"Echochrome" is tough.
I learned that Tuesday morning during a two-hour visit with Sony reps at a mid-town Manhattan showcase of the biggest PSP and PS3 games of early 2008.
"Echochrome" is also the game I've been most eager to play on the PS3 since it was demonstrated by Sony head of worldwide studios Phil Harrison at E3 this year. He promised a game with "possibly the least graphics and most gameplay" of any game at the big show.
"Echochrome" is a puzzle game set on a landscape of floating shapes and line-drawn optical illusions. Classical music plays as the gamer rotates the playing field, opening and closing new paths for a little stick man who needs to walk to a goal. Turning the level just right creates and opens up paths. The proper twist might let the character bridge gaps that, thanks to the swivel, no longer appear to be there. (Watch the game's E3 trailer to fully comprehend).
This game had a lot of buzz at E3, but it wasn't playable. It was shown at the September Tokyo Game Show, but I wasn't there to play it.
I got my hands on the PS3 downloadable version this morning. My impressions, pro and con, follow.
(A note about this post's images: The relatively low quality of the images in this post is due to us at the Multiplayer Blog, not Sony. We snapped these photos on the fly as I played the game, once we realized that some of my post would only best be explained with visuals. These shots were taken by a digital camera off of a big-screen TV and under-sell the quality of the game's graphics. "Echochrome"'s graphics, when viewed by the naked eye are smooth, refined, and in stark black and white. Click the shots to enlarge and see the game in a somewhat better light.)
When my demo of the game began, PlayStation PR manager Ron Eagle told me "Echochrome" would challenge me. I talked tough and said I didn't expect much trouble. He suggested that I might by stymied by the game's fifth level, a challenge he had yet to conquer (it's the one pictured throughout this post).
Challenge accepted.
But first I tried the first four levels. They are tough to describe without photo reference. I can explain, though, how I fared. And that was not well. I bear some of the blame. When a level starts the main character is not walking. He stands still, letting you rotate the level and study it. Press a button and he begins to stroll, lemming-like, in whatever path is available. My problem was that I didn't realize, at first, that the levels can be paused. Press the triangle button and he stops walking. While the level is paused the terrain can still be swiveled, letting the player align things just right. Press triangle again and the guy walks again. Press X and he jogs.
So my first trouble was my fault. My second? It was the game. "Echochrome" is all about camera movement. That's all you're doing, really, is turning a camera to create/reveal helpful paths. Camera movement is controlled by the left analog stick, which you want to manipulate smoothly and with confidence. Unfortunately as I struggled to maintain surgical precision, the camera occasionally snapped to a perspective just a hair off from the one where I was trying to let it rest. When you're trying to get two parts of the level to line up just so -- merging two floating beams along their ink-thin edges -- that little correction by the camera can bust a strategy. Whenever this happened I just had to keep finessing the camera back and forth until it stopped just right. This seems like an issue that can be corrected by the time the game is out in early 2008.
The game presents a challenging new logic. Dark circles represent pits the character will fall through. Light circles represent boost platforms. (The circles aren't in the screenshots in this post but are in the trailer). Wrapping one's head around how they behave and where they will send the character is tough, though not illogical. Just trust me that this game will confound at first. Few games made me feel more like a fumbler at first play. Eagle told me that many of the game's levels -- possibly all -- will be open at the start, so as not to stymie players at any part.
I did start to get the hang of the game and asked that we jump to the feared fifth level (again, the one that is pictured here).
Together, Eagle and I figured it out. Just keep turning the level, really, and the path opens. For example, see that middle beam in the picture on the left? To get the stick figure (standing on the right) back on it, we had to swivel the view so that the stick guy's platform was in the rear. Then we had to level the view off just enough so that the top of the platform he was standing on and the top of the middle platform appeared to merge along their broad sides as one chunky rectangle. Does that make any sense? I hope so, because it was a thrilling solution to deduce.
To complete a level, you need to walk the stick figure through all the shadows you see in these shots and that populate the levels. We were on the verge of doing that on the feared fifth when the level's timer ran out and we were booted to the menu screen. Yes, the levels are timed. Please don't look for me on the game's speed-run leaderboard. I doubt I'll be on them.
"Echochrome" is planned as a PSP and downloadable PSN version (for PS3) in Japan but, according to Eagle, is right now only 100% pegged as a PSN (via PS3) release in North America.
It's tentatively set for a spring release. Exactly when is partially dependent on Sony's development and testing of the game's level editor. Yes, you will be able to make "Echochrome" levels that will also tax my skills. The levels will be sharable online through PS3, though the exact way Sony will handle and at all proctor that has not been determined.
If the game's camera issues are addressed, "Echochrome" appears to be everything fans of its minimalist debut were hoping for back at E3.
Need more explaining? Let me know and I'll do my best.
