(Played on Steam Deck.)
Despite its marketing usually focusing on the so-called cinematic flairs nowadays, a video game still has to live and die by its interactivity and interactivity is all about how many variables a player is willing to tackle by the end of the day. 2017’s Breath of the Wild to me just has more variables than I want to play with while 2025’s Bananza has too few for me to open my wallet for a Switch 2. Echo Point Nova however is the middle point between those 2 that hit me just right.
In short, Echo Point Nova is a single-player or co-op open world PVE only arena shooter. The silent player character is a full customizable cyborg soldier crash landed on an alien planet. They are tasked to recover some scientific discovery in the form of half a dozen artifacts. Of course, there are enemy combatants between the cyborg and their objectives.
Let’s start with the first-person shooter side of this game. The button mapping on controller is of course no stranger to anyone picked up any Call of Duty since 2007, though some moves are closer to Titanfall. The arsenal contains pistol, sub machine gun, shotgun, assault rifle, rifle and explosives launcher, all weapon types contain more than one gun.
The game let one click left stick to move faster, but it’s not a sprint. It’s slide on a hoverboard. Since the game’s open world is made of floating islands (Got to say that the game’s free additional open world being on the ground does take away some charm.), the hoverboard combined with double-then-triple jumps and a grappling hook mapped to left bumper is the way to get around.
The game still let one click right stick to whack, but this attack also allow player to dig around. And the main quest toward end credits ask player to dig around more than once. The right bumper started as a grenade button then the main quest would give it 3 other functions: a quick ascent point; a ice grenade to freeze deadly lava into icy surface one can stand and grapple toward; finally a fire ball to burn through some undiggable terrains.
My about 7 hours playthrough before the credits started with an accidental open world dicking around as I did not even finish the tutorial (It asked to shoot designated target and I just ignored it). The game has optional but not that optional arenas called Scans, as player start fights there and is asked to take out certain amounts of enemies. Those seem to be the only place where mechanized enemies reside. Finish those, player is usually rewarded with new guns and perks, all building towards a more robust arsenal.
This game has been compared to Breath of the Wild, but it is actually more structured like the Zelda titles before the 2017 one. The half a dozen artifacts are like the 7 sages and they are locked away in more labyrinthian areas. Then there are things the game calls Bosses then is actually like Divine Beasts in Breath of the Wild. I say “things the game calls Bosses” because I find those to be more akin to big arena with a dozen points to shoot down rather than a big bullet sponge I got to pump lead into.
The game’s shooting feels very good to a lover of late 1990s arena shooter like me. But I think the movement towards floating destinations is where the game true shines. Going up or down, just barely grapple toward a place and hover skating on the sides of those just feel very satisfying. As long as one can stomach the high speed first person movement of course.
The game of course does not difficulty shame its players. The lowest difficulty says “For those just want of explore and win fights” and the only difference between difficulties is how many hit points does the player character have.
The game industry is currently a Behemoth that can be taken good care of by the combination of gravity and its unbearable weight. Products half-kill the people making them before they half-kill the people playing them. So, it’s nice to see smaller-scaled open world that can be played as long or short as one want. Without NPC nagging or cut scene chimed in, Echo Point Nova is an open world game even fatigued one like yours truly can enjoy. I do wish more have played it.