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Eternal Strands is my biggest surprisal of the year so far , deliver an incredible illusion adventure game with nifty art , fun mechanic , and an fantastically interesting sorcerous system to play with .
Eternal Strands follow the write up of Brynn , a mage in a mankind where thaumaturgy is feared and its users are demonized . Alongside a small-scale band of fellow mages , or “ weavers , ” Brynn ship on a journey to find the transmissible home of her mass , exploring and restore the long - lost land with magic , steel , and a sense of adventure .
Eternal Strands is the debut title of indie studio Yellow Brick Games , a studio apartment founded by industry veterans , let in Mike Laidlaw , former originative theater director of the Dragon Age enfranchisement . It take a leak sense that their first game would be a fantasy setting , and they did not disappoint .
The first thing you ’ll detect about Eternal Strands is its captivate mankind . Yellow Brick Games has designed a setting full-bodied in lore and complemented by astral ocular design . The environment are breathtaking and visually sensational without relying on next - gen graphics . You do n’t need a high - end graphics poster to appreciate this game . Much of the visual appeal comes from thoughtfully crafted fantasy environment , rather than meretricious effects like ray trace or unreasonable bloom .
Not only does the game look peachy in the 3D space , with some super interesting character , armour , and weapon designs , but it almost sneaks in these wonderful 2D , hand - drawn cutscenes that bring to the game ’s appeal . Yellow Brick has put their best foot forward with Eternal Strands , and has show that the company has a actual value and deference for art , something I trust service as a precedent for their next games .
eonian Strands is not just a pretty secret plan with nothing to do , however ; The developer absolutely knocked it out of the common with this risky venture game ’s grease monkey .
The basic armed combat follows a traditional RPG chemical formula : You block , stratagem , and light upon with multiple weapon type , each with their own stats and attack patterns . armed combat flows nicely , but for the most part , is nothing really inventive or unheard of — that is until you report for the plot ’s magic system .
Eternal Strands features a revolutionary magic system , one where the spell in your arsenal in reality have meaning and impact on the world around you . fundamentally , you are armed with a fistful of spells , which , rather than just being damage procs , interact with an environment built around them . Fire spreads and burns , ice creates block that shiver , freeze foe in place , and can be used as platform , and nigh every object in the environment can be move up and splurge with telekinesis .
Eternal Strands ’ magic scheme changes everything , challenging you to change the way you reckon about your approach to combat and geographic expedition . It ’s hard to draw the sense of freedom I felt when I realized I could freeze a giant ’s substructure to the floor or a flying dragon ’s oral cavity shut , or create wildfires to wipe out hordes of enemies without ever coming into contact with them .
craft in Eternal Strands is also cleverly designed , contain a mechanic that can feel like a chore in other titles and refining it into one of my favorite aspects of the game .
In most game , raise your gear mechanism or create new pieces from scratch requires you to hunt around for specific resources required by the item ’s recipe . In many game with craft , this locks the origination of better equipment behind a task you have to go out of your style to discharge . Eternal Strands ease this onus by remove the pauperization for specific material from many of its recipes . Instead , crafting recipes will simply ask for a certain number of materials from unlike categories . This allows you to craft geared wheel with whatever you have on script and often set the amount of time you have to drop exploring for the right materials to fetch up your new steel .
Not only that , but Eternal Strands practice the power to craft with different materials to allow you to further customize your gear mechanism . Different materials not only deepen the vividness of the gear depend on which you take but also directly affect the item ’s stats . choose what to craft your next chest plate out of is not just a question of what you have in copiousness but also a strategical choice you could tailor to your form .
I only wish that the game occupy this idea further , as there are only really a few stats to better when upgrading gear : defense , attack , and elemental resistor . While a really cool estimation for a craft system , it stand to reason that you ’re always run low to want to focus on the best attack for your weapons and the best defense for your gear . This can make craft with resource that do n’t focus on those aspects kind of a thriftlessness if you have the others to part with .
If there were one real criticism to be had with Eternal Strands , I would say that the secret plan is watery on the good figure side of things . Weapon flack often feel unimpactful due to a lack of satisfying audio feedback , and some fights can palpate miss in tension when medicine is either muted and unstimulating or not present at all .
The game ’s story may fall flat for some , make use of some fantasy authorship tropes , but I was n’t put off by it , even when I was n’t wholly invested in all of the game ’s small cast of characters .
While sound is certainly an significant feature in a secret plan , it says a slew that Eternal Strands is otherwise perfect in other regards . If Yellow Brick could obtain a Masayoshi Soken of their own , I have no doubts this studio would be unstoppable .
The Final Word
Eternal Strands serves as an incredible introduction for Yellow Brick Games , stupefy with its unbelievable visuals and wowing with its great witching scheme and ravish gameplay .
Try Hard Guides received a PC recap codification for this game . Find more detailed looks at popular and approaching titles on ourGame Reviewspage ! Eternal Strands is usable onSteam , Xbox , andPlayStation .
