Echo Point Nova is an open world FPS with hoverboards, floating islands and sledgehammers
Latest demo includes a boss, new weapons and Steam Deck support
If you've been dreaming of a hyper-agile FPS set on the sky islands from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Echo Point Nova could be your jam. It casts you as a space pilot who crashlands on a floating archipelago planet during a research expedition. I'm not sure what you're researching, exactly, but going by your character's loadout, it's the Science of Sick Moves.
Aside from pistols, shotguns and rifles, you're equipped with a grappling hook, an aerial dash and a jet-powered hoverboard. These traversal tools allow no end of ramp jumps, aerial combos and in my case, wall-running desperately around the rocky undersides of islands after missing a handhold. They also come in handy when fighting the mercenary opposition - you can ram people off ledges, snipe them while skating backwards and slow-mo kill them in mid-air.
If the Zelda comparisons don't ring true, a better summary is perhaps "Doom Eternal, but you can fall off". Here's an unofficial gameplay trailer, care of EreNyn3, who may have chosen the perfect soundtrack.
In a pleasing flourish, you leave a trail of orange energy while using the hoverboard, reminiscent of the title character's swirling red scarf in Shinobi on PS2. I wonder if developers Greylock Studios have considered letting players decide how long they want the energy trail to last. There's the makings of the first "FPS + light painting game" here!
Like the looks of it? Surf your merry way over to the Steam page then, which includes a demo. Live since last autumn, the demo has been updated for this week's Steam Next Fest. It now includes a boss fight on top of new weapons, islands and an overhauled UI with full gamepad and Steam Deck support. There's some "experimental" PvP friendly fire options in there too, for co-op players who like to turn traitor: the developer advises that you search for a module beneath one of the islands that enables one-hit-kills.
The game is described as "open world", with hidden treasure rooms and seemingly optional challenge-room-style "kill X of Y" fights, but this doesn't feel like an Ubitrudgefest. The floating island setup means that exploration always involves some kind of platforming puzzle and there's a pinch of Minecraft in the ability to batter through select surfaces with a sledgehammer. I like the bright, breezy aesthetic, too. You can almost feel that stratospheric chill. Bracing.
The only questions I'm left with are 1) the high-mobility shooter space is pretty prosperous right now - will this really do enough to stand apart from your Ultrakills and your Tribes 3s? And 2) I would quite like to play an Echo Point Nova multiplayer mode inspired by Minecraft's ancient minigame Spleef - can we have one of those please? If you're new to Spleef, it's a player-invented PvP game where you destroy the floor beneath other players so as to drop them into lava. Imagine a variation of that with this moveset. Heck, there's probably a mod for it in modern-day Minecraft already. Anyway, Echo Point Nova is "coming soon".