It's rare that we see games take chances, so in that vein I have to give Outrage and THQ some credit with Alter Echo. They took some risks, especially in terms of game design, and while not flawless, it does sometimes work out for the best. Still, it all comes out of the wash as another action platformer in a sea of similar tiles. There are enough bells and whistles to make Alter Echo appeal to some, such as the title's unique combo system that serves to make combat quite entertaining. Sadly, however, the game is far too short to be considered anything other than a weekend rental. Alter Echo takes place on a world where certain individuals, called Shapers, are able to use something called plast to shape and form nearly anything at will. The greatest of these individuals, Paavo, has managed to create a new, more powerful form of plast, called echoplast. Paavo quickly is enraptured with the newfound power afforded to him by the new substance. That is where you come in. As a young shaper named Nevin, you must seek out and prevent Paavo from using this power to destroy humanity.

Donning a suit made entirely of echoplast, Nevin begins the adventure to stop Paavo. This suit is sentient, and also quite powerful in its own right. While it begins as just a normal melee suit of armor and a sword, it soon gains the ability to change into two other completely different forms. The stealth form looks much like a lizard, and allows Nevin to become invisible, and attack with much more speed and agility at close range. This form can also walk up some walls ala-Gex, which is both useful and cool. The other form, the gun form, is a lumbering hulk with substantial firepower. This firepower is upgraded through the course of the game as well. The ability to attack from a distance comes in very handy, as you can no doubt imagine.

So what this all boils down to is the aforementioned combat. Alter Echo is an action/adventure title in name, but the action is what makes this title work. Through the game's Time Dilation technology, players can slow time down so Nevin can attack the enemy without them being able to react. This allows Nevin to target multiple enemies at once, and to string together a combination of attacks. This is played out in a separate mode called TD mode. Players must string together attacks by pressing buttons within a "beat matching" mechanic similar to games like Frequency. Here, maintaining rhythm is the key to creating some pretty insane combos. Changing forms can also be used in the creation of these attack combos as well, resulting in "Morph-Combos" that can be pretty spectacular. This is without a doubt the most unique contribution of this game to the action/adventure genre, and it is a feature that has been implemented quite admirably.

The graphics in Alter Echo are nice, but an obvious lack of texture and color diversity helps only to make the game seem repetitive and boring to look at after a short time of playing. Still, it is not painful to look at. The Xbox version is predictably nicer looking than the version running on the older PlayStation 2 hardware. The sounds in Alter Echo are decent as well, and the futuristic music manages to suit the game's atmosphere to a tee. Where I would have liked to have seen the game developed further is in its level design. The levels are very linear, and this game would have benefited greatly with an element of exploration. Couple this with the fact that you are often left to backtrack through the same level time and again, and it is easy to see how even the prettiest level can become a nightmarish annoyance.

All this only serves to further magnify how short Alter Echo really is. However, it is the unique combat mechanics that make this title work. Although I still feel it is best left on rental shelves than in your collection, I still feel most players owe it to themselves to play through Alter Echo at least once to experience the things it does do right. At no more than 7 hours from start to finish, I'm sure most players can spare an evening.

Aug 18, 2003 | 0 comments
Jason Dobson