This week has had me feeling something like a cross between being blind as a bat and a Medieval Daredevil, and it’s all thanks to EchoBlade, developed and published by East Asia Soft Limited, Sunset Arctic Games. Originally released on Steam in May 2022, it’s now available on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X. For this review, we will be focusing on the Xbox Series S/X version.

Blinded and trapped inside a labyrinthian dungeon tower, danger lurks around every darkened corner, from trap doors and chambers filled with toxic fumes to halls patrolled by crusader knights and more! Explore in a first-person perspective and watch for echo patterns as every sound you make illuminates your path to freedom, revealing walls, floors, and enemies around you. Sadly, I’m left with questions after playing, as there isn’t much more to this story other than mentioned above. This could have been explored so much more just by simply answering a few of the questions like, “Why is the character blind?” “How did the character become able to see using echolocation?” “Who was responsible for placing me in this prison?” While there may not be much to the story, there is quite a lot to experience.

With what seems to be a cruel and likely death sentence, players are released from their cell and must find a way to escape the labyrinthian dungeon tower. The first few levels serve as the player’s introduction to the various game mechanics and the setup for us to make our escape. Learning to see in the darkness can be a little jarring at first, though once you get the hang of it, you’ll soon be ready to face what lies ahead.

Every sound you make will leave behind a resonance that will light your path forward, but watch your step as there is still much danger that lurks around every corner. Each sound source is represented by a few different colours, and these can be changed in the display settings, though I chose to focus my playthrough on the out-of-the-box experience, with player noise being represented by cyan, enemies displayed in red, crossbow in orange and non-interactive objects in white.

Lay waste to your enemies with your trusty sword and crossbow in combat that feels quite similar to the likes of Skyrim, blocking, swinging, running, jumping, and dodging, but watch that stamina because it could be your downfall. Completing each level will earn you XP which provides you valuable skill points, allows you to purchase perks, and upgrade things like increasing health, attack, and stamina to help you gain the advantage.

If being blind wasn’t already enough, levels are also filled with traps that will end all life, but if you are careful enough, you can use them to your advantage, like using the blunt side of a ceiling spike to lift yourself to an otherwise unreachable level. Combat and general movement feel quite satisfying and smooth, though shooting with the crossbow feels slightly inaccurate, which in this use case, could be a design choice given our protagonist is blind.

Dark dungeons mostly devoid of life, filled with traps, sprinkled with enemies and the occasional puzzle certainly help portray the gritty struggle for survival on display, and the echo resonance was of particular interest to me with the way that the image would be quite clear on the initial sound source and wash out as the sound dissipated. This is the type of idea that could lead to something truly magnificent on a much bigger budget and scale.

With such a heavy focus on sound, I was quite surprised to hear such low-quality samples in use, at times sounding like there was the introduction of static into the mix. Quality aside, the audio did a reasonable job portraying the dungeon soundscape and still provided a fairly satisfying experience.

EchoBlade is a fairly solid dungeon crawler that explores the rather interesting mechanic of echolocation, and I hope to see explored further in the future. As a dark and gritty dungeon crawler full of danger, it is sure to keep you on your toes. This is a great game for achievement hunters looking for that cost-effective way to easily add 1000 to their gamerscore.

Written by: Gary Nielsen