Happy Easter! Although I imagine this is more of a chocolate-consuming holiday for most of us. It certainly is for me. Things are going quite well over here. I have been rather addicted to Crimson Desert lately, and despite some significant drawbacks, I have been really enjoying myself.
I won’t be reviewing that game for a long time, but I’ve been playing plenty of other titles lately. Today’s episode, I have two games for your hopeful enjoyment!
Esoteric Ebb
The best way to describe Esoteric Ebb is this. Imagine a fantasy version of Disco Elysium, but not quite as pretentious!
I kid. Disco Elysium is one of the best games of the past decade for its intelligent writing and exceptional atmosphere. If you haven’t played Disco before, I highly recommend it. Regardless, it is always great seeing RPGs that focus on choices and character development.
Esoteric Ebb launched earlier this year, and a big thanks to the developer for providing us with a review code! When it launched, I was a little worried that it would be more than just a homage to Disco Elysium with its similar font and conversation design, but my concerns were quickly put to rest. I wouldn’t call this a full review when I am far from the end, but I had to talk about this one.
Esoteric Ebb is not just an incredibly well-written RPG, but I will not be surprised to see it make my Top 10 list in December. Taking place in a gorgeous, expansive city a few days before election season, players take on the role of a governmental official to investigate the explosion at a tea shop, only to wake up in a morgue after ‘falling’ into a river. Not the best first impression!
In the opening minutes of playing, I knew I was witnessing something special. There are all sorts of questions to answer while you explore this mysterious city rich with wonder. Who are we? Who blew up the magical tea shop? Who to vote for in the election? Can we work out why we woke up on a stone slab usually reserved for dead people? This is just paddling on the surface of the ocean, of course. The extensive dialogue trees and exploration mechanics are what drive Esoteric Ebb, and the result is some of the best worldbuilding I have seen in a long time.
Esoteric Ebb is about figuring out a character’s identity, prioritizing that over traditional plot progression. Rather than following a conventional questline like most games, Esoteric Ebb favors allowing players to experiment with the world and lore. Given how your character has no memory, it also makes a bunch of sense. The city is brimming with stories and characters, and the game keeps track of all this knowledge through a developing codex, so you do not need to go on a hunting expedition just to remember what the hell something is.
Playing detective is the technical goal of the game, but it is more than that. This is about survival, discovery, and rebuilding someone’s mind. It is pretty fascinating how the game functions around this fact, and every thread of gameplay feeds that fishing line. Exploring the world and talking to citizens, uncovering secrets through dialogue and observation, and learning spells gives you so much agency, and it is Esoteric Ebb’s biggest strength. Yes, there are lots of similarities to Disco Elysium with the structure and dialogue design, but there is something magical about this game.
There is technically a combat system for progression, but it reminds me of The Necromancer’s Tale in how things progress. Combat takes place during dialogue with interpretation of the environment and casting spells, with dice rolls deciding on outcomes. There is a ton of variance on these, and that can sometimes lead to frustrating situations. While there are spells and gear to acquire, I found some combat situations involved just trial and error until I had a solution. It is a minor nitpick, given how much I’m enjoying the game, but it is worth mentioning.
It is early days with Esoteric Ebb, but I’ve been craving games with great writing, and this game more than fulfils that. I might even like it more than Disco Elysium, although the lack of voice acting in Esoteric Ebb is a black spot on its otherwise flawless display. This is understandable given that this game is the work of a solo dev, but if you are in the mood for a CRPG where you construct the narrative, this is one of the best games in its class.
All Will Fall
I have been excited for this one for a while now! I had a great time playing All Will Fall’s demo during Summer Game Fest, and its unique blend of physics is an interesting twist on the survival crafting genre. Well, the game is now out in Early Access for everyone to enjoy. Big thanks to the PR folks for hitting us up with a review code for this one.
Out of the gate, I can say that All Will Fall is pretty buggy right now, so I would recommend waiting a little while for patches to roll out. The premise is really interesting, and I have enjoyed myself with the game so far; however, if things get fixed, this could be a great pick for fans of the genre.
Blending survival, construction on a collapsing ocean rig of scrap is an interesting approach, which is what drew me to All Will Fall in the first place. The ocean is a pretty terrifying place to build a community on when everything is falling apart around you, after all. Players take on the role of managing a group of survivors in building a vertical settlement to survive after being lost at sea, juggling the inhospitable environment and making sure the colony does not die. The setting and narrative feed this gameplay rather well, as the environmental collapse around the world makes the survival aspects even more brutal. Society is dying, and you are one of the last bastions of humanity.
The usual survival mechanics are in effect here, so you need to manage food, water, housing, and morale of your small colony. Filtering seawater into something drinkable is vital, and there is a lot to manage. The key to this game, however, is the physics system. Buildings can tilt, collapse, or cause chain reactions if not properly supported, so you have to plan things out carefully.
Even the most well-designed structures may fail under pressure, and this really helps the emergent gameplay. One point, I did not take into account that one of my structures was deteriorating faster than I expected. While I was occupied with expanding to another island of floating debris, the structure collapsed, taking three colonists down with it. Oops!
All of this goes nicely together with All Will Fall, and we’ve got a solid mix of unique gameplay and mechanics here. The game also looks rather splendid on the eyes with some great water effects. However, I did struggle with a ton of glitches, and the game needs a lot of work on optimization.
This seems to be the case for many people, which is why the reviews for All Will Fall are mixed right now. Patches have been rolled out since the early access launch, so time will tell whether these fixes will improve.
