A fascinating game which challenges the player, not because it's hard to beat but because it's hard to quit once it resonates with you.

[+]⠀Eidolon is a great title but it took me several attempts to figure out how to play it. It's so unlike any other game that I can understand how many players can be frustrated by its apparent emptiness. First, I sort of rushed to get to ever glowing cube I could find and quickly realised I needed to go further and further away to get more but just wasn't in the mood to do that.
A few years later, I picked it up again and finally realised the true potential of this game. While there's very little to do except walking and catering to basic human needs to survive, I love how finding echoes of the past gives the player the ability to construct their own narrative. You don't really see things but the "idea" of things. Its minimalistic art direction leaves many elements up to interpretation and imagination and the carefully-written documents scattered around its massive world give fragmented clues about the demise of humanity and the return of nature. And because you don't find them in a specific order, you sometimes have to fill in the blanks. The secret to appreciate Eidolon, if you have the time to do so, is to adapt to its rhythm, to take things slowly, really pay attention to what you're looking at and embrace the loneliness offered to you. The beautiful ambient music and the delicate sound effects do a great job of enhancing this feeling.

[-]⠀Designing a game world of this scale is not without issues and shortcomings, especially for a dev team of about 10 people working remotely from each other. So, sometimes, you'll notice grass floating above the ground or some unexpected texture pop-in. At other times, the footstep sound effect will continue playing after you've stopped walking. But despite that, the immersion is never truly broken. I guess my biggest gripe is the absence of a few quality of life features which would have made the journey a little less repetitive and opened Eidolon to a broader audience.

[h1]★★★★☆[/h1] A fascinating game which challenges the player, not because it's hard to beat but because it's hard to quit once it resonates with you. [b][+][/b]⠀Eidolon is a great title but it took me several attempts to figure out how to play it. It's so unlike any other game that I can understand how many players can be frustrated by its apparent emptiness. First, I sort of rushed to get to ever glowing cube I could find and quickly realised I needed to go further and further away to get more but just wasn't in the mood to do that. A few years later, I picked it up again and finally realised the true potential of this game. While there's very little to do except walking and catering to basic human needs to survive, I love how finding echoes of the past gives the player the ability to construct their own narrative. You don't really see things but the "idea" of things. Its minimalistic art direction leaves many elements up to interpretation and imagination and the carefully-written documents scattered around its massive world give fragmented clues about the demise of humanity and the return of nature. And because you don't find them in a specific order, you sometimes have to fill in the blanks. The secret to appreciate Eidolon, if you have the time to do so, is to adapt to its rhythm, to take things slowly, really pay attention to what you're looking at and embrace the loneliness offered to you. The beautiful ambient music and the delicate sound effects do a great job of enhancing this feeling. [b][-][/b]⠀Designing a game world of this scale is not without issues and shortcomings, especially for a dev team of about 10 people working remotely from each other. So, sometimes, you'll notice grass floating above the ground or some unexpected texture pop-in. At other times, the footstep sound effect will continue playing after you've stopped walking. But despite that, the immersion is never truly broken. I guess my biggest gripe is the absence of a few quality of life features which would have made the journey a little less repetitive and opened Eidolon to a broader audience.