Eternal Hope First Impressions – An Emotional Journey

Eternal Hope

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve just finished Eternal Hope&colon; Prologue and wanted to give some impressions on the game so far&period; The game was made by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;DoublehitGames" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Doublehit Games<&sol;a> and just released yesterday&comma; and hopefully&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ll be checking out the full version for a full review at some point&period; But for now&comma; this is what I thought of the Prologue demo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Eternal Hope is about a lonely boy&comma; who lives alone in a forest&period; He longs desperately for a companion&comma; someone to share his life with&period; And one day&comma; he comes across a female in the forest&period; A female who returns his love&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They spend a lot of time together&comma; growing close as time flies by&period; Though the worst thing imaginable happens when one day&comma; he wakes up late&period; In a growing storm&comma; he struggles to meet his girlfriend where they always meet&period; Lightning strikes and the girl falls to her death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In what could only be described as one of the most heartbreaking scenes I&&num;8217&semi;ve witnessed in a game&comma; the boy sits sobbing over his girlfriend&&num;8217&semi;s grave&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s alone again&period; His only companion taken away from him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is particularly effective since it allows us to experience the story through the boy&&num;8217&semi;s eyes&period; It makes her death&comma; even if we don&&num;8217&semi;t get much time with her&comma; more impactful&period; I wish her character had been more developed and we could spend some more time talking to her&period; But it sets up the plot for the game itself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21080004&sol;20200819175002&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-162444" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21080004&sol;20200819175002&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Eternal Hope Romance" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">A Quest Of Love<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>After mourning his girlfriend&&num;8217&semi;s death for a while&comma; he is visited by a strange monster&period; This creature identifies himself as the collector of souls&period; So in many ways&comma; he represents what would traditionally be called the grim reaper&period; He gives the boy a unique proposition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In an odd turn of events&comma; his girlfriend&&num;8217&semi;s soul was shattered and its fragments spread across the land&period; It is up to the boy to find these fragments and return them to the soul collector&comma; so that he may continue his task&period; This event has weakened him&comma; and he is reliant on the boy to help him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In return for this task&comma; he will grant the boy the chance to see his girlfriend again&period; The boy&comma; finally having a way of spending more time with his true love&comma; accepts the task for the benevolent shadow creature&period; And so his journey begins&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He is given one unique power&period; The power to travel between his dimension&comma; and the shadow dimension&period; The shadow dimension in many ways resembles an alternate reality&comma; where things are the same but with several differences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21081936&sol;20200819181454&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-162445" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21081936&sol;20200819181454&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Etenral Hope Shadow Realm" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">The Shadow Realm<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>In addition to devoid of color&comma; the shadow realm is also inhabited by strange creatures&period; Most of them are benevolent and look similar to the soul collector&period; For the most part&comma; you need to visit the shadow realm to have these creatures assist you in your journey&period; Though not all of them are benevolent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some creatures in this realm definitely have no good intentions towards you&period; In fact&comma; the first time you teleport to the realm&comma; you are nearly eaten by a monster&period; So it seems like a dangerous realm to visit&period; But also holds the help you need to progress since&comma; in this realm&comma; it literally fills out what&&num;8217&semi;s missing in your own realm&period; Much like two sides of the same coin&comma; they make a whole&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Eternal Hope plays much like a puzzle platformer&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not so much about fighting enemies or collecting stuff as it&&num;8217&semi;s just about solving puzzles&period; It plays mostly similar to<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;original-prince-persia-free-ios&sol;"> Prince of Persia<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;20th-anniversary-edition-world-arrives-mac-app-store&sol;">Another World<&sol;a> in that regard&comma; with a higher focus on solving puzzles using the tools at your disposal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I found the puzzles in the Prologue a bit on the easy side&period; Mostly I seemed to die on them the first time since I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t sure what to expect and weren&&num;8217&semi;t familiar with the game mechanics&period; But I usually got the puzzles after one or two attempts&period; So I feel the difficulty is pretty good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21084754&sol;20200819184031&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-162446 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21084754&sol;20200819184031&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Eternal Hope River" &sol;><&sol;a>A Distinct Experience<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Eternal Hope has visuals that heavily remind me of similar indie games like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;limbo-free-early-xbox-one-adopters-developer-says&sol;">Limbo<&sol;a>&period; In fact&comma; I would describe its visual style as Limbo but with color&period; Everything is in a silhouette style that makes things less detailed but makes important elements stand out against the environments&period; Anything that is solid black is more than likely part of the actual game environment while anything colored is non-interactable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The sound is also pretty good&period; Nothing amazing&comma; but I would say it helps aid the game&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t really remember any distinct melodies from the soundtrack&comma; so I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t say the music is strong enough to stand on its own&period; As soothing as the simple piano sounds are&comma; I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t say it&&num;8217&semi;s exactly my cup of tea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Something to help Eternal Hope&&num;8217&semi;s emotional themes stand out more and something that had more power to it would fit more here in my opinion&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s no huge criticism against the composer as I&&num;8217&semi;m sure they did their best&period; But for me&comma; it becomes too much background noise for my taste&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are also extremely simple&period; You move using the arrow keys or your controller and have 3 buttons for actions&period; The &&num;8220&semi;glide&&num;8221&semi; key is never used in the demo as far as I&&num;8217&semi;m aware&period; The only two keys you have in addition are visiting the shadow realm and interacting&period; You press up to jump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21090550&sol;20200819185516&lowbar;1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-162447 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;21090550&sol;20200819185516&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Eternal Hope Shadow Realm 2" &sol;><&sol;a>A Great Experience<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>If the Prologue is anything to go by&comma; Eternal Hope is definitely a game worth checking out if you are into puzzle platformers or cinematic platformers&period; While it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t come off as terribly original&comma; I feel it is still an interesting game&period; The simple story is still strong enough to hook most players with a heart&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;1162280&sol;Eternal&lowbar;Hope&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">get it on Steam now<&sol;a> for 15&percnt; off until August 27&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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