After a long wait and some postponements we are here today to talk to you about the long-awaited Lone Echo II, the sequel to the acclaimed first chapter by Ready at Dawn, the authors of the exclusive Playstation The Order 1886. It’s been four years since the first chapter , in a 2017 where viewers were taking their first steps on the videogame market seeking consensus with a very small offer of apps and productions.
Lone Echo was one of the first games led by an experienced team in the field of video games, the first experience with a product for virtual reality but with all the credentials to amaze and demonstrate that VR could create a gaming experience. unique and engaging. Lone Echo II resumes the path taken some time ago precisely where we left it and has accompanied us once again within a truly convincing adventure despite the limits that VR still seems to have on the technical side.
We find Captain Olivia Rhodes waiting for us and we return to take on the “clothes” of the android Jack, both confined to space, defying adversity to return home. As soon as the game is started, it is clear how Lone Echo II strongly deviates from the general average of quality of games developed for virtual reality, leaving us much more than once open-mouthed once the viewer is worn.
The title of Ready at Dawn is undoubtedly a high-budget project created by a team aware of their skills, already widely recognized previously even on consoles, and it was therefore reasonable to expect further steps forward compared to the first job.
Although the game mechanics are not revolutionized but only refined, remaining faithful to the maintenance tasks and a shy approach to the shooter, everything is much more oiled and fluid, resulting for most of the time intuitive without the need for verbose explanations to be able to proceed. The small puzzles, on the other hand, have become more complex, some not exactly trivial but rather, a little too unnecessarily not very obvious which unfortunately break the fluidity of the story.
Lone Echo II is also certainly more introspective than the previous one, often leaving us to really imagine ourselves in apparently disastrous situations and how we could react, contemplating the darkness that oppresses us for the duration of the game and the powerlessness to be able to solve or manage situations. complicated.
Another novelty that we appreciated resides in a new type of enemy, the Biomass, an aggressive alien form that reminded us very closely of the experience lived on No Man’s Sky in the free Desolation update. In order not to spoil the surprise we will not go further into the presentation of this new threat but it will be enough for you to know that to face this enemy it is possible to make use of new types of tools, giving life to different approaches during the clashes.
What remains, indeed in some ways is also amplified is the bond between Liv and Jack, deeper and more mature, like a long-standing friendship that is consolidated at every line of dialogue, showing the affection and trust on which it is based. . This detailed characterization of the characters, however, gives life to decidedly long dialogues between the two where we can not help but listen to be able to continue the route home. We are happy that the narrative in Lone Echo II has become more consistent than a cynical first chapter in this respect, unfortunately, however, we have very often come across lines of dialogue that are really long-winded and not strictly necessary for the purposes of the story.
Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to talk to you further at the level of the plot without ruining the experience for those interested in taking the commands of Jack and completing one of the best experiences that you can find at the moment on Oculus. The duration of this second chapter is around ten hours if you lose yourself in observing the details and the scenario that surround us, also counting the breaks between one session and another absolutely necessary.
It is in fact impossible to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Lone Echo II and pull straight to the end without taking a breath. In our case we have often been forced to go back to reality as the weightless movements on this title put a strain, if prolonged, on our physique and migraines.
In fact, there remains the big stumbling block of an optimization that continues to be not perfect, as happened for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Both titles with enormous ambitions but which clash with the need for extremely powerful hardware and very often not enough even in that case. The request in terms of processor and graphics card is set on an i5 and GTX1060, not to mention the absolute need for an SSD but to the test of facts even with this setting you risk a big headache and big usability problems.
Unfortunately, such blockbuster experiences, in addition to a significant access cost for the viewer, whether Quest 2 or Rift or Rift S, require a PC with a decidedly remarkable value and this precludes a very high number of users. The hope is still alive that titles of this caliber will become the standard for VR instead of beautiful but isolated flashes within a subdued line up that still fails to conquer a wider slice of the public.
At the moment these works must absolutely focus on a profound improvement in the technical field to come out on the market in perfect conditions to make productions shine even more with Lone Echo II which once again presented itself as a really excellent product that only needs some filing to set a new standard in the VR world.
8
/ 10
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