Echo Point Nova Review

Not enough shooters embrace open space. Many, like Call of Duty or last year’s Anger Foot, are focused on tight corridors. Serious Sam famously offers open levels, but they cause anxiety as you backpedal from endless hordes. The Starsiege Tribes franchise is one of the few that not only featured large spaces but made navigating them enjoyable. You’d slide down hills, rocket into the air with a jetpack, and build insane momentum while landing precision shots on moving targets. While Tribes was largely multiplayer-focused, Echo Point Nova reimagines this dynamic in a single-player format. Instead of rolling hills, you have floating islands. Instead of a jetpack, there’s a grapple and mid-air jumps. And instead of sliding around, you glide on a hoverboard and grind along sheer cliffs. The result is a fast-paced, lightweight shooter that is both thrilling and fun.

If you are looking for story then Echo Point Nova is not the best place to find it. The game begins after you get shot down on a planet with gravity anomalies. The planet is occupied by a commander and his army of mercenaries, performing undisclosed nefarious deeds. Your goal is to find artifacts and defeat his large weapons of war (i.e. boss battles), to gain access to the commander’s elevated position. Locating artifacts requires scanning a few dozen points around hundreds of islands suspended in the air. The story is oddly presented via 2D chat bubbles that appear at respawn nodes. These cannot be read if you are too far away or too close. And since they always face the player, they sometimes clip through objects. The storytelling leaves much to be desired and the need to stop and stare is at odds with the action.

Around the planet are groups of floating islands, some of which contain scan points. Scans are basically like gore nests from Doom (2016). Activating one starts a battle that will spawn enemy units, who will continue respawning until around two dozen have been felled. The enemies are varied, ranging from large gunships and battlemechs to smaller humanoids gunfighters, including ones that hover with jetpacks. Once the scan is complete, you get a reward in the form of a perk or weapon. Perks might grant health for bumping into enemies or resupply ammo when wall-grinding. The weapons are fine but fairly standard for the genre with a typical variety of pistols, rifles, snipers, and an RPG. Many require leading targets, so you need to take into account current momentum. While these scans offer the most action, other floating islands have enemies scattered around them like raisins in a fruit cake. Find and kill every hostile and you can equip even more perks.

Whether you are doing scans or just cruising between islands, the movement mechanics are superb. While there is a lot of open airspace, it is quite easy to stay elevated since the grapple hooks onto clouds. Touching any surface or grappling will restore the mid-air jumps too. Movement fluidity is best demonstrated in the scan arenas. Many have good circular channels, with walls to grind, and ledges to jump like you are running hurdles. There is a great feeling when staying in motion and landing kills during loops. Larger units have weakpoints on their top sides, which encourages soaring up vertical walls or using jump pads. The speed feels good and is not too fast, but there is a handy slow-motion skill to land a few quick kills.

There are also some boss battles that are all quite similar in design. They feature a large vehicle that circles a massive arena. On this vehicle are regular enemies, big turrets, and weak points that need to be destroyed in one attempt. It can be challenging to even board these monstrosities because of the pesky turrets that drain health and the speed at which they move. Once aboard, the vehicle’s momentum does not perfectly transfer to the player, so it can be jerky to aim. While these battles are a little clumsy, they do at least make the most of the advanced movement systems.

Not all of the navigation is finely tuned. Near the boss battles are very large and empty land masses. These might have been placed to give players a break from juggling themselves across the small islands, but they’re way too big and navigating them is boring. The other inconsistent aspect is that it is not always obvious if you can reach certain land masses. Usually there is a clear chain of floating islands to follow, but not always. And it is hard to judge how far away things are due to the island size differences and changes in elevation. Even some protruding ledges can make the climb upwards a little annoying.

Like the developers' previous game, Severed Steel, Echo Point Nova uses a simple but effective visual style. The textures are basic, with single-color shapes and blocky environments. The low polygon counts are easy to explain because it uses voxel tech to create destructible walls. The destruction does not play a huge role in combat. Occasionally the bigger mechs will poke holes in buildings that can become dangerous. There are a few places where you will need to smash into the landscape, but otherwise it is mostly set dressing. It would have been nice to see the destruction effects multiplied, which would raise the stakes when navigating the precarious spots that have limited ground space. But extra divots and holes could make gliding and grinding problematic.

Fortunately the game does not overstay its welcome. At four hours long ($25 USD), it is quite a brisk experience. There is another three or so to complete bonus scans (tougher arena battles) and explore the harder-to-access islands. Fast-travel is available at any time, between any discovered spawn point. You can also play alongside others, via invite-only co-op, which lets up to four people zip around together.

Echo Point Nova is one of the best high-speed shooters since Tribes, albeit bite-sized. It is another feather in the cap for the studio that released Severed Steel. It makes great use of floating islands and open spaces, and the campaign will take about four hours to complete. Moving around the world feels awesome, with a handy grapple and generous mid-air jumps that allow you to remain airborne. And most combat arenas are well designed to allow for satisfying looping hit-and-run attacks. Although there are a few imperfections, Echo Point Nova offers the space and speed that few other shooters dare.