Eternal Strands

When you look at the AAA development model from the outside, it's easy to see why experienced producers, designers, and directors get fed up with the pressure, working conditions, and expectations and leave to start their own studios. It's a trend that has grown considerably in recent years, and if you think Dragon Age: The Veilguard falls short of the classic games in the series, you might also know that Mike Laidlaw, who was Creative Director and Lead Designer on the first three games, left BioWare a few years ago to form Yellow Brick Games.

Their first game is called Eternal Strands, and I've personally been low-key watching the game for a while, where Laidlaw's experience, the Shadow of the Colossus-like battles against giant enemies and the colourful, cartoony fantasy world have drawn and inspired me. Unfortunately, and I really mean that, I'm not able to immediately recommend Eternal Strands to you, because for me the game presents a loop that is a little too rudimentary, and even this loop often feels like the game bites off more than it can chew.

Brynn is a Weaver who, along with other like-minded nomads, returns to the mysterious Enclave many, many years after a catastrophic event not only killed many of the inhabitants of the fabled city and forced the rest into the shadows, but created a kind of protective dome-shaped aura around the city's outer borders called The Veil. Through what at first seems like a coincidence, Brynn and company gain access to the Enclave, and gradually begin to piece together what really happened, how the city's remaining residents have survived and how they can take down The Veil and reopen the Enclave for the rest of Mayda.

This is a solid fantasy world with plenty of places and character names, and races to keep track of. Yellow Brick doesn't do anything particularly unique with this colourful setting, and while there is a bit of fascinating "lore" here and there, such as Weavers being shamed and reviled elsewhere in the world of Mayda and that this is truly at the root of their nomadic state, it is never directly presented in the game. You're here to learn more about the Enclave, and while there's plenty of voice acting, as Brynn, you venture into the various zones alone.

This leads us quite naturally to the delivery of this plot, and here you may have already come across a key design choice from Yellow Brick. You see, there's plenty of dialogue here, as in plenty of a Dragon Age game's level of dialogue, and although this is delivered by just a handful of characters, talking to them is a central part of the aforementioned loop. But the dialogue is delivered by static drawings of the characters, with just the slightest bit of gesturing and facial expressions to differentiate between their mental states at times, or just to telegraph clearly to Brynn and the player what is at stake. This was an obvious place to cut corners, but the result simply fails to deliver effective storytelling, that's obvious from the start, and as the character gallery expands and the game almost demands that you have an invested relationship with the characters that make up your "Weaverband", it becomes even more apparent that this setup just doesn't work. The voice acting is top notch, make no mistake, but these cardboard cut-outs that are barely animated, because we always see them in almost full character and therefore makes the small crucial differences so infinitely indistinct, are just not an effective way to convey the otherwise excellent voice acting. As a result, the story is rarely moving, never engaging and, unfortunately, decidedly dull, although it certainly consists of interesting concepts and ideas.

You have your base from which virtually all of the plot unfolds via these static, motionless exchanges. It's also where you drop off your collected resources, produce new gear and mould your version of Brynn. It's really rudimentary, make no mistake. Almost all gear is obtained through scripts you find on the go, and while gathering materials is a big deal, it's rarely a crucial part of your loop. You can upgrade each station, but it just costs... well, more resources, and then there are various missions that you can push forward with. There's a half-hearted daily cycle, and when a new day dawns it's marked with "Day 10" or something, it has no real impact on the game. There are no other mechanics to mark the passage of time, no meaningful base building, and only rudimentary RPG systems here. No levels, no skill tree.

So does the game need this? No, not in principle, and all too often we, and you, take aim at games for padding the experience with too many systems that distract and create unnecessary grind. It's worth mentioning unwanted simplicity here though, as the game unfortunately also struggles to nail the gameplay elements that are so central to the experience.

Eternal Strands is third-person action role-playing where, as Brynn, you load into one of a dozen open zones in The Enclave, run around, scale vertical surfaces thanks to an open Zelda-like climbing system, collect resources you can "bank" by sneaking home past the base, defeat enemies with various weapons, complete side and main missions, and finally challenge the one giant boss wandering around each zone. It's here in the more gameplay-orientated aspects that Eternal Strands finds a better rhythm. The zones are neat, the game is generally quite aesthetically well done, and thanks to excellent draw distance and a fairly precise artistic vision behind the world, it's actually exciting to explore, although you'll quickly find that only resources divided by the classic World of Warcraft colours are all that's really there in broad strokes.

But climbing, and in some cases fighting, is satisfying. It feels good to jump forwards, to fire an arrow with Brynn's bow and map out each zone. There are still issues here, such as a poorly scaled damage model that makes certain battles simply drag on too long, and no real strategic development in the enemies you fight, but Eternal Strand's greatest strength is that the simple, accessible, and physically sound gameplay is satisfying enough, even when enemies, level design and actual strategic selection are lacking. This duality is best expressed when fighting the bosses, giant Shadow of the Colossus-like creatures, of which there is one in every zone and which respawn every time you leave. These are both quite satisfying to fight, with varied attack patterns and solid design. They usually require you to gradually remove armour with well-placed blows, and while it can get tedious, the spectacle is basically enough to justify the dozen or so times you take down one of these giants.

However, it's hard to say that the dream of a Breath of the Wild/Shadow of the Colossus crossover is a resounding success. It just isn't. It's entertaining in glimpses, no doubt about it, but from combat to meta upgrades, from static storytelling to a slightly half-baked daily gameplay loop, it's not like Eternal Strands offers a lot, but it also manages to telegraph pretty clearly to the player that it also fails to fully realise the ideas that are here. This isn't a disaster, but it is, unfortunately, an example of a game that fumbles with priorities, and it shows.