A short introduction for those who want to know what Ecco is all about, and those who want to see again what it felt like to play this game!
"Life was an adventure for Ecco, the young dolphin" states the manual, and oh it definitely will be an adventure for the player! The game sets out straight after the title screen. No menus, right from the beginning all your choices are made with Ecco.
You'll soon recognize that this game is nothing like you've ever played before. You start in a tropical environment, and as beautiful the set, as clueless you seem to be.
Only by interacting with the elements and creatures of the sea you'll get forward. Each of them has a different way of helping or baring Ecco from getting to his goal.
Ecco is not alone in the ocean. On his quest other dolphins and orcas will feed him with information or need help themselves. But those are not the only source of information in this game. Glyphs, crystals from ancient times, are the key to the game. They contain even more encrypted messages, they block passages, the contain keys and they give ultimate powers.
At the end, also being only a mammal, Ecco can be hurt and needs to breathe air to survive. Sharks, poisonous jellyfish and corals, shells and many more dangerous animals will give him a hard time. To raise his energy level back to normal he needs to feed on fish or use healing shells, and to keep his lunges full, he constantly needs to search for the sea level and air pockets underground.
Ecco can be freely controlled in every direction. You get three actions you can perform with the gamepad. By singing you send out sonar waves to interact with the world around you. By charging you will defend yourself. By speeding up you will gain worthy time often needed to refill your lunges. Later in the game you'll get more skills.
Controlling Ecco is something to get used to but once you master it, it is great fun! Jumping over an island can make you feel quite proud of yourself.
All of these elements and more are involved in really clever riddles. You'll have to use your brains to get forward in this game. This is really not at easy as it sounds! The mazes are huge, Ecco has a sonar map, though it's quite small.
You need to be really patient and sometimes take a couple of minutes to start your next plan. The fact that Ecco's air level sinks constantly is the toughest option of the game. But all of the riddles are logical, so don't despair, they can be done!
If you can bear with all of this you'll be rewarded with an awesome game that contains so many positive aspects they will wash away the negative things that may occur. The environments are some of the best you will've seen in an underwater game. Ecco has to make his way through coral reefs, polar ice masses, sunken cities and places no earthling has been before.
The story that makes up this game will keep you really excited. It is told in a strange accent which suits the underwater characters very well. By time you'll find out more and more what's actually happening, and there are so many things you couldn't have imagined at the beginning. Mystical characters, ones no human could ever see, support this fact.
The fact that this game plays in such an unreachable universe yet so close to us makes it an outstanding gaming experience. Another positive aspect is the soundtrack, that feels like from another world. Like the graphics also the noises by the animals will get you really into this beautiful world. Try it, don't despair, be patient and persistent and open up to this experience!