Here’s Jay presenting Gameffine’s Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition review.
Echoes of the End flew under everyone’s radar when it released for PC and consoles in August last year. It also flew under mine. Myrkur Games’ action-adventure got some decent reviews at launch but also several middling ones, as is usually the case with AA titles with aspirations bigger than their budget. Almost three months after the fact, it received an Enhanced Edition, a massive update that aimed to fix most of the hard-hitting criticisms, ranging from combat tweaks to narrative flow. It’s 2026, and Deep Silver randomly decided it was a good thing for the boomers in Gameffine to check out and make our own Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition review, and review we shall!
Familiar Feeling
Upon starting the game, well-versed players will immediately deduce Echoes of the End’s inspirations. From its visual design to gameplay hooks, Echoes of the End takes a big bite out of God of War (2018), Tomb Raider (2013), and Jedi: Fallen Order. The gameplay loop of mixing third-person combat with light puzzles and cinematic set pieces is often seen in the so-called “AAA games,” but we never really see games with modest budgets aspiring to be cinematic adventures. For that reason, Echoes of the End deserves praise. It just doesn’t duct-tape jumbled gameplay elements from other games, but rather wears its inspirations on its sleeve and effectively squeezes Unreal Engine 5 to deliver gorgeous visuals.
Echoes of the End puts you in the shoes of Ryn, an amateur but powerful Vestige (think mages, but with the golden touch and shunned). Obviously, someone who grew up facing prejudice and discrimination is going to have some behavioral issues. Ryn is one such character. When her homeland is threatened by an invading force (that too is led by another Vestige) and her brother is kidnapped, Ryn joins up with Abram, a mysterious old man, to save her brother and her land.
One Big Adventure
The story in Echoes of the End is a very typical “chosen one saves the day” template, but it’s presented in a compelling manner. Even though it lacks the “single take” camera from God of War, Myrkur Games succeeds in presenting the narrative as one long adventure with no continuity breaks. There is a substantial amount of lore and worldbuilding as the Iceland-inspired landscapes form the background of the story. Similar to God of War, the lore is conveyed to the player via organic conversations between Ryn and Abram and not as exposition dumps. As one would expect, the voice acting and presentation are not as polished as their big brothers’, but they get the job done. Ryn is also not an easy character to like and often comes off as rude and arrogant. But I guess it’s her defense mechanism for coping with all her upbringing and daddy issues. Take from that what you will.
Looking the Part
Unreal Engine 5 does a lot of the heavy lifting here, but the cost comes in the form of performance. I’ve been told that performance has improved significantly from the vanilla release, but it’s still rough. The awful stuttering that plagued that version seemed to be ironed out, but I was unable to get a smooth 60 fps despite turning down the settings. For reference, I was playing the game on an RTX 3070 at 1440p. It’s not the most powerful card right now, but even with DLSS and low-med settings, I should be getting a constant 60. I had to rely on frame generation to get a smooth framerate. The input delay seemed tolerable, and there was no major visual artifacting. There are still quite a lot of graphical glitches present, like depth of field values reverting to default when the photo mode is opened, disappearing water reflections, glitchy animations, characters getting stuck on terrain, etc. But these do not break the game, so it’s tolerable.
Inspired
Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition takes more than a few notes from God of War for its combat, Fallen Order for its traversal, and Tomb Raider for its puzzles. This gameplay loop of parkouring, fighting in closed-off arenas, and solving light puzzles becomes very predictable after the five-hour mark. One comes after the other in a preset fashion and loops for the next 15 hours. Your brain starts to see patterns forming as you can foresee what comes next. This inability of the game to surprise the player is its biggest drawback. Much like God of War: Ragnarok, the campaign is unnecessarily lengthy and has a lot of padding. Echoes of the End could have been a 10-hour game, but there are so many filler sections in the game that the campaign will take you anywhere from 15 to 20 hours to finish.
Thankfully, the combat, puzzles, and traversal are all pretty decent. As with the presentation, they can get a bit janky at times, but it won’t ruin your fun. The combat is surprisingly simple (and a bit too easy for my tastes), but you get more and more options at your disposal thanks to the well-implemented character progression mechanic. The combat animations look great, and minus the occasional jank, they flow well. Like Atreus, Abram can support you in combat, and he gets his own set of upgradable skills. The platforming is very straightforward but sometimes can suck big time due to the weird jumping animation. invisible walls and inconsistent magnetism. Puzzles, on the other hand, are your standard affair. Not too easy, not too hard.
More Enhancements
Aside from tweaking the gameplay, the enhanced edition brings a number of additions to Echoes of the End. A new gear system has been added that brings 13 craftable outfits and several passive buffs in the form of slottable relics. There is now a New Game+ option seemingly inspired by Dark Souls. Each playthrough cleared makes the enemies stronger in the next run, but curiously, Ryn remains the same. There are now puzzle hints for those who’d like to use them. Combine these with the changes to animations, AI, and combat; the Enhanced Edition is easily the best way to experience Echoes of the End.
Real Talk
Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition takes a flawed but fun game and irons out most of its flaws. While its predictable structure, technical hiccups, and occasional padding hold it back from true greatness, the reworked gameplay mechanics and narrative flow make this the definitive version of the game.
FINAL SCORE: 78/100