There Came an Echo is a sequel to a game known as Before the Echo (formerly Sequence, but I guess big corporations are still into suing indie companies because no one plays their board games anymore). As such, it's probably best that anyone new to this franchise start there, because some/most of what goes on in the story probably needs the context set forth by that initial game. It's a good game, definitely worth a couple bucks.

There Came an Echo is a voice-controlled game. To my knowledge, there's little to any types of these games on the market, so as far as being something different, Iridium Games has produced something that I believe to be rather novel. While some reviews point to hit-or-miss voice recognition, I found that most of the voice recognition worked flawlessly and really immersed me into the game. I rarely had times where I had to repeat something, or on the off chance I did need to repeat an order, I rarely had to issue it a second time. I'm actually very happy with how well they managed to pull off such clear voice recognition, and it's a point where There Came an Echo really shines.

The other major positive is the soundtrack. Back is Ronald Jenkees, who had his music featured in the prequel. However, I believe he worked much more closely with Iridium Games this time around to compose songs specifically for the game, which I think is great to see. Jenkees is also joined by Big Giant Circles, who comprises the other half of the music. Together, they create an interesting soundtrack that definitely matches the game's somewhat futuristic cyberpunky kind of setting. It might be what you'd expect if Daft Punk did the soundtrack to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and some of the more actiony ones are definitely catchy (like the song LAX).

I do have to say that my feelings regarding the story are somewhat mixed, however, as it seems like cutscenes greatly outweigh actual playtime by a sizeable margin. In all, you can barrel through the game inside of a couple hours, with the ten short missions spaced out with a lot of exposition from the characters. The story itself can be somewhat confusing at times, especially in the late acts, where I can only describe it as "bordering on meta." It starts out as it's own game in the beginning, crosses over into it's prequel territory in the middle, before finally shattering into some bizzare new dimension altogether. While I can't say I should have expected something all that different from Iridium Games given their last game, this new twist seems a little too much. Still, I found the story reasonably captivating to hold me through to the end in one sitting, and I know there are worse campaign experiences out there.

I recommend There Came an Echo, simply on the grounds that overall, I feel way better spending my money and time on this game than I feel about having spent money and time on Watchdogs. For it's somewhat convoluted story and short gameplay segments, I think it still does a good job of at least building on a very interesting universe. While it doesn't do it particularly well, I believe it to be a respectable enough effort to earn some praise, because far too many games released just don't make me drop everything I'm doing and focus on it quite like Iridium seems to be managing to get me to do with their portfolio thus far. If they release some kind of third installment, I'd be all over TF2 players are all over unusual hats.