It’s hard to come up with a truly original idea and gaming concept. Everything is either an appropriation of an already popular game, or one that has been inspired by a trend that is loved – we’re pointing at you Battle Royale. Eternal Hope is a game that borrows some of its heart and soul from many different games of this genre; games like Limbo. But what it does well is takes the bits from the very best games and then weaves its own path, utilising those blueprints to great effect. Don’t look at Eternal Hope as just another copy but rather as something that borrows, before redefining into something good.
Eternal Hope is a 2D platformer, that could at first glance remind us of Limbo. You play as a young boy called Ti’bi who after finding his one true love discovers that she is taken away from him by a horrible accident. So off he goes on a search for her mortal soul and maybe a chance to bring her back to the world. He is joined by a god-like presence who wants to help him on his quest; one who is capable of opening the path to another dimension within our world to aid him on his travels. But is everything that it seems to be?
I do love a bit of visual storytelling and Eternal Hope is like others of its genre, in that it does a brilliant job of portraying a wonderful story of loss, betrayal, and love. I have been totally enraptured in this atmospheric world, with the hero traveling through it and with what he encounters along the way.
But this is a game that is more than story and the journey, adding in platforming and puzzles. There are eleven chapters to get yourself through and they start fairly simply, but eventually get harder. Thankfully they never feel impossible; which in my eyes is always a good thing, especially when you take into account my skills. Eternal Hope is however a simple platformer in which your hero can jump, hold onto ledges, climb things and of course die. Die a lot. But soon – with the strange god’s help – you’ll find that you can start pressing button and swap into a different dimension, one where the layout of the levels might be different, allowing you to see platforms that weren’t there before.
But, there are also strange giant-like creatures that occupy the ‘other world’ too. These creatures will help, allowing you to climb up their backs for example or they will lift you with their hands to another platform or undo traps or obstacles that are along the way. It’s a robust system that is clever and an effective unique way to play with traversing a platforming adventure. Later on in the game, the demands of Eternal Hope will have you swapping between realms quickly – possibly too quickly – yet by that time you feel that you’ll sure to be advanced enough to be confident in what is needed.
Eternal Hope quickly gets you used to dying, and the fact that half the time it doesn’t really matter. But there are checkpointing issues which will see you having to redo certain areas far too many times for my liking. Sometimes accuracy is a problem as well, especially in regards to the platforming elements, as Eternal Hope starts to feel a bit loose at times. The overall feelings and vibes though are that this is a game of enjoyment and pleasure.
Visually it is all pretty gorgeous with some great beautiful backdrops and world-building. The little cutscenes appear nicely animated and create a great sense of story weaving. The characters and enemies that appear are good, whilst the visual switching between the two worlds is impressive, as are the creatures that lie within it. The soundtrack is good, but it didn’t overwhelm me or make me think about it too much. It’s something that you’ll be pushed to remember after it ends.
Eternal Hope is a nicely played-out visual story with some great ideas and a lovely gaming technique which lets you swap instantly between two different realities. There are some problems with checkpointing and the accuracy in terms of platforming isn’t as tight as it possibly should be, but that rarely takes away from such a clever little game. Even when things seem dark, it’ll help if you’re playing a bit of Eternal Hope.
Eternal Hope is available from the Xbox Store
