Echo Prime Review – A good RPG

Our rating:

By: Robot Entertainment

Version #: 1.0.3

Date Released: 2013-10-24

Developer: Robot Entertainment

Price: $4.99

User Rating:

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After watching a great movie like Gravity, I would happily jump at anything featuring the outer space. How could I have nodded away a space RPG like Echo Prime. I din’t and here is how that turned out. Spoiler alert – Great game but not good enough for the price tag!

The scenario

You’re summoned from Earth into the midst of an inter-galactic war. Unfortunately, you arrive at an enemy ship full of alien devils and it is hardcore action from then on. Don’t be scared though. You’re always in contact with Echo Prime, the chief of the Echo race (the good guys), who guides you throughout the game.

The gameplay

You’re given a map of the whole universe where new Missions pop up regularly. Take down Enemies, protect the Power source, defeat the Pirates, eliminate alien Parasites or pretty much anything one could think of in Galaxies. But no matter how exciting the objectives may seem, all of them finally comes down to the common ‘hack and slash‘ gameplay.

Each mission has a number of Chambers to be conquered. Alien spiders, bees, soldiers, gunmen and bosses attack you in waves from all possible angles. Touch a point on the screen to move and tap enemies to attack. Cut through the nearby villains with your mighty sword or shoot down the distant ones. Evade the boiling tar and pits to the oblivion. Once all the alien creatures are down, you’re teleported back to the mother ship for more.

Echo Prime would have got boring in few minutes, if it were not for the special Echo powers. Before each level, you get to select one out of three available Echoes with unique super powers like Slow heal, Neurotoxin, Searing Strike, Healing potion, Shields, better Weapons etc. They can be really effective in tight situations and its randomness keeps the gameplay interesting.

The execution

Echo Prime manages to keep its head up in most of the areas but dips a little in case of execution. The graphics and sound effects are comparable to that of other popular RPGs but there’s nothing mind-boggling about it. Except for some dodging attacks, the controls are too simple that you don’t have much variations or maneuvers to play with. But these can be forgiven.

The only thing that bothers me much is the repetitive nature of the gameplay. An area of the map has the same arena for all its levels. So you’ll be playing in the same background with same items at the same position for about five games in a row. As the levels progress, though more complex stages appear, the repetition still persists. That is why I think you wouldn’t be playing this game straight for hours, but will be a great choice to just ‘pick and play’.

Besides, there ia a huge selection of guns, swords, armors and power-ups available via in-app purchases. Though they seem to be not necessary for most part, we can’t forget that we hate iAPs in 5 dollar games!

The verdict
Though you’ll love the time you spend with Echo Prime, I miss the addiction and can’t imagine myself going back for more. But if you’re too much into RPGs, you might want to check it out, but just not at this price. Wait for it to drop the tag to 2 or 3 bucks and you can grab it. In the mean time, you can check out our choices of the Best RPGs on iPhone and iPad.

Tips

• You have unlimited ammo. So dont be shy to shoot as much as you can.
• Move slowly and keep some distance from your enemies because the bullets are much more effective and safer than close sword combats.
• Normal blocks just reduces the damage. But if you wait till the last moment and do a Perfect Block, you’ll take ‘0 damage’.
• Tar pit are harmful to the aliens as well. So instead of running away from it, find a place just behind it so that the enemies marching towards you get burnt!
• You can dodge shots and do some action skills by swiping the screen.
• Instead of tapping the enemey repeatedly, just tap and hold to shoot continuosly.