the story much easier. 

Luckily, Somber Echoes has much more going for it apart from the story. One of those is in its exploration, which kept me intrigued throughout, masterfully hooking me in with wanting to see what was next. It all felt masterfully planned out, with each area cleverly connected. There are, of course, the expected Metroidvania tropes of locked areas you can’t gain access to at the beginning or visible power-ups that seem to be impossible to reach, only for it all to make sense further into the game. 

To make this work, there needs to be a decent map system in place; otherwise, it’s all going to unravel into a big, frustrating mess. Fortunately we have a pretty good one on offer here. It shows all the important information you need, including save points, switches, missed pickups, and shuttle bays. It will even show you breakable walls, which was a nice touch, as well as the usual zoom in/out function. One area it didn’t succeed was in telling me if there was an exit I hadn’t been through, as there wasn’t an easy way to tell. This did lead me to feel lost on a few occasions, literally not having a clue where to go next. A coloured arrow pointing out from an unused exit is all that’s needed to avoid this confusion. 

Another area that works well is in its power-ups and weapons. The main power you’ll use is the Aether lantern, which lets you turn into a ball of energy and gives you the ability to travel a slight distance in the direction of your choosing. This gives you options in combat like avoiding boss attacks or helping to reach higher platforms or across dangerous pits of lava or harmful energy. As you progress, you gain more lanterns, which means you can really travel far chaining these bursts. This led to some great moments of exploration with freedom I’ve not often felt and produced some interesting traversal puzzles to solve. 

At the start of the game, your only defence comes from a shield, but it’s not long before you’ll stumble across a sword that is lying next to its deceased former owner. Along the way, you’ll pick up a spear for long-range combat, which did come in handy in certain circumstances. All your abilities, weapons, and health can be upgraded through items that are found throughout the game. These can be implemented at save points. Certain pickups only upgrade certain items, which paces out the upgrades nicely. All pretty standard stuff, but still fun nonetheless. Combat itself is what you’d expect, but it does encourage a play of using the shield to stop the enemy attack and then swing your sword. Failure to do this will lead to you taking more damage, and although you can extend your health through pickups, the damage you’ll take is pretty hefty. To the point where it felt it was slightly an unfair amount, with some enemies taking two parts of health in one attack. With no difficulty levels to choose from, you’re stuck with what the developer deems to be fair, and that will be to much for some. 

This shield/attack/parry system comes into play mostly in the boss battles, which were enjoyable to an extent. With the high damage and not quite gelling with this combat system, I found myself struggling in multiple places. One boss took me over an hour to defeat thanks to the multiple deaths I suffered, and I eventually gave up on the end of the game boss battle as it was asking too much from me and my skill level. I was quite deflated, as I had had a great time playing the game, and I really wanted to see the end, but I could feel myself getting irate and frustrated. Not even leaving it for a time and coming back to it helped, so please bear this in mind, and if a developer is reading this, please add in some difficulty levels so us less skilled can still get full enjoyment out of your game. 

One area I was constantly enjoying was its visuals. This game looks gorgeous, from the detailed backgrounds, the well-realised areas, and its incredible lighting effects. I appreciated the effort into giving the game depth in the backgrounds, and with some rooms being huge, it did feel like I was on some massive, expansive spaceship. I also appreciated the work put into the character and enemy movements; they were all lifelike and believable, and the aether lantern effect was smooth and offered even more eye candy. Overall, the game ran smoothly on my Steam Deck, and only occurred a couple of crashes along the way. One word of warning to you though is please do not use the games Steam Deck mode, as all it did for me was stretch the screen to a point that I could hardly see any options. It took some pure luck to change it back to a readable level.