• Genre: Narrative Driven Voice-Controlled Isometric Squad Based Tactical Shooter.
  
• Developed & Published by: Iridium Studios
  
• Platform: Windows only
  
• Business Model: Single Purchase + Optional Extras DLC
  
• Copy Purchased by Myself

Read the full & unabridged review on A Paladin Without A Crusade.[kingisaaclinksr.com]

Overall Gameplay Thoughts
There Came An Echo is a squad based tactics game where the main gimmick is about controlling them with your own vocal commands. This three hour long campaign is fully voice acted and narrative driven. There’s really no reason to play it more than once so you’ll probably just get the three hours out of it. Still, I think it’s worth the asking and time price. There’s also a simple battle arena for testing out the voice commands but that’s it as far as extra modes are concerned.

Voice Command System and Strategy Talk
The voice command system is a pretty neat and certainly one of the better ones I’ve ever encountered. Being a tactical strategy game, you’ll have a depth of commands including moving units to certain spots on the maps, switching to one of three weapons and so on. There are even alternate commands and you can choose a single custom command for every character and action if you wish. However, it has it’s limits. You have to say the order the command phrase in the right way or it won’t acknowledge it. If you say the wrong thing or misstate an order, it doesn’t adaptively listen for the screw up. As such, it makes cancelling orders hit and miss. As far as responding to my voice, I’d say it did a reasonable job. I find that most voice recognition software has some difficulty understanding my voice due to how deep it is and my unfortunate ability to screw up phrases. However, I’m an Western Oregon accented male voice. It claims in the options menu it can handle different languages such as English in the UK, Australia and Canada all the way to Russian, Chinese and Japanese. But I don’t have any way of testing this. So, your mileage may vary. I haven’t seen or read any widespread complaints about it not handling other languages or accents, yet. If There Came An Echo does have problems understanding your voice, it’s entirely optional. You can control the game with mouse and keyboard but it’s definitely a lesser experience.

Narrative Discussion (Spoilers)
I don’t really know how I feel about the story. There’s a part of me that likes it. Likes that it was a sequel to the events of Before the Echo and that we get to see what happens with those characters. But then there’s the part that looks at the story and thinks it’s a bit of a jumbled and slightly rushed mess. It’s entertaining enough when you experience it for the first time but examining what the heck went on creates a lot of questions that aren’t answered. I’m not even really sure what the moral of the story is, but I guess that’s not surprising as Before the Echo’s moral point was pretty murky as well.

PC Settings & Audio/Video
There Came An Echo comes with a good selection of PC options. Graphic options include screen resolutions up to 2715×1527 on my 16:9 monitor. Windowed mode is on/off (no borderless), V-Sync on/off, anti-aliasing 2-8X MSAA, Lights on/off and shadows low, med and high. There’s a setting for enabling 30FPS lock if you’re finding the framerate isn’t staying consistent. I can’t see any video settings that are missing. What few keys there are for this game can’t be rebound but it supports keyboard + mouse, PS4 and Xbox controllers. It also includes four separate audio sliders for master, effects, music and voice volumes. Voice sensitivity and language can also be changed here. There are some miscellaneous options for voice control including push to talk, sound dampen and so on.

The game is rather draining on resources I noticed which I found to be rather surprising. So, you may have to set some of the graphical options down depending on your setup. Most likely the Anti-aliasing setting. I didn’t experience any crashes or glitches during my playthrough. It has integration with Intel Realsense but I don’t own anything to test out that technology.

Visually, the game has a colorful yet realistic Sci-Fi look to it. The colors on some levels can get rather overwhelming when there’s firefights going on but it otherwise looks consistent. The character models are pretty decently well detailed but the lip flaps don’t sync up with the talking. Overall, it looks good and consistent with the theme it has. The music is simply awesome. I had picked up the album on Bandcamp long before I had a chance to tackle the game and it’s great to listen to. It’s some of the best work Big Giant Circles, Malukah and Ronald Jenkees have ever done. Which is saying a lot considering their previous work. I could go on for hours how awesome it is to listen to but I won’t. Suffice it to say, it’s definitely one of my favorite videogame soundtracks of all time.

Final Thoughts
There Came An Echo would be a threadbare tactics title if it didn’t have the voice command system. Instead, the gimmick makes the game worthy of your attention if for no other reason than it’s cool. Is it perfect? No, but it worked rather well for me and it was enjoyable ordering units around. Even if the strategy isn’t that deep, it’s deep enough to keep things interesting. I don’t really know how I feel about the story overall. I think it’s got enjoyable aspects to it such as the characters and the themes it attempts to present. But the short runtime and messy storytelling makes for a jumbled delivery. Still, I think it’s worth checking out.

[h1]A Paladin’s Review: There Came An Echo. An Imperfect But Enjoyable Attempt At Pushing Barriers.[/h1] [list] [*]Genre: Narrative Driven Voice-Controlled Isometric Squad Based Tactical Shooter. [*]Developed & Published by: Iridium Studios [*]Platform: Windows only [*]Business Model: Single Purchase + Optional Extras DLC [*][i]Copy Purchased by Myself[/i] [/list] [url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2016/02/26/a-paladins-review-there-came-an-echo-an-imperfect-but-enjoyable-attempt-at-pushing-barriers/][i]Read the full & unabridged review on A Paladin Without A Crusade.[/i][/url] [b]Overall Gameplay Thoughts[/b] There Came An Echo is a squad based tactics game where the main gimmick is about controlling them with your own vocal commands. This three hour long campaign is fully voice acted and narrative driven. There’s really no reason to play it more than once so you’ll probably just get the three hours out of it. Still, I think it’s worth the asking and time price. There’s also a simple battle arena for testing out the voice commands but that’s it as far as extra modes are concerned. [b]Voice Command System and Strategy Talk[/b] The voice command system is a pretty neat and certainly one of the better ones I’ve ever encountered. Being a tactical strategy game, you’ll have a depth of commands including moving units to certain spots on the maps, switching to one of three weapons and so on. There are even alternate commands and you can choose a single custom command for every character and action if you wish. However, it has it’s limits. You have to say the order the command phrase in the right way or it won’t acknowledge it. If you say the wrong thing or misstate an order, it doesn’t adaptively listen for the screw up. As such, it makes cancelling orders hit and miss. As far as responding to my voice, I’d say it did a reasonable job. I find that most voice recognition software has some difficulty understanding my voice due to how deep it is and my unfortunate ability to screw up phrases. However, I’m an Western Oregon accented male voice. It claims in the options menu it can handle different languages such as English in the UK, Australia and Canada all the way to Russian, Chinese and Japanese. But I don’t have any way of testing this. So, your mileage may vary. I haven’t seen or read any widespread complaints about it not handling other languages or accents, yet. If There Came An Echo does have problems understanding your voice, it’s entirely optional. You can control the game with mouse and keyboard but it’s definitely a lesser experience. [b]Narrative Discussion (Spoilers)[/b] I don’t really know how I feel about the story. There’s a part of me that likes it. Likes that it was a sequel to the events of Before the Echo and that we get to see what happens with those characters. But then there’s the part that looks at the story and thinks it’s a bit of a jumbled and slightly rushed mess. It’s entertaining enough when you experience it for the first time but examining what the heck went on creates a lot of questions that aren’t answered. I’m not even really sure what the moral of the story is, but I guess that’s not surprising as Before the Echo’s moral point was pretty murky as well. [b]PC Settings & Audio/Video[/b] There Came An Echo comes with a good selection of PC options. Graphic options include screen resolutions up to 2715×1527 on my 16:9 monitor. Windowed mode is on/off (no borderless), V-Sync on/off, anti-aliasing 2-8X MSAA, Lights on/off and shadows low, med and high. There’s a setting for enabling 30FPS lock if you’re finding the framerate isn’t staying consistent. I can’t see any video settings that are missing. What few keys there are for this game can’t be rebound but it supports keyboard + mouse, PS4 and Xbox controllers. It also includes four separate audio sliders for master, effects, music and voice volumes. Voice sensitivity and language can also be changed here. There are some miscellaneous options for voice control including push to talk, sound dampen and so on. The game is rather draining on resources I noticed which I found to be rather surprising. So, you may have to set some of the graphical options down depending on your setup. Most likely the Anti-aliasing setting. I didn’t experience any crashes or glitches during my playthrough. It has integration with Intel Realsense but I don’t own anything to test out that technology. Visually, the game has a colorful yet realistic Sci-Fi look to it. The colors on some levels can get rather overwhelming when there’s firefights going on but it otherwise looks consistent. The character models are pretty decently well detailed but the lip flaps don’t sync up with the talking. Overall, it looks good and consistent with the theme it has. The music is simply awesome. I had picked up the album on Bandcamp long before I had a chance to tackle the game and it’s great to listen to. It’s some of the best work Big Giant Circles, Malukah and Ronald Jenkees have ever done. Which is saying a lot considering their previous work. I could go on for hours how awesome it is to listen to but I won’t. Suffice it to say, it’s definitely one of my favorite videogame soundtracks of all time. [b]Final Thoughts[/b] There Came An Echo would be a threadbare tactics title if it didn’t have the voice command system. Instead, the gimmick makes the game worthy of your attention if for no other reason than it’s cool. Is it perfect? No, but it worked rather well for me and it was enjoyable ordering units around. Even if the strategy isn’t that deep, it’s deep enough to keep things interesting. I don’t really know how I feel about the story overall. I think it’s got enjoyable aspects to it such as the characters and the themes it attempts to present. But the short runtime and messy storytelling makes for a jumbled delivery. Still, I think it’s worth checking out. [h1][url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2015/11/29/a-paladins-review-before-the-echo-rhythm-and-rpg-genre-mixing-goodness/]A Paladin's Review: Before The Echo. The previous entry in the Echo series.[/url][/h1] [h1][url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2016/02/26/a-paladins-review-there-came-an-echo-an-imperfect-but-enjoyable-attempt-at-pushing-barriers/]Read this review and more on A Paladin Without A Crusade[/url][/h1]