Echoes of the End

Goddess of War

Proudly based in the center of Reykjavik, Iceland’s creative and technological hub, is Myrkur Games. While Myrkur is the Icelandic word for Darkness, their future is anything but. Echoes of the End is the studio’s debut game, an action-adventure epic inspired by the gorgeous, untamed beauty of Iceland’s Sólheimajökull Glaciers, its stunning mountains, and its volcanic areas, each showcasing the diverse and dramatic nature of Iceland. While its gameplay is certainly inspired by numerous AAA titles throughout the years, such as the 2018’s God of War reboot as well as its sequel, it does what many similar action-adventure games have failed to do in the past: craft an actually compelling story around its gameplay. 

Throughout my time here, which was largely around 10 hours or so, I thought of other games from numerous studios that have released since 2018’s God of War. Flintlock: Siege of Dawn, Blades of Fire, and Banisher’s: Ghost of New Eden, just to name a few. Each of these games was looking to play in a similar sandbox. However, some of these titles failed in some aspect of being the total package. While Echoes of the End has the disadvantage of being produced by a very tiny team of just 40 people, it lacks that level of polish that Banishers and Flintlock maintained, due to having much larger teams crafting those experiences. However, that said, Flintlock was made by a team of over 60 people, whereas Dontnod’s Banishers had the reach of nearly 300 developers at Don’tnod. 

Regardless, Myrkur has released a truly wonderful game using Unreal Engine 5, allowing Iceland’s gorgeous setting to flourish in extremely high-end detail. Yes, Echoes of the End does have that lack of polish that can appear to be janky due to some animations, awkward shifts of the character to support those animations, and countless areas where I got stuck, or my AI companion wouldn’t proceed where they needed to go. Echoes of the End has a lot of work to get it into a near-perfect state, but ultimately, I only had one issue that I had to restart the game to see work. All in all, I still walked away vastly impressed, right to the credits, eager for a potential sequel.

Echoes of the End’s strength lies with its small but well-explored cast and the writing between its two lead characters, Ryn, and Abram. The dynamic of the two is the backbone of its story as they learn to trust one another, as the fate of the world depends on it. Other characters like Cor, who is Ryn’s brother, is fine with the material given, as well as the antagonists in Aurick and Zara, making for great villains, especially the over-the-top Zara, who steals every scene she is in. While the facial capture doesn’t quite have the proper lip sync we see in much bigger budget titles, each member of the cast has the emotional range present to really make you invested, especially as each actor does what they can to bring out the best in the script. 

Ryn is a Vestige, an individual who can naturally use magic. They are rare, often shunned by those around them, often out of jealousy, but she’s also a woman who hasn’t had the benefit of an easy life. She’s spent her life training to use her gifts, to control them, as her teacher, her father, has recently passed away. As she travels with her brother, Cor, they discover an army on their doorstep, complete with a Vestige of their own; Zara. Along with Aurick, they are set on destroying the magical wards that hold the land together. As Cor is taken hostage, Ryn will meet Abram, a scholar who is investigating the wards themselves. The two must form an alliance to stop Aurick and Zara from completing their mission, all while discovering the ancient history of the wards and the people who came before. 

While Echoes of the End doesn’t feature the one-camera-shot of God of War, it nearly does. This allows the story to feel like one constant, never-stopping adventure. Ryn and Abram are always moving, almost progressing forward. They’ll rest as they overlook a vista, talking about past experiences, with a dialogue mechanic that allows you to choose your replies. The two get to know one another, and it is this dynamic that sells the overall experience. There is a lot to Abram that he hides from Ryn, reveals that are sound in their execution, and while I saw the major one coming a mile away, it was nonetheless well written and executed. Regardless, the banter between the two, the organic growth of their relationship made all the bumps along the road feel genuine and meaningful. 

What helps this relationship is that Abram knew her father, yet while Ryn was largely close to him, they both had a different connection to the same man. Abram exchanged letters with him, wondering about the wards and the world around them. Ryn was her father’s daughter, but also his student, his charge, as she was gifted, or cursed, with these gifts. The exchanges between the two are rooted in the connection to her father, and while Abram has his own baggage with his estranged daughter, there are parallels here between the two that help flesh each of these characters out and make them feel relatable. 

While Cor uses a Force Brace to apply his fire-spewing abilities, something that allows everyday people to wield magic, it is just a precursor to how you'll engage with Abram. Echoes of the End is a game that is as much about combat as it is about its puzzles. Each new location you explore may introduce new enemies, but it also introduces new mechanics and abilities to Ryn that allow her to solve new puzzles in drastically different ways. Abram’s contribution to this is his ability to place items or enemies into stasis, such as holding a platform still until Ryn can benefit from it. Eventually, you'll combine that with Ryn’s double jump, glide, her ability to float Ironsand orbs around, or sling-shotting around to a variety of connection points with a fancy new dagger. There are tons of mechanics, abilities, and more that help keep puzzles, traversal, and even combat consistently fresh.

Ryn also benefits from a skill tree to influence different segments of her combat skills and her connection to Abram’s stasis skills. These impact your sword skills, your use of magic, and how you interact with Abram during combat. While you'll find new abilities to defeat your enemies, from spinning or striking attacks, most of these skills don't aid with how delayed combat can be sometimes. It’s certainly serviceable, but it is a noticeable flaw that can’t be ignored.

Combat has your traditional light or heavy attacks, but most of your combo strings can feel about a half-second delayed, meaning you really have to commit to the combo before you likely would normally. Because of this, I often didn't perform the 4-5 button combination attacks. Also, you also have the ability to force push or pull enemies and objects, but if you don't perform it correctly, you'll end up spinning the camera around instead. 

Now, while this may sound like I'm tearing the game apart, it's not really my intention to do so, as I've said before that I really enjoyed Echoes of the End, like a whole lot. More often than not, combat excels, but its lows are where you’ll often get frustrated. This is mainly due to the delay, causing you to take hits when you feel you shouldn’t be. 

I enjoyed the moments of having Abram freeze enemies as I would slash at them between combo attacks or using that time to use a much-needed heal. I would often have him freeze them, then move to position myself where I could force push them off a cliff or into another enemy. You’ll also start to unlock attacks that include a devastating slam that causes massive AOE damage, to flying at enemies via your dagger to close the distance. 

While the enemy variety slowly increases to shake up combat, I do wish more enemies had been introduced faster. That said, I do like the explanations of why and how certain enemies show up, especially in places where they shouldn't be. It's a smart choice I don't see too often, if at all. In fact, there are some moments where the characters explain certain aspects of the lore and how things make sense, or that their discoveries aren’t quite what they heard. I also loved the moments that Abram would talk about the lore he would make up to his daughter, coming up with these explanations that felt fun to experience. I also enjoyed a moment late in the game where those stories are revisited in a really cool way.

The puzzles are often simple, yet a few will certainly stump you. I found a few that I could sequence break, or a few I was stuck on until I looked at them from a different perspective. Often, you are freezing a platform to move up to a spot, to then moving a platform to affect something else. You often find these nodes where you'll shift things along, almost as if you are altering time. Other areas have you applying a crystal to a podium that does the same thing, often having you manipulate the area to remove the crystal and apply it to another podium. 

Later on, you’ll use Abram to unlock viewpoints through time to affect the present. Ironsand, the floating glob orbs you'll find about halfway through the journey, can be attached to a particular part of a wall to create a platform. Eventually, Abram can assist in removing them to further enhance the complexity of the puzzle. Most of these puzzles can come across as pretty straightforward, but the odd one is a work of genius. Each location you visit will introduce new puzzles and lean into them heavily, preventing those from earlier to creep up and repeat much of what came before. 

Unreal Engine 5 can produce some gorgeous locales, and for the locations that take place outdoors, using photogrammetry scans, the Icelandic locales are stunning. Indoor environments look fine, but don't shine as much. Most games that use Unreal Engine 5 often fall victim of providing gorgeous locations, but lack in the detail and realism of their people. While Echoes of the End’s cast look fine, they don't animate or look as good as I feel Unreal Engine 5 is capable of. Granted, this is a result of a much smaller team, with a far more limited budget, but there are times when the expressive nature of its cast and the subtle details of expressing emotion are extremely well done. This is very apparent when Abram asks Ryn if she is ready for the final battle, seeing the struggle of what Ryn has to do, and if she is capable of it; it's all there in her face. So while the overall expressions are typical for what a small team can do, it does have some decent moments that excel.

Echoes of the End was an extremely fun game that, while flawed in several ways, reminded me of why I love third-person adventure games. It joins the ranks of some of my favorite in the genre with some smart choices around its cast and the ways it attempts to keep combat and exploration fresh. Myrkur Games has a great concept here that does require some fine-tuning, but ultimately, I was very impressed by what was accomplished here. 

Developer - Myrkur Games. . Publisher - Deep Silver, Plaion, Prime Matter. Released - August 12th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Steam. Rated - (M) Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S, PS5. Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.