➤ The sound of darkness 🎮

We usually consider video games as above all aesthetic and visual experiences, in which our eyes are stressed much more than all the other sensory organs. Talking about graphics, so to speak, is practically an obligation in any case, and it is a main component in the overall economy of a title. Although it is certainly not the first to try an alternative route, the Canadian RAC7 team, made up of only two people, wanted to turn this axiom like a sock by placing sound and hearing as cornerstones of the adventure, and realizing on the basis of this premise a horror game among the most original and interesting to appear in the mobile field in recent months.

Dark Echo overturns the classic canons of video games by offering an original and engaging adventure

Different

Dark Echo is so stylized and minimal that it initially leaves us perplexed. All that appears on the completely black screen is a pair of shoe tracks to represent the protagonist. The feet, and not the entire body or head, because it is one's own steps that constitute the only tool available to navigate within the levels and to interact with them.

Each of the eighty stages is set in a kind of labyrinth, more or less complex, observed from above. Touching anywhere on the screen makes your alter ego move in that direction, and at the same time generates the release of sound waves (or better, rays) of the noise of your footsteps. Eventually it is also possible to make a louder noise, holding down briefly on your footsteps, so as to extend the area of action. These rays, bumping and bouncing against the walls, allow in practice by way of radar to understand the shape of rooms and corridors and possibly of what populates them, so as to effectively allow to have a perception (but not total awareness ) of what surrounds us. However, this perception is not only temporary but also limited, because it only concerns the points up to which the sound of one's footsteps can reach. This inevitably determines the fact that Dark Echo is an anxious, claustrophobic and disturbing experience, as it is never possible to know what is in your path if not a few steps away from it. The survival horror key is manifested in fact with the appearance of the first evil creatures, also with unknown shapes but recognizable by the fact of being surrounded by red rays. To say that it is better to avoid any close encounters is an understatement, since having no weapon at their disposal, their contact leads to immediate death. In the total darkness of the Dark Echo levels, even these beings can only rely on hearing, and consequently it is necessary to avoid making any noise in their presence that could alert them.

Exactly, just those noises you need to be able to orient yourself. In such cases it is therefore necessary to proceed with soft and light steps, with small and quick touches on the screen, so as not to arouse any attention. And if that's not enough, you can also try throwing a stone so as to act as a bait and draw their attention away from the protagonist. All this until the exit of the level is reached, a real relief that however lasts the space of an instant, that is the time to start the next area. It is therefore easy to understand how Dark Echo is composed of a few ingredients, but inserted within a structure designed with exceptional balance and consistency: faced in ideal conditions, perhaps in the dark and with a pair of headphones, the title of RAC7 is indeed a title of great depth, capable of involving and disturbing, in which the very few audiovisual elements available are naturally complemented and compensated by the player's imagination. All in all a natural task, because the Canadian guys have been very good at compensating with sounds what is not openly shown visually. For example, the footsteps do not always make the same noise, but reflect the trampled surface: a cold marble floor or rather a gravelly ground, or a pond inhabited by a croaking frog, while a drop of water falls from the ceiling of a sort of cave. water at a regular rate. A few less successful brackets and some drops in pace do not however compromise the final value of the game.

Comment

Tested version iPhone (1.2) Price 1,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

8.5

Readers (4)

9.1

Your vote

Dark Echo is a very intriguing game, undoubtedly extremely original, which moves away from the experiences that we are used to associate with the mobile environment, offering instead an emotionally engaging survival horror adventure, which gives a fundamental weight to the sound component, making it the absolute protagonist of the gameplay. . Even with some initial slowness in picking up pace and despite the strong trial and error component, Dark Echo is still one of the most interesting titles for iOS and Android in recent months.