Eternal Strands

Eternal Strands is a game with an uninteresting narrative, excessive dialogues and repetitive missions that leave much to be desired. However, the gameplay inspired by titles such as Breath of the Wild and Shadow of the Colossus stands out, especially in the battles against the Arcs, despite technical issues such as the camera and unbalanced combat. Visually, the use of Unreal Engine 5 is impressive, but the exploration design lacks depth. A title with ups and downs that could shine on Game Pass.

Mixing so many different concepts and getting it halfway right is quite an achievement and it can't be said that the setting, design and mechanics of Eternal Strands are not well cared for. But maybe the team has wanted to cover too much and has left much of the game halfway.

Eternal Strands is a delicious mix of genres that, despite some conceptual errors, manages to give us a truly memorable gameplay experience. With three ingredients, such as fire, ice and gravity, we will be able to achieve great things.

Eternal Strands doesn't make the best first impression, and certain aspects of it, such as the basics of combat, simply aren't impressive at all. Give it some time, though, and its unique features start to shine through, making this action-adventure definitely worth a look for fans of the genre.

Mixing elements from Breath of the Wild with Shadow of the Colossus sounds amazing on paper, but Eternal Strands somehow renders it a merely average experience.

Combining monster hunting, colossi climbing, exploration, and crafting, Eternal Strands often feels a little ‘lite’. However it’s defining feature is an elemental physics-based magic-system that is a valid competitor to Breath of the Wild. It’s that rare beast that often just sets you free to explore and find your own solutions, and its wonderful when it does.

Although Eternal Strands brings interesting lore, features engaging boss fights, offers fun gameplay and has a nice soundtrack, the game also suffers from several shortcomings. For example, the combat is somewhat clunky, the physics are inconsistent and the game lacks a bit in variety over time. A decent game, but it could've been better in many regards.

Eternal Strands has potential to be a great action adventure game, but it is weighed down by eternal fetch quests. It's beautiful to look at, but hard to withstand the hand holding hinderance. I know who this is for, but there are better entries to scratch your magic weaving itch.

Eternal Strands draws inspiration from various titles, blending their elements to forge a new adventure. While Yellow Brick Games succeeds in crafting a strong physics system that complements the protagonist’s powers, the experience is hindered by weak combat and early mission design. Though the characterization shines, enhanced by solid voice acting, the story struggles to immerse, likely due to its disjointed delivery. Ultimately, the game is brimming with strong ideas, but none are executed well enough to leave a lasting impression.

While it’s still a promising effort by a clearly talented studio, that promise seemingly could take several post-launch patches to show through fully. If you’re at all interested in Eternal Strands, I would personally recommend waiting several months to a year before picking it up.

Another example of a game that was not saved by a well-known creator. The author of the excellent Dragon Age has come up with a title that is a tiresome in the long run, although it has some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the gameplay is too repetitive, and the fun quickly becomes monotonous.

It's entertaining in glimpses, no doubt about it, but from combat to meta upgrades, from static storytelling to a slightly half-baked daily gameplay loop, it's not like Eternal Strands offers a lot, but it also manages to telegraph pretty clearly to the player that it also fails to fully realise the ideas that are here. This isn't a disaster, but it is, unfortunately, an example of a game that fumbles with priorities, and it shows.

Look past the tedious story and Eternal Strands features some brilliant massive monster battles, especially when you unlock some great magic to use on them. The problem comes in getting to those bits, bogged down in plenty of bloat and repetition that results in its best moments being fewer and far between. Flawed but fun behemoth battling makes this an interesting if imperfect mix of its superior influences.

The fact that the bosses in Eternal Strands already feel like a chore to get through says it all. The game has grand ideas and even grander sources of inspiration. For a team of around 70 people, it’s quite impressive what they’ve accomplished. But when you choose to take cues from Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, and Breath of the Wild, you inevitably invite the associated expectations. Those games then become not just your inspirations but also your competition. And Eternal Strands doesn’t come close to these games.

Eternal Strands offers glimpses of promise with its stunning boss fights and intriguing gameplay mechanics. However, its repetitive structure and lack of depth make for a shallow experience. The game also falls short in storytelling and character development, leaving little to keep players engaged and making it difficult to recommend.

You can’t fault its ambition, but this is too little game stretched across too much open world map, with repetitive enemy encounters and tedious storytelling.