Earlier this week, I got a chance to play the latest build for Echoes of Red. The game is a duo-toned chaotic version of Vampire Survivors and I’ve always been a fan of the genre. This mean it was an easy decision to jump in to the playtest and see what TERMAX Studios was cooking up.
While it’s a more advanced build than the demo, it’s still a game in progress so as with all playtests, things like bugs, balancing and fine tuning can all be marked up to the ‘will be looked at based on feedback’ category of things. So with all that in mind, I jumped in and started playing.
I am not going to take you through my entire run (or the numerous failed runs that came after) but I’ll share what I felt were nice changes within Echoes of Red in a genre that’s quite popular with the gamers and the developers.
Upgrade Mechanic
Now we all know how Vampire Survivors (and the various other games in the genre) treat upgrades, bar fills up and you get to add a weapon or a buff or upgrade what you have by ‘improving’ it. Echoes of Red takes it another step forward, you have an upgrade path. You are confronted with a forked pathway whenever you get an upgrade and it all starts with the ability unlocking, then 2 separate approaches to modify and upgrade that ability even further.
You can go down both routes but chances are you’ll want to max out one side before you go down the other, but as with all chaotic bulletheavens that you know and love, time is of the essence and making these choices can feel extremely “damned if you do, damned if you don’t!”
You start off strong!
One thing I’ve never enjoyed with Vampire Survivors is that you always felt so weak and the game felt slow at the start of the run, with Echoes of Red, that’s not really a problem as you’ll find yourself feeling quite powerful right from the start. It’s a double edged sword however as you can easily fall against the early enemies if you felt a little overzealous in your attacks, quite like I did.
The Music
Echoes of Red comes with a nice hair raising soundtrack of rock, which was a welcome surprise with it being a preview version and not a fully fledged game yet. The music was present but not overbearing and I felt like it was a good accompaniment for the game.
And a loooot more!
As with any roguelite, you get to build on your runs and go again and again and again… and again? Till you’re the most dominant thing and feel super over powered and rush to the boss and – you die. That’s just the way it is, and let’s face it. Isn’t that we love Roguelites?
If you’d like to give it a wishlist, I am sure the solo-dev would love it!
Wishlist Echoes of Red on Steam – https://store.steampowered.com/app/3714400/Echoes_of_Red/
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