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Be your own worst enemy in Echo on September 19th

The only person who can defeat me: myself

Echo [official site], a new sneak-o-shooter from a small team formed mostly of folks who worked at Hitman studio IO Interactive, now has a release date of September 19th. It's a third-person action game set inside an alien palace with a twist: its weird world is guarded by copies of you, which copy your playstyle and try to counter you. It is a pretty palace too, as this new trailer shows:

Cover image for YouTube video

The story is that we play En, someone who went into stasis for the long journey to this unlikely palace. Developers Ultra Ultra say En "hopes to bring back a life that should not have been lost" but the point is: you get to murder yourself a lot. Ultra Ultra explain how it all works:

"A character-driven story of introspection and discovery, ECHO quickly develops into something much more unsettling. Stepping into the shoes of En, it becomes clear that The Palace itself studies everything you are, everything that you do; in order to use it against you.

"The Palace creates 'Echoes', with the sole purpose of destroying you. The game will shift and change as you do, constantly evolving its Echoes based your actions - If you sneak, they will get stealthier. If you shoot, they will start to shoot back.

"Your only respite lies in the sanctuary of a Blackout. As The Palace shuts down in order to update its deadly copies of En, you have a small window of opportunity to act without consequence. But beware, when The Palace comes back online, your pursuers will now be even more relentless."

That sounds fun, that. I liked how soldiers in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would react to my playstyle, doling out armour, flashlights, mines, and so on to foil my sneaking. When so many stealth games come down to figuring out a way which works then repeating that, it's good to get uncomfortable every now and then. I do also like the idea of a blackout period where I can do whatever I please.

September 19th isn't long to wait.

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Echo

PS4, PC

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About the Author
Alice O'Connor avatar

Alice O'Connor

Associate Editor

Alice has been playing video games since SkiFree and writing about them since 2009, with nine years at RPS. She enjoys immersive sims, roguelikelikes, chunky revolvers, weird little spooky indies, mods, walking simulators, and finding joy in details. Alice lives, swims, and cycles in Scotland.

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