Ludography
60/100
Players5 ratings
63/100
Critics2 reviews
Alter Echo cover

2003 · Outrage Games · Action-adventure · Adventure

Alter Echo

In Alter Echo, interstellar corporations mine a new organic skin called Plast and use it to make biomachines. Nevin, who can physically alter Plast and time itself, discovers that illegal experiments have infected Plast with human consciousness, and now he must fight for survival against a world gone mad. As you battle wave after wave of biomechanical enemies, you can morph between Melee, Gun, and Stealth modes. A Time Dilation system allows players to freeze the action and cue up an unstoppable flurry of moves and special attacks.

Released
19 August 2003
Platforms
PlayStation 2Xbox
Genres
Action-adventureAdventureFightingPuzzleScience
Developers
Outrage Games
Publishers
THQ
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionFantasyScience fiction
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB TPEGI 12

About

Alter Echo is a third-person action-adventure video game developed by Outrage Games and published by THQ. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on August 20, 2003, in North America, September 12 in Australia, and on October 3, 2003, in Europe.

›Story

In a world where psychics, known as shapers, can create any object they want with a substance called Plast, the best shaper of all, Paavo, develops a new type of Plast - EchoPlast. The ship of Nevin and his crew is shot down by Paavo and they crashland on his planet. The EchoPlast, having developed a conscience, asks Nevin to stop Paavo from destroying humanity with the EchoPlast's power. The EchoPlast forms a suit for Nevin to help him.

Keywords

  • futuristic
  • action-adventure
  • bink video
  • polygonal 3d
  • shape-shifting

Media

Alter Echo screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Alter Echo is an action-adventure where the player controls Nevin from a third-person perspective. Battle is primarily focused on melee combat, though there is some emphasis on long-range weapons.

In battle, the player can morph Nevin's EchoPlast suit into three different forms. The primary form is the Sword form, which is merely Nevin holding a sword. The Sword form focuses on close-range combat. The second form is the Gun form, which morphs Nevin into a massive, slow-moving, gun-toting humanoid.

Story

Alter Echo tells the story of a futuristic world where psychics, known as shapers, can use a special substance called Plast to form anything from weapons to buildings. The world's greatest shaper, Paavo, has made a breakthrough on a faraway planet, creating a new, more powerful Plast called EchoPlast. The player, a young shaper named Nevin, is stranded on the planet with his two friends when Paavo shoots their ship down. The EchoPlast, having achieved sentience, gives Nevin a new EchoPlast suit and tasks him with stopping Paavo from wiping out the entire human race.

Reception

Alter Echo received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Jeff Gerstmann, writing for GameSpot, commented: "It would have been nice to have seen some more variety in the environments, and the instances of backtracking through areas you've already visited are disappointing. But the game's exciting, free-form combat makes up for those deficiencies."

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Xbox19 August 2003North America · Europe 3 October 2003
PlayStation 219 August 2003North America · Australia 25 September 2003 · Europe 3 October 2003

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Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.