It’s not very often you see a platformer come out of THQ, but today we have a treat we have been given Alter Echo to look at. The game is very interesting for 2 reasons it has a complex storyline and some very innovative gameplay to sample, some come in and be immersed in the echo plast of Alter Echo.

Gameplay:
Now I’m hearing all you gamers shout what the hell is echo plast? Well I’ll fill you in on some of the details of Alter Echo’s storyline. The year is 2850 and a new resource has been used throughout the universe for many years, instead of metal and other similar materials and is known as ‘alter plast’ and is only available from one place: a planet known as Proteus, until a human scientist called Paavo was called upon to Proteus to carry out extended research on alter plast. Paavo found a new form of alter plast known as ‘echo plast’ which contains even stronger powers than alter plast. Unfortunately Paavo has gone a little insane with power and has used echo plast to consume and control the planet this is where you step in, you being Nevin the main character in the game along with colleagues and friends Stome and Arana must track down Paavo and stop his madness, but along the way you become side tracked by a similar entity as Paavo known as Echo. Now the game is set as a third person type game and has you fighting all kind of things made out of echo plast, but you will control Nevin through most of the game.

At the beginning of the game you are given a special echo plast suit which contains a sword as a basic weapon but as you progress you are given special morphing powers allowing you to morph into a large robot type figure with gun and grenade capabilities and a stealth type suit making you move about on all fours. I like the way THQ have done this aspect as you have a varied way of attacking your foes - if a standard button bashing action doesn’t do the trick then you can waste your enemies with a large cannon or become stealthy and become invisible and jump on their heads beating the crap out of them! The echo plast suit also allows you to use a feature called time dilation allowing you to freeze time and destroy enemies or create additional paths in the game that weren’t previously possible, but unfortunately it is really just an annoying mini game in the whole game requiring you to press the right button at the right time but this isn’t some sort of rhythm game like Britney’s Dance Beat. I’m all for a mini game to make the game more interesting but it’s too annoying to have any relevance to the game, please THQ anything else would have been better!!

Controlling Alter Echo is easy and great fun to play through, I found no problems controlling the game although I did find myself morphing between different forms so I was in stealth instead of my normal form etc. Everything seems to be quite well done in the game, one thing however that I can put my finger on that sticks out badly is the fact the landscapes look so familiar. You keep get the feeling that hardly any new textures have been used and that you don’t gain a sense of progression in the game because of this. I know the whole world is supposed to consist of alter plast but it’s not an excuse to cut back on production. The game isn’t as open ended as I would have liked it to be you are set to one path and so it is quite easy to find your way through the game it’s just the bad guys who pose a threat really and doesn’t allow the player to explore the environment in it’s completeness. But the plot is quite dull and boring and basically involves Nevin going from one place to another beating up bad guys made out of echo plast using time dilation occasionally to get through the game, there’s no parts of the game involving puzzle thinking skills, but this seems to be THQ’s approach to the platformer game – full on action all the way.

But looking towards Alter Echo’s finer points the game is very long and will keep anyone going for a long time, there are a variety of moves to be learned and mastered throughout the 3 morphable forms and I can say that for a platformer THQ have made a good attempt at an original platformer, it doesn’t throw the sci-fi genre apart but it gives it a good shakin’.

Graphics:
Alter Echo’s graphics are very nice indeed and are very smooth without any lag or interruption, but as I’ve already mentioned some textures are repeated too many times. There are quite a few light effects that add a nice touch to the game, but overall the game poses an above average score for graphics. I would have liked to see THQ throw something truly amazing at me this time as far as graphics went, something that stood up from the crowd and said 'look at me I’m pixel perfect!'

Sound:
A lot of work has gone into the sound making original sci-fi sound effects and it shows throughout the game with all the weird and funky effects you hear, but whoever composed/chose the background music deserves a good slapping. It does its job, from time to tome, but gets far too repetitive for my liking and if there was a custom soundtrack option I would have it on.

Longevity:
The game as a single player will last a good while as there is a fair bit to do and master but the single player as mediocre as it is, is all the game consists of, there’s no multiplayer, no Xbox live which is a must in today’s Xbox community really. The game is topped off by some cool special features such as ‘making of’, but once you’ve played through this one that’s it essentially.

Round Up:
Alter Echo is one of the best platformer games to hit Xbox as it has a severe lack of them, and it does a good job we just could have done with some form of a multiplayer mode, or some downloadable content THQ! Overall it’s not a bad game it’s just missing those few items that round of a game and give it that edge of purpose that every game needs, as far as I’m concerned Alter Echo just needs a slight Alteration o give it those few more points out of ten.

Pros:

• Has a good stretch of longetivity
  
• Great fighting system allows morphing and time dilation
  
• Above par graphics
  

  Cons:
  

  • Narrative structure becomes boring easily
    
  • Graphical textures are repetitive…
    
  • …so is the soundtrack!