There Came An Echo Previewed

By Julie Morley

And then there came an echo.

Ahem. Are you a fan of Wil Wheaton? If so, you’re going to really like this.

There Came An Echo is the second game from Iridium Studios and their second crowdfunded gaming project. It was funded in March of 2013 to the tune of $115,000 so that the team could afford some additional art direction and design.

Okay, okay, that’s the introduction to it but what exactly is There Came An Echo? What is it even about?

I’m getting to it! Put the torches down!

There Came An Echo is a strategy game that relies on voice recognition and voice commands to control the direction of the game. The player takes on the role as a field commander of a relatively small squad of people and you’re commanding exactly what you want them to do. Just by saying so into your microphone, you can tell your squad where to go and what to do. Hooray for bossiness!

It’ll resemble actually taking on the role of a commander in that type of situation.

There’s a list of phrases that are already predefined, that way the voice recognition is more efficient. But if a player wants to customize their phrasing, they have options. It’s kind of perfect if you wanted to give your game a comical spin or just amke it a bit more comfortable. Especially with the Grace character, she has a bit of attitude. I can imagine tossing out some commands at her could be funny if you customize it.

Either way, there are plenty of customizable options in that area that would attract any type of player to the game. I can’t help but find the idea of commanding someone on my team to stand hill by reciting “STOP! HAMMER TIME!” hilarious.

As for the story, you are playing as Corrin, a 31-year-old cryptographer and inventor. Remember how I mentioned Wil Wheaton earlier? He’s the voice actor! Corrin’s developed a specific desirable encryption algorithm that is keeping a secret safe. Everything was going so smoothly in his life until his life was completely put at risk for the information he has. Corrin is left with no choice but to gather a team of a individuals with minimal military experience and completely wing their way. You’re teamed up with a Mercenary by the name of Miranda, that woman with the attitude that I mentioned named, Grace and a British man that seems a bit suspicious, Syll. It seems the team was gathered together as a bit of a last minute act of desperation and now you all need to figure out how to work together in order to survive.

Trying to survive and avoid any enemy forces just seems like a difficult task considering they are always butting heads and having conflicts. But with your vocal commands, you can immerse yourself in the mission and make them a team.

Iridium Studios says that There Came An Echo is on track for an October 2014 release for PC, XBox 1, and PS4.  If waiting 6 months sounds unbearable you can take a look at the recently released gameplay trailer, or travel back in time to PAX East earlier this month and play it for yourself.

[facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ]

[author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/julie.jpg” ]Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling.  Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.[/author]