Somber Echoes Steam Charts & Stats

Did my first run on the Xbox Series X and second on PC. Enjoyed my time with this 2.5D metroidvania which can quite challenging at some points. Interesting boss designs, nice sci-fi sceneries influenced by Greek mythology and a good soundtrack. The map is huge and there's enough to explore. The story is told by narration, memories that can be found and by environment. But I have some observations; some of the later platforming puzzles to open Nocturnal gates can bring some trial and error, I could use a 4th Aether Core on a few of them. The 1st boss is a difficulty spike when confronted underleveled, getting the parry right can help a lot, but sometimes it doesn't and you still will get hit (I missed the dodge roll a little bit here) While progressing in the 2nd phase of the final boss the whole floor will be covered in lava, less would have been nice. Confront this boss when everything is fully upgraded. I played the console version mostly through streaming via the Xbox App on Windows 10, It sometimes suffers from input lag. For example, while zapping from one aether lantern to another, also from a supernova, pressing the left trigger is not registered and I can start over again. Reconnectiing the USB-cable to the controller solved issue this every time. Did not had this problem on the PC-version. The game runs surprisingly smooth on the Sapphire Radeon RX-590 8 GB Nitro Edition (combined with a Core i7 6700K), Rendering settings were automatically set on "Epic" and FPS rates varied between 70 and 90..It runs from a Samsung T9 external SSD drive (4 Gb) and I use a 25 inch Asus TUF Gaming monitor set on 144 hz refresh rate. I wonder why the recommended system requirements are so high. Somber Echoes is challenging at some moments but not too hard if it comes to completing the story and reaching 100% completion (ingame and for achievements/trophies). It would be nice if DLC is planned for this game and I hope the soundtrack will be sold separately in the future.

I'm about half way through the game, but I can already tell I like it. Having weighed in the pros and cons, I can definitely recommend it. Here are the things that I liked, and disliked, about this game. [b] Liked [/b] - Smooth and responsive controls. Movement feels natural and intuitive, very important in games like this. - Accessible UI. Simple yet comprehensive, all the info is there without feeling overwhelming. - Graphics. One of the highlights of the game, the environment looks gorgeous all the time and it has some of the best VFX I have seen in a while. - Audio. Whether it is music or SFX, it is there to underline the mood or specific events, never feels intrusive. - Mechanics. The Aether Lantern makes platforming very fun, and useful when fighting as well. Aiming and throwing the spear is also one of my favourite things to do in this game. - Difficulty. Although there are no difficulty settings, the balance seems just right, nothing stands out. - Lore and story telling. Interesting combination of sci-fi horror with Greek/Roman myths. There is enough depth to carry the narrative without feeling unnecessarily intrusive. Lovely details, like the narrators accent, and the laconic speech, make me think it was all well thought out. [b] Disliked [/b] - Fast travel. It can be a bit of a pain to get to where you want to explore, sometimes the checkpoints are too far, it felt like a chore. Just to make it clear, I think the number of checkpoints are fine, in terms of resting/saving/upgrades, etc. It feels rewarding to survive a lot of things before you find one, as it should. It's just the travelling part that is unnecessarily painful. Maybe introducing more checkpoints just for fast travel, "portals" if you will, would make it feel less annoying. - Enemy variety. The bosses are fine, it's just the regular level enemies that feel repetitive. Once you figure them out, it's just rinse and repeat. What impresses me the most in this game is that it is a case of quality beats quantity, and it was made by a small team.

This game is fantastic! Atmosphere, music and story! The Narration is soooo dope, probably my favorite part. Haven't finished it yet, little over 1/2 way thru first play thru but already seems like it's right up there with Ori and HK. Play it for sure!

Pretty great Metroidvania-like. Particularly fun exploration and boss fights. There's also some special exploration (can't say in detail since it's a spoiler) tech which is quite unique to this game and very fun to play around with.

I don't really play Metroidvania's, but I picked this one up after I watched TheRadBrad playing it and I found it ADDICTING. Didn't want to put it down until I got 100% completion. Thank you for a terrific game!