The survival horror genre has been on a hot streak recently, with notable releases like Dead Space Remake modernizing the classics while the likes of Resident Evil: Village continue to give fans exciting original experiences. 2023 and beyond is looking to be a similarly fruitful time for fans who adore survival horror games, with highly anticipated releases like Silent Hill 2 and Alan Wake 2 among others set to release this year.
But not a lot of fans know about the many upcoming indie and AA horror games that are shaping up to be something truly special, and this feature series is dedicated to highlighting games of this ilk. Developer MoonGlint’s upcoming Echoes of The Living finds itself in this very category, and it looks like the perfect throwback to the classic horror games that paved the way for the modern blockbuster experiences that we love so dearly.
Echoes of The Living takes place in the year 1996 in a small town in North Europe, where a mysterious fog has enveloped the entire area – turning the citizens into mindless zombies who will aggressively attack anyone foolish enough to stand in their way. The player character finds themselves stuck amidst all of this chaos, and the narrative will take you to the bottom of what caused this outbreak in the first place as you try to make an escape against all odds. Players get to choose between two different protagonists – Laurel who is a survivor with a goal of escaping this hellhole and Liam who is a spec ops officer on a quest to find his long lost fiance. Almost immediately, the game seems to make it clear that the early Resident Evil games are a big influence on the narrative – though the similarities don’t just end here.
Coming over to the gameplay front, Echoes of The Living’s gameplay takes place through fixed camera angles reminiscent of the PS1 Resident Evil games, and we get the same tank controls found in Capcom’s survival horror original. As such, players will have to be mindful of their surroundings at all times because it’s very likely that dangerous horrors would be lurking just outside the camera frame. Sure, the fixed camera angles and tank controls might not sound all that exciting to the larger audience who grew up on modern games like Dead Space, but it’s a dream come true for those who absolutely love the original Resident Evil games.
Thus, it makes complete sense for the developer to make a game that would satisfy the desires and requirements of that niche audience instead of watering down the gameplay to appeal to the masses – and Echoes of the Living seems to be doing just that. Apart from the aforementioned mechanics, the game will also feature an inventory management system and have a greater focus on puzzles than set-piece driven combat popularized by modern blockbusters. As can be seen from the gameplay footage, players will only have 3 weapon slots and 5 item slots in their inventory which would obviously require them to make judicial decisions about what to carry and what to leave behind in a safe storage box. And unlike most modern games that use similar inventory systems, Echoes of the Living will most likely use the same item slots for key items and other ammunition and resources – which will further limit your ability to carry essential supplies that would save you in a pinch.
But the brutality doesn’t just stop there. Save games will only be limited to save rooms, so players will have to be extremely mindful of their steps – since one too many wrong moves will easily set you back more than a few minutes worth of progress. Furthermore, you will also have to backtrack through environments at several points during the game – so familiarizing yourself with the environment will also be equally important.
Echoes of the Living also seems to pay homage to the games that inspired it by creating scenarios and levels that are reminiscent of survival horror classics. Just take a look at the start of the demo where we see our player character making their way through a zombie infested road into a back alley and then proceed indoors. Those who are familiar with Resident Evil 2 would instantly recognize this reference, and those who aren’t familiar with that game – well, now you know. In a similar vein, players will be facing all kinds of horrors in recognizable environments like hospitals, police stations, libraries, and schools which will most likely bring back memories of exploring similar locations in games that came before.
Nostalgia can be a very powerful tool, but only when used in a wise manner. As is customary with human memory, we tend to remember the better parts of an experience while the many frustrations of those experiences usually get smoothened out by the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia as time passes on. What this means for Echoes of The Past is that it will have to modernize objectively dated aspects like graphics and overtly obtuse puzzles and improve them to placate a brand new set of audience while retaining the elements that worked.
Thankfully, Echoes of the Past seems to have succeeded in this department – and the game looks really beautiful to say the least. The environments look fantastic with high quality assets and dim lighting which sets up the perfect ambiance for an unsettling experience. Obviously, it’s not as graphically impressive as say, Resident Evil: Village, but they are good enough so as to not be put off from the gameplay. As for the puzzles and how they fare in the modern gaming landscape, we’ll have to wait for the final release to make a reasonable judgment on the matter.
Furthermore, the developers have also done a great job of mimicking the environmental storytelling that was pioneered by survival horror classics like Resident Evil. The fixed camera angles allow the developer to perfectly frame the action according to them, and when done correctly – the environment itself becomes a part of the narrative. You can see tons of props, dead bodies, and signs littered throughout each room that when observed closely, tell their own little vignettes about what exactly went down before your arrival. This results in a thick atmosphere which should hopefully, really immerse players into the experience.
MoonGlint is an interesting developer because it’s the same person that previously announced Residence of Evil: VIGIL, yet another survival horror game with fixed camera angles. A demo version of the game was released, but that project was subsequently canned. It’s also the same team that recently teased an unofficial remake of the original Resident Evil in Unreal Engine 4. Considering the mixed track record of the developer and the fact that it is yet to release its first full game, it seems best to keep expectations in check for now. That said, the developer has already released a free playable demo for its upcoming project on Steam – so not all hope is lost.
In conclusion, Echoes of the Living is looking like the perfect throwback to the survival horror classics of the 90s. The love and respect for the games that inspired it shines through in every aspect of the experience, and the developer seems to have done a great job of modernizing these old mechanics without losing that olden charm in the process. The end result is nothing short of extraordinary, and we are really excited to see how it all unfolds when the game finally releases sometime in Q3 2023.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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