Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Echo, io interactive, Martin Emborg, Morten Hedegren, Ultra Ultra

Ex-IO Interactive Devs Prove That They've Learned From Hitman

Ultra Ultra, a development studio containing some former Io Interactive talent, have released a new gameplay video of their stealth-action game Echo, which is coming to PlayStation 4 and PC on September 19.

Ultra Ultra is formed of eight people who worked on the Hitman series at IO Interactive. And damn does it show.

In Echo, players assume the role of En, who finds herself doing everything in her power to revive someone she lost, but ends up creating multiple versions of herself in a mysterious palace. Which is one hell of a story to be dropped straight into the midst of.

This palace is constantly watching En and studies how the player approaches situations and conflicts. Throughout the game "blackouts" will occur where the enemies reset, but they actually reset with new skills and playstyles acquired from the player before the blackout happened. This means the enemies will be constantly learning and unlearning the way that the player plays the game.

In the video, players can get a preview of these mechanics and features as the game goes through a few blackouts. It's interesting to see how the enemies change their movements and reaction to situations as the video progresses. A quick tip told in the video is that during blackouts, the palace won't be able to learn from the player, so this is the perfect time to do things that you want to keep secret.

Echo's gameplay definitely shows the team's roots by providing a well rounded stealth game with impressive visuals. There are many different gameplay features, including combat, gadgets, and item collecting discussed in the video, which is below if you haven't seen it.

Now, the thing I find most promising about this game so far is that it proves just how much the team at Ultra Ultra have leared from the successes and failures of Hitman. Whether you like Hitman or not, that series did an impeccible job at giving us a more sophisticated stealth system, especially in the later games. You could not tank your way through it like in Assassin's Creed. You had to actually work around the game's rules. And it looks like Echo is taking that one step fuether with a sophisticated AI and, I've got to say, I'm excited to play it.

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