I played The Eternal Cylinder when it was released on the Epic Games Store in 2021, going through the entire campaign in about 30 hours. And now that I've played through the Steam version with the Anniversary Patch, I can conclusively state that my opinion remains the same:
The Eternal Cylinder is the most mature game ever developed by ACE Team, and one of my personal gaming highlights of 2021 (and now 2022 as well).

By ‘mature’ I mean that The Eternal Cylinder far exceeds what you may be expecting from a small studio like ACE Team. We all know that they excel at crafting unique visuals and bizarre worlds that have no equal. But I think we can also agree that these unique worlds have sometimes been paired with gameplay of the ‘serviceable but nothing special’ variety, or plots that are interesting but may have occasional storytelling hiccups. Or just a general feeling of ‘not-quite-as-polished-as-it-could-have-been'.

You’ll find none of these flaws here, as the world of The Eternal Cylinder is evocatively bizarre, the storytelling is engaging and surprisingly emotional and the gameplay is polished and predominantly player-driven.

The Eternal Cylinder plays like a low-pressure survival game in which you gather additional characters (the ‘Trebhum’) to add to your party (or ‘family’), as well as edible items that provide the Trebhum with various mutations. In that way, the game actually allows for a fair amount of player creativity, as you shape your Trebhum family to deal with specific situations. Like having a long-legged Trebhum that can jump high and glide through the air to reach faraway places, or one that’s particularly good at shooting water from its trunk to knock fruit from trees. There are also a few unique interactions with objects and creatures in the environment that you’ll have to figure out yourself.

That being said, I feel like at least some of the available mutations are highly situational. That’s not a problem, since you could always just apply another mutation or switch to another Trebhum to actively control, keeping the ones with highly situational mutations for when you need them (that’s why you have multiple Trebhum, after all). But I think the developers could probably have come up with a few more uses for things like the cuboid body mutation, which (AFAIK) only serves to turn your Trebhum into a ‘key’ for opening specific cube-shaped locks.

The gameplay is wrapped up in a plot rich with science-fiction themes as you unearth the knowledge of an advanced ancient civilization, trying to figure out where this giant cylinder that’s crushing the planet’s surface has come from – and what the intentions of its masters may be. At the same time, the entire game is permeated by this emotionally engaging feeling of potentially being the last of your kind, facing the imminent annihilation of an entire world. Add to that the fantastic electronica soundtrack and you’ve got yourself a game that’s not just fun to play, but also immerses you deeply in a genuinely alien world and the mysteries buried there.

One piece of advice for first-timers: Don’t get too attached to specific mutations you’ve found. And if you’ve found a mutation you feel like you can’t do without, make sure you always carry around a few spares of the corresponding mutagenic substance, just in case.

i bought this thinking it was going to be a fun game about little alien dudes having a good time running around a mildly sus planet solving puzzles & being cute together - instead i got the most intense 2 hours ive had in weeks fighting for my life with danger at every turn. when i awoken the first servant, he killed one of my trebhum & my party of trebhum made an expression so painfully sad ill never recover from the depression

The spiritual successor to the creature stage of Spore.

Ah yes, Salvador Dali painting: the game.

Huh Q*bert sure is looking different.

Acid trippers were like:
"Dude, wanna like... make a game?"

Man, Snuffleupagus’s origin story sure looks crazy.

This is like something out of my nightmares. It reminds me of a reoccurring nightmare I had as a kid. It's one of the trippiest games I've ever played. Also Hands-down one of the most interesting games I've ever played! It was like the Codex Seraphinianus was a game; the feeling of opening an encyclopedia before being able to read and marveling at all the truly alien wonders just out of reach (and later in reach). Not perfect, but worth my time a hundred percent. Such creativity and some incredibly memorable moments.

It seems like such a criminally underrated game, but it's honestly unlike any game I've played before. It’s so original and the art style is really striking and unique. Such a refreshing experience with a lot of polish and charm and an almost constant sense of dread.

You take over the role of a 'Trebhum' on an unknown planet. Even though the Trebhums are the lower end of the food chain, they have special instant mutation abilities when they eat items. E.g. eating the fruit of a special tree makes you float in the air or eating eggs of an grashopper-like creature makes you jump higher. Now you may be easy prey to any other bizarre creature on this world but thanks to this amazing tree of abilities that your people have you’re able to take materials from the environment and adapt yourself to the different challenges, environments, and puzzles all while uncovering your peoples past of prosperity and peace and being constantly perused by a massive rolling cylinder that wants nothing more than to... I almost spoiled part of the story. Let that just be a testament to how good the story is, there's just so much of it that it’s hard to talk about this game without saying spoilers.

So you play as these creatures who can mutate to solve puzzles, whilst being chased by an unending steam cylinder. Seeing the size of the cylinder at first gave me the same anxiety that the camera flipped levels of Crash Bandicoot did as a kid. Your goal is to survive, find a way to stop the destructive rampage of the cylinder and discover the truth about your people’s history. It's nightmarish, but there are moments of solace. I genuinely cried after seeing the images of your characters peoples past, its just so hard not to shed a tear after seeing all the prosperity that these creatures went through.

Some things were a bit tedious at the beginning but I loved the game by the end. The controls, specifically the camera and jumping, are slightly into the territory of being annoying. The art, audio, and creativity put into the game are all top notch though, and make the few negatives worth dealing with. I was devastated to find that there was no new game plus where you can play again with all of your mutations saved. I would pay money for that.

I give this game a 10/10 it’s just too amazing not to play and would recommend to anyone who’s into speculative evolution, bizarre lifeforms or acid trips.

I regret just finding this when it went on sale earlier this year.
This would have been my pick for Game of the Year 2022.
A 12 out of 10.
An Island of tranquility in a Sea of toxicity.
Something very special indeed.

All Hail King Gunu, Lord of all.This is a very good game.

Weirdest Qbert sequel I've ever played

Nah but seriously, a great game, Definitely in my top ten games of this year. Its interesting, fun, intuitive, unique and funny. Highly recommend, my only problem with it is that I have too many trebum and don't know what to do with half of them, I wish the cloud feature was available more often, but I can understand why the devs would make you wait for it in each stage. Great game 8.5/10

Why did this slip by so unnoticed.
This is great, the trailers try to avoid spoilers.
Its not a children's game, but children can play it and have fun with it too.
Except, well, children won't get the tone as much this has. Overall this is fun for all ages. And actually scary, having to think and plan ahead a lot.
Other reviewers that complain that you loose powers, well they did not play far enough to figure out that you can gain them permanently anyway, with some perpetration.

WARNING THIS GAME DOES HAVE A CYLINDER

Games of this quality don't come about often. Play this game.