Developer: Sundae Factory
Publisher: Sundae Factory
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Ecotone – Review
When you look up ‘Ecotone’, the first entry is this: ‘An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes. It is where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).’ This tells you two things, the aforementioned factoid and that the game is flying completely under the radar.
Story
You are an avatar. You aren’t a hero, you will not save the world, or even yourself. That is if you aren’t at least willing to try. You won’t be given an explanation on your character nor his/her/its motives. Don’t expect any kind of narrative or story telling. Nothing gets explained or told, so you’ll get to focus on the world and the levels all the more.
Graphics
The graphics of Ecotone is cartoony. The visuals are rather simplistic, but it works perfectly. The dangers are easily spotted and they are consistent as you work your way through the levels. The title of which will give you a hint of things you have to pay attention to.
One other aspect is that enemy models are repetitive. This isn’t necessarily bad as this way you’ll immediately know what to avoid instead of wondering if touching something that looks dangerous is going to kill you. Because truth be told, nothing looks menacing in Ecotone. It has a cutesy design. If you were to encounter the creatures in real life you’d probably be enclined to walk up to them yourself and cuddle them.
Sound
When it comes to music the soundtrack is rather ominous. It’s a beautiful score that really fits the atmosphere. It’s dark and yet has light tones. You can’t really pinpoint whether or not you are freaked out or hopeful of the outcome of the game. It keeps you wondering on what’s to come. The protagonist is silent so the music has to make or break the experience and it does so marvelously as it draws you in and keeps you immersed.
Gameplay
Ecotone is a puzzle platforming game. It doesn’t go in one direction though. It seems to have many eggs in many baskets. The arrow keys or W,A,S,D work as the control keys of your avatar and that’s all you really need to know. It all starts really easy with you just dropping down and picking up orbs on the way down. Simple enough.
Don’t just sit back and relax thinking that’s all this game has going for it. Sooner or later you’ll have to really start using your grey matter to overcome the levels. The titles are often a hint on what to do. Even later a second avatar joins the puzzle madness and you’ll have to pay attention to the second avatar’s movement, the terrain and enemies or traps. Neither of them can step into traps or touch enemies or it’s game over for both.
This is where Ecotone makes a small erorr in judgement as you need to often make precise jumps to finish a level succesfully, but the platforms are often slippery and even if you make that clutch jump, there’s a big chance you’ll slide off and you’ll have to start over. This isn’t that big of a deal in the earlier levels, but as the difficulty is upped, frustration mounts.
Having a game that really tests skill is great, but having a game that make you have luck and demands you to have skill is a bit overkill. The rules are changed every level so even when you do finish a level, new rules are applied and you’ll have to learn things all over again.
The level design is interesting to say the least. The levels might seem straightforward, but sometimes need you to think outside the box to finish them. So if one thing doesn’t work, take a step back and look over the level to make sure you aren’t missing out on another way that might lead to the finish.
Conclusion
Ecotone is a puzzle platformer that isn’t shy to give you a challenge. Whether or not you see a challenge or a vineyard of annoyance is all up to you. The game is certainly interesting. The price/content ratio might seem a little skewed towards the price and not the content. So if you are looking for an interesting platformer, then Ecotone certainly is worth looking into.
Ecotone - Review,
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