Galactic Echoes Preview

Bring on the puzzles!

Galactic Echoes is a scfi-puzzle game that brings an epic story to life. I’m a big fan of science fiction and I love this combination! Developed by Ikoniac, Galactic Echoes is mobile game that keeps you entertained two ways, reading and puzzles. If you are a fan of mobile games, I highly recommend checking out Galactic Echoes once it is released in the USA.

So, what is Galactic Echoes?

Galactic Echoes is a science fiction story driven puzzle game based in the year 2180. Humans have colonized other planets and have built outposts on the moons around Jupiter and Saturn. How do you fit in this? You are a cryptoanalyst (you solve puzzles for a living!) and are on a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. Everything else that you learn about the story line is discovered through solving puzzles through the game, and I don’t want to spoil it.  I will say that it’s a very engrossing story line that I’ve really enjoyed so far!

 Electronic Awesome

Now I have to point this out because it would be a crime not to…the music is amazing!  The soundtrack for Galactic Echoes is as epic, if not more so, than the story line. The smooth electronic music fits the game perfectly and isn’t at all like other soundtracks of mobile games (Galactic Echos will be available on major PC and mobile platforms). I tend to mute any mobile games I play because the music is always so…stupid. I don’t want to hear it and it doesn’t add to game play. However, Galactic Echoes is the exception. I’ll specifically find my headphones and enjoy the music. Sometimes, I’ll find myself so distracted by the music that I haven’t actually played the game!  If you’re a fan of smooth trance or ambient electronic music, you’ll love the soundtrack as much as I do.

Simple and Fun

Galactic Echos isn’t a game that requires you to spend hours playing to “get better”. I like to think of it as an interactive book. I really love the story and  having the reader play as a cryptoanalyst makes it even more interesting. The story also keeps getting better as you get better solving puzzles.

Currently Galactic Echoes is available in Newfoundland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Pakistan and the Philippines. It is currently in beta testing for the States, and I played on the Windows version and the iOS version.  Both worked almost perfectly, although there are a few bugs to work out still.  

Puzzles Everywhere!

Now, I’ve played many puzzle games in my day, and I have to say the style of puzzles in Galactic Echoes is completely unique. You move balls of light to designated spots, but it isn’t as simple as it sounds, because your goal is to be as efficient as possible. So, yea, you could solve it in a way that takes 33 moves, but you can also solve it using 8 moves. The efficiency of how you solve the puzzles is locked into the story line progression, which I thought was a genius move. I’ve replayed a few puzzles to unlock additional story line because I want to know what I’m missing!

So, I have to work while reading?

Galactic Echos is a story driven puzzle game, where you have to work hard for your lore.  The developers realised that some people just won’t want to solve all these puzzles as efficiently as possible (or want to reward you for doing so, take your pick!) and so the amount of story you receive is based on your performance.  A big chunk of the main story line is available to read by simply completing a puzzle, and you don’t have to be Einstein to solve them. However, some extra bits, ranging from one sentence to a paragraph  of story line can be unlocked based on how efficiently you solved the puzzle.  I’ve found the extra bits to really add to the game play. I can easily get into character because I want to know more and thus, try to solve puzzles in as few moves as possible to earn the maximum amount of story line goodness!