Eternal Strands Review – The World is Your Playground

Despite having been only a one-off, few games have managed to leave a lasting impact on video games as much as Shadow of the Colossus did. Its unique atmosphere and storytelling and the tense battles against the gigantic colossi have etched themselves in the hearts of any who had the pleasure of experiencing them, turning the game into something truly special that has yet to be replicated, and understandably so, as the game by Fumito Ueda is really one of a kind.

The challenges coming with trying to attempt something unprecedented, however, did not stop Canada-based development studio Yellow Brick Games. On the contrary, actually. While their debut game, Eternal Strands, is clearly inspired by that classic, this action-adventure title is also something more. It attempts to combine the intense fights against giant creatures seen in the PlayStation exclusive with exploration mechanics reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a progression system inspired by the Monster Hunter series, a more involving narrative, and a truly impressive physics system that allows players to use the magical tools at main character Brynn’s disposal in different ways to solve navigational puzzles and defeat both small and big enemies. Overall, this creates what can be considered in some ways to be as unique an experience as that of Shadow of the Colossus, albeit without the magical atmosphere of Fumito Ueda’s legendary game.

One thing that Eternal Strands does not try to be is a narrative-driven experience, despite having been developed by Mike Laidlaw, the man behind one of the most celebrated narrative-driven RPG series ever made: the Dragon Age series. Still, the game does feature a tight narrative, with plenty of additional story content for those who want to experience more of the mystical realm of the Enclave, a magical city that ended up getting separated from the rest of the world by some sort of barrier known as the Rift. The young Weaver Brynn, together with other companions, manages to break through this Rift, enter the Enclave, explore its ruins, and eventually understand why and how the city was separated from the rest of the world and the dangers it hides.

While the world and the lore of Eternal Strands are definitely well-developed, with a lot of different political entities involved in the grand scheme of things, the story shouldn’t be the main reason to play the game. It is most certainly not bad, but it’s not particularly interesting either, as its pacing is extremely slow, and it is very predictable. The writing does not help much in this regard either, as conversations between characters tend to be a little long-winded and fail to keep the player’s attention for long. After attempting to get into the story for the first 10 hours or so of the game, where literally nothing happens, my brain kind of checked out, but that’s actually when Eternal Strands started getting good, as it is at this point that what feels like a massive tutorial session ends, and the game proper begins.

At a glance, Eternal Strands doesn’t look much different from your typical action-adventure game inspired by The Legend of Zelda. Controlling Brynn with a third-person perspective camera, players explore a variety of mid-sized maps featuring changeable weather conditions, including some extreme magical ones, defeat various enemies ranging from feral beasts to the magical Arks, the guardians of the Enclave, collect items to craft new gear and complete quests and generally try to stay alive as everything in the Enclave and its surroundings seem to want Brynn dead. It’s the details, however, that make the difference in Eternal Strands’ case. While exploration mechanics never truly take off (although they do improve as more magical powers are unlocked) since there isn’t a whole lot to discover in maps besides items of interest that provide additional information on the game’s universe and blueprints for new gear, it’s the combat that truly elevates the experience, especially in the fights against the bigger enemies where the game turns into a unique combination between Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus.

While the three available basic weapons – sword and shield, two-hander, and bow – don’t feel particularly satisfying to use, at least in their basic, non-elemental variations, also due to the limited stamina pool – the special powers Brynn can learn during the course of the adventure definitely succeed in that regard. Thanks to the game’s advanced simulation mechanics, the entire game world essentially becomes a huge playground for the player to experiment with.

Fighting multiple enemies at the same time? Hurl them against one another. An enemy is way too mobile for your taste? Freeze them in place. Enemies are standing on leaves? Set them on fire to watch these enemies melt away. These are only a couple of the most basic things that can be done in Eternal Strands thanks to its physics engine, as multiple powers can be combined together for maximum efficacy. For example, it is essentially possible to create some sort of magical cannon to hurl debris at enemies, even flying ones; to make another, it is possible to use a gravity bomb of sorts that attracts everything in its vicinity to create a pressurized fire or ice bomb that will go off after some time to unleash elemental attacks in a wider range.

These elemental attacks also interact with the environment and with specific enemy types in a lot of different ways, forcing the player to adapt to the situation to win against some of them. Some enemies, for example, are covered in thick armor, and to damage them, you will need to find a way to make the armor brittle. In other cases, they have a massive shield that absorbs all damage, and you will need to get rid of this shield to damage them. Depending on how the enemy is defeated, they have higher chances of dropping specific items, so it’s always a good idea to get creative and either burn or freeze enemies to death if you’re looking for a certain material.

The similarities with Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus emerge in Eternal Strands when fighting the big enemies featured in the game, the Epics. Much like in Fumito Ueda’s masterpiece, it is possible to climb on these big enemies to hit their weak points and defeat them, all the while using the elemental powers to gain some sort of advantage. The first time Brynn encounters them, she can defeat them by simply depleting their health to obtain a new power, but to further enhance this power, it will be necessary to absorb their essence, which can only be done after following a specific strategy to expose it, which often involves destroying certain parts of theirs, forcing them to perform certain actions and so on.

What must be done to expose their essence is highlighted in the in-game codex, which does an excellent job at providing hints without saying outright what must be done, although towards the end of the game, once a good understanding of the mechanics has been reached, it becomes possible to expose the big creatures’ essences without the codex’s help. This is actually a testament to the great enemy design, as the visual clues make the whole operation feel very organic with the combat mechanics. I just wish there were more of these Epic enemies, as fighting mobs becomes stale rather quickly in comparison, especially considering that character progression is limited to crafting new items, including elemental variations of all three weapon types that spice up the experience considerably, giving players more options. So, there aren’t many reasons to fight them if the player doesn’t need to farm items. However, we do know that more Epics are coming after launch, thanks to the partnership with Square Enix’s Creative Studio III, which is helping design new creatures.

As mentioned above, character progression in Eternal Strands is limited to crafting and enhancing gear, and it’s in this aspect that the game feels the most like the Monster Hunter series. Each equipment piece, which can only be crafted after finding the appropriate blueprint, comes with a passive skill that alters Brynn’s abilities, such as higher health or stamina, faster mana restoration, and so on. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these passive skills are very basic and not particularly exciting, so don’t expect to find the same involved build crafting seen in the CAPCOM series. Still, the system definitely has some interesting twists, as it is possible to slightly alter gear abilities by using different materials and even reforge pieces that have already been crafted to enhance them. The materials used also determine the color of the gear, which is a nice touch.

While the gameplay loop is definitely simplified over that of the Monster Hunter series, in many ways, Eternal Strands manages to evoke those “one more run” feelings the CAPCOM series does, especially between the 10 and 20-hour mark, as exploration and combat finally become fun after the slog that is the beginning of the adventure. Unfortunately, the experience kind of takes a dive in the second half of the adventure, as it features very little new content.

At this point, all the maps have been discovered, all the big enemies have been fought, and most of the powers obtained and leveled up, taking away the sense of discovery that makes most of the first half of the experience fun, leaving only an uninteresting barrage of quests set in maps the player should know well at that point, and the uneventful story. It’s a shame the game is so long, requiring close to 35 hours to complete, as it would have been a much tighter experience if it only ended shortly after unlocking the final map. The lack of new content in the second half of the experience is understandable, considering Yellow Brick Games is a small team, but cutting down the playtime would have been ultimately beneficial, in my opinion.

When it comes to visuals, Eternal Strands definitely delivers despite not featuring the most advanced graphics to date. Still, Yellow Brick Games took great advantage of the Unreal Engine 5 features to deliver some pleasant and colorful visuals in the vein of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Immortals: Fenyx Rising, giving the entire experience a unique feel with well-detailed fantasy locations and stylized character models that work quite well together.

The developer also managed to keep the known UE5 stuttering issues to a minimum, as the game runs rather well most of the time. On the machine used for the test (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM), the game ran at 4K resolution, epic settings with NVIDIA DLSS at the Ultra Quality setting, and Frame Generation at an average of 118 FPS in a benchmark session held in the Upper Dynevron map, one of the maps featuring the highest enemy density. With NVIDIA DLSS and Frame Generation off, the game ran at an average of 89 FPS on the same map, which was extremely playable. The recorded 1% lows, 25 and 35, however, highlight how there’s still some stuttering here and there, but it’s honestly not that noticeable. Considering the state of the vast majority of Unreal Engine 5 games and all the taxing simulation the game is doing at almost all times, I was expecting much worse, but there hasn’t been a single time in my 35+ hours playthrough where framerates dipped so low the game was unplayable.

Despite the beginning and the end of the adventure being kind of a slog and the predictable story, there’s no denying that Eternal Strands is a solid action-adventure game that does a lot of things right, especially its combat mechanics and its fights against giant monsters that masterfully combine mechanics from Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus. Hopefully, Yellow Brick Games will get the chance to do one more entry in the series in the future and tweak the solid foundation they have created to build a better well-rounded experience that can stay fun from beginning to end.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

8.5

WCCFTECH RATING

Eternal Strands