I’ve just finished Eternal Hope: Prologue and wanted to give some impressions on the game so far. The game was made by Doublehit Games and just released yesterday, and hopefully, I’ll be checking out the full version for a full review at some point. But for now, this is what I thought of the Prologue demo.
Eternal Hope is about a lonely boy, who lives alone in a forest. He longs desperately for a companion, someone to share his life with. And one day, he comes across a female in the forest. A female who returns his love.
They spend a lot of time together, growing close as time flies by. Though the worst thing imaginable happens when one day, he wakes up late. In a growing storm, he struggles to meet his girlfriend where they always meet. Lightning strikes and the girl falls to her death.
In what could only be described as one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve witnessed in a game, the boy sits sobbing over his girlfriend’s grave. He’s alone again. His only companion taken away from him.
This is particularly effective since it allows us to experience the story through the boy’s eyes. It makes her death, even if we don’t get much time with her, more impactful. I wish her character had been more developed and we could spend some more time talking to her. But it sets up the plot for the game itself.
A Quest Of Love
After mourning his girlfriend’s death for a while, he is visited by a strange monster. This creature identifies himself as the collector of souls. So in many ways, he represents what would traditionally be called the grim reaper. He gives the boy a unique proposition.
In an odd turn of events, his girlfriend’s soul was shattered and its fragments spread across the land. It is up to the boy to find these fragments and return them to the soul collector, so that he may continue his task. This event has weakened him, and he is reliant on the boy to help him.
In return for this task, he will grant the boy the chance to see his girlfriend again. The boy, finally having a way of spending more time with his true love, accepts the task for the benevolent shadow creature. And so his journey begins.
He is given one unique power. The power to travel between his dimension, and the shadow dimension. The shadow dimension in many ways resembles an alternate reality, where things are the same but with several differences.
The Shadow Realm
In addition to devoid of color, the shadow realm is also inhabited by strange creatures. Most of them are benevolent and look similar to the soul collector. For the most part, you need to visit the shadow realm to have these creatures assist you in your journey. Though not all of them are benevolent.
Some creatures in this realm definitely have no good intentions towards you. In fact, the first time you teleport to the realm, you are nearly eaten by a monster. So it seems like a dangerous realm to visit. But also holds the help you need to progress since, in this realm, it literally fills out what’s missing in your own realm. Much like two sides of the same coin, they make a whole.
Eternal Hope plays much like a puzzle platformer. It’s not so much about fighting enemies or collecting stuff as it’s just about solving puzzles. It plays mostly similar to Prince of Persia or Another World in that regard, with a higher focus on solving puzzles using the tools at your disposal.
I found the puzzles in the Prologue a bit on the easy side. Mostly I seemed to die on them the first time since I wasn’t sure what to expect and weren’t familiar with the game mechanics. But I usually got the puzzles after one or two attempts. So I feel the difficulty is pretty good.
A Distinct Experience
Eternal Hope has visuals that heavily remind me of similar indie games like Limbo. In fact, I would describe its visual style as Limbo but with color. Everything is in a silhouette style that makes things less detailed but makes important elements stand out against the environments. Anything that is solid black is more than likely part of the actual game environment while anything colored is non-interactable.
The sound is also pretty good. Nothing amazing, but I would say it helps aid the game’s atmosphere. I can’t really remember any distinct melodies from the soundtrack, so I wouldn’t say the music is strong enough to stand on its own. As soothing as the simple piano sounds are, I wouldn’t say it’s exactly my cup of tea.
Something to help Eternal Hope’s emotional themes stand out more and something that had more power to it would fit more here in my opinion. That’s no huge criticism against the composer as I’m sure they did their best. But for me, it becomes too much background noise for my taste.
The controls are also extremely simple. You move using the arrow keys or your controller and have 3 buttons for actions. The “glide” key is never used in the demo as far as I’m aware. The only two keys you have in addition are visiting the shadow realm and interacting. You press up to jump.
A Great Experience
If the Prologue is anything to go by, Eternal Hope is definitely a game worth checking out if you are into puzzle platformers or cinematic platformers. While it doesn’t come off as terribly original, I feel it is still an interesting game. The simple story is still strong enough to hook most players with a heart.
You can get it on Steam now for 15% off until August 27.
