Ender’s Games

I’m sure most gamers have heard about this game already. It was highly anticipated prior to it’s launch, and it’s been available for download from the Playstation Store since May 1st of this year. It was released for both PS3 and PSP, with the PSP version still being downloaded onto the PS3, and then transferred to the PSP.

There is no story in Echochrome; it is purely a puzzle title. Clinging for dear life to the maxim that “less is more”, the game consists of a marionette-esqe figure walking along levels that are comprised of beams, stairways, holes, and jump pads. Based off the work of M. C. Escher, the game mechanic is built solely around the manipulation of the level itself, and not of the character. You can twist and turn the levels, and doing so alters the perspective of the level, making progression through the maze possible. It uses 5 “laws” to govern the manipulation of the level and how the character can interact with it:

1. Perspective traveling – When two separate pathways appear to be touching, they are touching.
2. Perspective landing – If one pathway appears to be above another, it is above another.
3. Perspective existence – When the gap between two pathways is blocked from view and the pathways appear to be connected, they are connected.
4. Perspective absence – When a hole is blocked from view, it does not exist.
5. Perspective jump – When the mannequin jumps, it will land on what ever appears beneath it.

Demos of both the PS3 and PSP versions are available for download from the PS Store, so I checked out the PS3 version. I played through the tutorial and 5 or so levels. While I can appreciate the originality of the title, I find that the end result is just not very entertaining. Maybe in short spurts it could be bearable, but I found myself getting sleepy and bored. I also take issue with the mechanic and it’s executability. Take Law 2, for example. If you maneuver one walkway above another, and then the character walks off the “top” one (or through a hole that is in the “top” one), then the character is supposed to land on the ”bottom” walkway. In practice, though, this isn’t quite as simple as it seems. The game often requires you to have the beams positioned in a very specific spot, instead of just simply one over the other. And the game doesn’t spell out for you what you are missing. Maybe it speaks to my lack of intelligence, but it just seemed a little abstract and odd for me. Not up my alley. I can’t recommend it.

Luckily, the demo is free and available for download right now, so try it yourself and let me know what you think!