I feel like there’s some behind-the-scenes trickery, but the illusion mostly holds up, and most importantly, there isn’t any unnecessary friction. They aren’t invincible, but considering how many minions with a death wish that I’ve lost in video games before, I was surprised by how vigilant the AI was. You can freely swap between members of your clan (which is great for stockpiling certain resources for a rainy day), and everyone will automatically tag along and keep themselves alive - within reason. That goes for the Cylinder-escaping races to the next tower, as well as the Trebhum I wasn’t directly controlling. I was constantly worried that I’d slip into a no-win situation, especially as it dawned on me that this wasn’t a short game, but those fears never materialized. Even though The Eternal Cylinder falls into an identifiable and almost-too-repetitive cycle, the threat always feels real. The sound design, and especially the ominous soundtrack, which is so memorable in so many ways, is spot-on. You’ll escape the Cylinder dozens of times during the course of the game, and I had a lot of photo finishes. It’s horrible and beautiful to see the behemoth knock down trees, squish fleeing fauna, and crunch mountains - but it’s best to not get too distracted. I can’t oversell how exciting the chase sequences are, even once you know the drill. If you can make it a distant tower and activate it, it’ll hold back the all-consuming machine - until you decide you’re ready to ~do it all again~ to continue your odyssey. Once the Cylinder heats up (which is usually but not always in your control), to stop its advance, you’ll need to ball up and roll as fast as your little creature’s stamina meter will allow. (Usually.) The Cylinder will stay put until you tread into an impossible-to-miss wall of energy, and the moment you cross that line, the race is on. You’ll then have your choice of several backup saves, because this isn’t a run-based structure - it’s a linear story with stretched-out chunks of land to explore.Īs you poke around in search of food and drink, trying your best not to get eaten by things with too many teeth, or hunted by super freaky human-machine hybrids, you’re not under any sort of time crunch. You can lose members of your squishy Trebhum family and still get by, but if they all wipe (due to, say, a giant rolling pin), it’s game over. There are even safeguards in place to prevent a poorly-timed manual save.Īt a glance from the sidelines - and even early into the game itself - it might seem like The Eternal Cylinder is some sort of roguelike-infused romp. It’s important to note that upfront, and also highlight how easy it is to save the game “just in case” and/or rely on generous autosaves when things go horribly awry. There are several toggles you can use to tone down hunger/thirst, enemy aggression, and the ferocity with which that intimidating Cylinder comes rolling after your tribe of weirdos, among other settings. Like my favorite survival games, it’s heavily story-focused, complete with an excellent narrator to help you make sense of your imaginative yet nightmarish surroundings. I simultaneously want to tell you everything about The Eternal Cylinder and nothing at all. The Eternal Cylinder ( PS4, Xbox One, PC) Straight up, this is one of the freshest games of 2021. I mean, I didn’t come in expecting to have a bad time, I just figured there might be some frustrating moments given all of the genre elements in play. What I didn’t expect was how much fun it’d be to find my way around this fantastic, grotesque alienscape. One look at a screenshot, any screenshot, and you know you’re in for a trip. Given ACE Team’s consistently unique track record, I expected The Eternal Cylinder to be a weird one - these are the same folks who dreamt up Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages, after all. It can be held back, but only momentarily. The Eternal Cylinder is a survival adventure game about a pack of morphing alien critters on the run from an endless, ancient, unstoppable force - a literal Cylinder that crushes everything in its path.
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