Yellow Brick Games’ ambitious Action-Adventure game Eternal Strands does well to stand out with its numerous mechanics, regardless of how well they all hit the mark. Sometimes, you’ll feel like David taking on Goliath. The next moment, you may feel like a coughing baby in the middle of a nuclear winter. There’s a lot for people to connect with here, but it’s very likely that each player is going to feel abrasive towards more than one mechanic during their playthrough.
The narrative surrounding the protagonist, Brynn, and her band of “Weavers” is a little derivative, filled with fantasy tropes such as a lost civilization and an unexplained magical cataclysm. It’s a stark contrast to the impressive amount of history that has been built into this world, found through bouts of exposition, both written and spoken. Woven throughout this story are some likeable NPCs with plenty of interpersonal relationships and troubles to work through, voiced by a wonderful cast headed by Mei Mac as Brynn and featuring Rebecca Hanssen with a stellar performance as the quartermaster, Casmyn.
If character interaction isn’t what you’re looking for, it’s easy enough to skip through dialogue and focus on the exploration and combat of Eternal Strands. There’s a surprising amount of sophistication in Eternal Strands’ systems, built around different elemental magics. As Brynn, you harness the elements of Fire, Ice, and Kinetic magic, with each interacting with the world and its inhabitants differently.
Ice and Fire magics are volatile, making you easily hurt yourself if you use them haphazardly. Conversely, they can each be used to mitigate environmental hazards like frozen or scorching ground, making it safe to walk across. Simple uses of these abilities include throwing enemies off cliffs or freezing them in spot for an easy line-up. But there’s enough mechanical complexity to get a bit crazy with it. Early in the game, I found out that I could launch myself with my Kinetic mine, pairing that up with my Greatsword that additionally allowed me to launch up into the air, and I was zooming across the maps with ease. End-game abilities are even more powerful, and each can be upgraded twice with materials you harvest from the bosses spread throughout the game.
The large spectacle of the Great Foes felt exhilarating the first few times, requiring me to search for weaknesses and use every ability in my arsenal to simply survive. Freezing limbs in place as I clambered up these mountainous constructs, toppling them after a 10-minute-long bout with no health potions left felt so satisfying. The problem became that once I had bested one giant robot by repeatedly hitting its weak points, I had practically bested them all. This was remedied slightly by the variety of the bestial behemoths, battling creatures from Fire-breathing Drakes to a big old ugly Telekinetic Sledgewyrm, but battles still mostly boiled down to hitting glaringly obvious soft spots like exposed flesh or glowing crystal-like protrusions.
While moment-to-moment exploration and combat can feel a little lacklustre, with most normal enemies hardly posing any threat, the volatile world around you is the real nuisance. While the locations physically remain the same, enemy placement, boss spawns, and weather conditions attempt to keep things fresh with each separate foray out into the wilderness. Most conditions placed upon a location weren’t too much of a hindrance, except for when an entire map would be frozen over. Without the proper gear or a stock of resistance potions, it was easier to just rest for a portion of the day or visit a different spot than try to tackle constant freezing damage and reduced movement speed.
With the ability to avoid these kinds of climates so easily, it left the armour crafting portion of the game to feel frivolous. While I gathered plenty of alternative armour blueprints that looked kick-ass, my original kit was sufficient enough in combat that I never felt the need to change anything up. Additionally, Yellow Brick Games was way too generous when it came to reforging and dismantling old and outdated gear, giving me back all resources used in the crafting process and forgoing the need for more than a single armour set.
ETERNAL STRANDS REVIEW
Eternal Strands has so many interesting ideas packed into its world. While none of the mechanics may be perfect, the ambition is clearly present and that should be celebrated. Every person is sure to find something they love about this game, whether it be the over-the-top boss fights, layered character moments, or creative sandbox combat. I do hope we see more from Yellow Brick Games and Eternal Strands in the future, because there’s a rather large spark here that I believe could build into a wildfire next time around.
PROS
Ambitious and mechanically complex combat
Serviceable narrative made stronger by likeable NPCs and earnest interactions
World building is comprehensive for lore sickos
CONS
No mechanic is 10/10, and some simply don’t gel
Combat outside of Great Foes is repetitive and unrewarding
Armour bonuses are too negligible to be engaging
Reviewed on PC. A review code was provided by the Publisher for purposes of this review.
