In The Eternal Cylinder, players control a herd of adorable creatures called Trebhums and must explore a strange alien world filled with exotic lifeforms, surreal environments, and the constant threat of the Cylinder, a gargantuan rolling structure of ancient origin which crushes everything in its path. This unique ecosystem is a massive, procedurally generated land with unique animal AI, real-time world destruction, and organic exploration and puzzle design to create emergent gameplay that ensures no two playthroughs are ever the same.
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7\10 but i wish it was a 10
a bealtiful well crafted story about diversity and the bealty of being a stubborn kind, the true strenght of humanity is our differences and our abbility to cooperate with each other and create bonds, and in that premise, TeC excells, however, it gets sabotaged by its own desire to be a video game, and thus falls into the traps of having the little quirks and annoyances of a mid title.
many people don't know but using the inventory map (press i, the game doesn't tell you that, i know) you can find exactly how to progress to the next tower, otherwise it becomes a frustrating game of guessing, while many games with multiple characters have the decency of making non controled characters take care of themselves, in this game you will find yourself babysitting most of your family because if left to their devices, they will drown without getting out of the water, be attacked by creatures, turn on traps that remove the items you deposit on their inventory, it ends up making this bealtiful tale be accompany by the world's longest bodyguarding quest in gaming, it seems to be a trend with ace team to make bealtiful games brough down by their own need to be mid to average games, to your next title, focus on being fun pleace
a bealtiful well crafted story about diversity and the bealty of being a stubborn kind, the true strenght of humanity is our differences and our abbility to cooperate with each other and create bonds, and in that premise, TeC excells, however, it gets sabotaged by its own desire to be a video game, and thus falls into the traps of having the little quirks and annoyances of a mid title.
many people don't know but using the inventory map (press i, the game doesn't tell you that, i know) you can find exactly how to progress to the next tower, otherwise it becomes a frustrating game of guessing, while many games with multiple characters have the decency of making non controled characters take care of themselves, in this game you will find yourself babysitting most of your family because if left to their devices, they will drown without getting out of the water, be attacked by creatures, turn on traps that remove the items you deposit on their inventory, it ends up making this bealtiful tale be accompany by the world's longest bodyguarding quest in gaming, it seems to be a trend with ace team to make bealtiful games brough down by their own need to be mid to average games, to your next title, focus on being fun pleace
leshoid approved
This review contains spoilers
The music and art is phenomenal. The gameplay was interesting and more addicting than I initially expected. Fun breakups in the tedium by the cylinder having different modes; electricity, fast, slow, big tv head roller guy jumps over and sends his minions after you, fake out/faulty towers so it keeps coming, etc.
The water/food bars drop too quick (especially when you have many Trebhums). Also the cylinder goes too fast sometimes where I had to reload 3+ times. Really cool boss fights and puzzle design.
Some highlights: car guy first time where you lure him to break a rope, climbing into monster mouth to grab your alien friends ancestral memories, blending into crystals to get sucked up by mathematician, fighting finger glass lense enemy who rotates your alien home to crush you and you have to smash his fingers, shooting cylinder push enemy with beam and slicing him in two, and coating yourself in smelly goo to get sucked up by brachiosaurus looking alien and walking around his insides where there are poisonous gases and bacteria cling to the walls.
Story caves were awesome; jumping between statues to solve puzzle, lighting fuses with fire, avoiding eyeball beams to navigate cave, and stick to rotating platforms with suction cup feet.
Really annoying to lose adaptations from beam enemies. It became easier to just reload than have to find these adaptations again. Same goes for your guys dying. Didn’t like losing them because you never knew when you’d see those abilities again due to different environments (sand, snow, grass, water, corrupted land).
The loop started to wear thin at the end. Too long for its own good. Story was not super satisfying. I think if they had a amanita design approach with art telling the story, it would have gotten me more invested than the 3d representation with narration. Some mutations were meh. Also permanently unlocking some were ridiculously tedious to obtain.
The intro tutorial was vague with sucking up the glitter to awaken your friend. Weird resource placement (minerals high up on walls). Fantastic narrator. The organic/inorganic alien design and environment design was incredible.
Theme about foreign invasion trying to assimilate everyone into one consciousness/mode of thinking resulting in annihilation. Could be alluding to America culture globalization/western culture exerting its influence on South America (where this was made) and forcing them to adopt their viewpoints/behaviors. The culture police of capitalism. Results in everyone’s destruction and lack of variety/differences of opinion.
Rolling to avoid the cylinder chasing behind is exhilarating/terrifying and requires skill with carefully timed jumps and avoiding hazards. Felt botw-esque with using different powers and environments to your advantage; scaring away enemies or killing them, knocking down hard to reach items, finding secrets.
The water/food bars drop too quick (especially when you have many Trebhums). Also the cylinder goes too fast sometimes where I had to reload 3+ times. Really cool boss fights and puzzle design.
Some highlights: car guy first time where you lure him to break a rope, climbing into monster mouth to grab your alien friends ancestral memories, blending into crystals to get sucked up by mathematician, fighting finger glass lense enemy who rotates your alien home to crush you and you have to smash his fingers, shooting cylinder push enemy with beam and slicing him in two, and coating yourself in smelly goo to get sucked up by brachiosaurus looking alien and walking around his insides where there are poisonous gases and bacteria cling to the walls.
Story caves were awesome; jumping between statues to solve puzzle, lighting fuses with fire, avoiding eyeball beams to navigate cave, and stick to rotating platforms with suction cup feet.
Really annoying to lose adaptations from beam enemies. It became easier to just reload than have to find these adaptations again. Same goes for your guys dying. Didn’t like losing them because you never knew when you’d see those abilities again due to different environments (sand, snow, grass, water, corrupted land).
The loop started to wear thin at the end. Too long for its own good. Story was not super satisfying. I think if they had a amanita design approach with art telling the story, it would have gotten me more invested than the 3d representation with narration. Some mutations were meh. Also permanently unlocking some were ridiculously tedious to obtain.
The intro tutorial was vague with sucking up the glitter to awaken your friend. Weird resource placement (minerals high up on walls). Fantastic narrator. The organic/inorganic alien design and environment design was incredible.
Theme about foreign invasion trying to assimilate everyone into one consciousness/mode of thinking resulting in annihilation. Could be alluding to America culture globalization/western culture exerting its influence on South America (where this was made) and forcing them to adopt their viewpoints/behaviors. The culture police of capitalism. Results in everyone’s destruction and lack of variety/differences of opinion.
Rolling to avoid the cylinder chasing behind is exhilarating/terrifying and requires skill with carefully timed jumps and avoiding hazards. Felt botw-esque with using different powers and environments to your advantage; scaring away enemies or killing them, knocking down hard to reach items, finding secrets.
ace team's attempt to tell a story of individuality and diversity persevering finally comes to fruition with the Eternal Cylinder. where zeno clash II struggled to get its message across due to stiff dialogue and combat, the eternal cylinder flourishes, with delightfully weird gameplay, characters and foes.
where the game does meet some of its limits is with the difficulty, i do wish the game leaned less in the direction of being punishing but straightforward and more towards a balance of being somewhat obtuse but more forgiving. less save scumming an objective that repeatedly wipes your entire party and more fucking around and finding out. but as it stands this is still an excellent game that held my attention for an entire 11 hour playthrough. highly recommend
where the game does meet some of its limits is with the difficulty, i do wish the game leaned less in the direction of being punishing but straightforward and more towards a balance of being somewhat obtuse but more forgiving. less save scumming an objective that repeatedly wipes your entire party and more fucking around and finding out. but as it stands this is still an excellent game that held my attention for an entire 11 hour playthrough. highly recommend
Gunu will live on in our hearts
Love the creature designs in this game! My favorites have to be the cylinder servants, they look so ominous and distinct and I love the fusion of human + human technology with the obscured faces. The story was pretty straightforward but there's a lot of room to interpret the cylinder metaphor. I kinda wish they stopped asking me to go find 3 things sooner, though. Also, I did not know this game was procedurally generating environments for a while, and I always felt like I was doing something wrong when I found an incubator but no eggs or vice versa.