The Eternal Cylinder review: the independent steamroller

Announced in 2019, The Eternal Cylinder, the 8th game of the Chileans of ACE Team, almost immediately caught the attention of a fringe of fans of independent games. The universe depicted in his trailers and the original proposal he presented to us (a survival game with small creatures constantly chased by a giant cylinder) was enough to raise some surprised and intrigued eyebrows. The game was finally released on September 30 and it's no exaggeration to say that it's a new nugget offered by the indie video game world, mainly thanks to its incredibly original artistic direction, but also for what it offers. in terms of gameplay.

The Eternal Cylinder review: the independent steamroller See PriceRead ConclusionThe Eternal Cylinder

Creature design
The possibilities offered by mutations
A gripping story
One of the most original games of the year

The sometimes approximate gameplay
too many enemies
Little challenge offered by the puzzles

The Eternal Cylinder was tested on a PC version via code provided by the publisher. The Eternal Cylinder was released on September 30, 2021 on the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One.

Period: unknown. Planet: unknown. All we know when launching The Eternal Cylinder is a narrator with a restful voice, who accompanies us throughout, who explains it to us. A tribe of small, primitive creatures called Trebhums struggle to survive in the unforgiving nature of their home. Once evolved, the species quickly fell back to helpless prey when the Eternal Cylinder and his minions invaded their planet, destroying absolutely everything in their path. It's up to us, players, to try to make the species survive by recovering their almost forgotten knowledge and trying to unlock the secrets of the cylinder to fight it in its inexorable advance.

Bizarre as strange

We're not going to cut corners, the strength of The Eternal Cylinder is largely based on its visual proposal and the work done on the different artistic designs of the game's elements. The title of ACE Team is completely out of place in the current video game landscape and it does crazy good. The radical choices made by the development team are not their first. We are used to seeing ACE Team in this kind of maneuver consisting in offering us very impactful artistic choices, especially on their Zeno Clash or Rock of Ages series. It is even more interesting to know why these small Chilean developers arrive at such results.

As we have just said, the team, led by brothers Andres, Carlos and Edmundo Bordeu, is Chilean. Since the beginnings of the studio in 2002, the situation completely eccentric compared to the "center of the world video game" of the developers led them to exceed themselves and to propose things never seen before, so that they are noticed (players like publishers) beyond their borders. A bet and above all a winning fight that has become part of the studio's DNA over time. In this we can say that The Eternal Cylinder is totally in line with their spirit, and is a perfected project - thanks to the support of the publisher Good Shepherd in particular - bringing together years of artistic development. This is why we can find in the design of the creatures, the world or in the gameplay of Eternal Cylinder some similarities with what was done on their previous projects.

Every moment of the 12 hours needed to complete the game was a slap in the face of originality. The procedurally generated world, separated into different biomes, is full of details as wacky as each other. The fauna is ultra-diversified and offers sometimes gigantic flowers pointing towards the clouds, sometimes trees encrusted with fluorescent balls, or even silver-blue willows which tickle small spiked flowers with their branches. But really, where Eternal Cylinder stands out is in its character design. Throughout the adventure and the biomes traveled, we come across a large number of critters and other monsters with often surprising tunes. Special mention to the Mathematician (the most important enemy of the game) and his henchmen who combine an aspect that we will call without hesitation "humanoid-automotive" which greatly contributes to the stress generated when our group of Trebhums falls on them.

A stress due to the fact that we are very regularly harassed by all these enemies who do not hesitate to chase us over great distances if they spot us, accompanied by high quality musical themes (like all the music in the game). elsewhere, composed by Patricio Meneses, the studio's in-house composer) specific to each enemy. But this harassment sometimes quickly becomes very heavy and can prevent us for long minutes from exploring the areas since we are too busy fleeing to keep our entire group of creatures and our mutations, which can easily disappear if we don't. pay attention, forcing us to look for others.

In an organized gang

But once quiet, why search the small open areas? We still haven't said it, but what should we do in the game? It's not easy to explain, but in fact, in game, everything fits together well and it's easy to understand everything. It is possible to embody any Trebhum of our group whenever you wish. It is then necessary to look in the world for what to eat, what to drink (survival game obliges, we do not escape the famous gauges of hunger, endurance and water) and, above all, what to mutate!

JVFR

The small areas to explore freely immerse us in a fascinating universe

By sucking up specific resources with their trunk, be it fauna or flora, the Trebhums, a little like a SPORE, can mutate and thus gain abilities that will be vital to survival during the game. Most mutations directly impact gameplay while others are more passive, but no less important. For example, it is possible to be able to jump higher, to inflate yourself with gas to float, to spit a cloud of smoke, to be more discreet, to sound your trunk, to filter toxic vapors or to protect yourself from the cold, etc Many mutations are available, which can be combined on our Trebhums to create unique little creatures first physically (each mutation changes the appearance) but also by their abilities.

All the progress of the game revolves around these mutations and it is not surprising to find temples that will force us to make the most of our mutations to solve their puzzles (frankly not complicated), or bosses that will require good use capacities to survive them. Part of the Eternal Cylinder's story itself revolves around mutations since the Trebhums' absorptive ability is what makes them so important, despite their small size, to combat the Cylinder.

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Each mutation changes the appearance of Trebhums

We therefore have fun throughout the game to survey the open areas in search of the famous mutations and to try them on our creatures to find interesting and strategic combinations. Because yes, the game of ACE Team has a very strategic dimension with the management of our group of little beings. Each Trebhum, unless otherwise mutated, has three slots for storing different resources. That's not much, which is why it's important to have the largest possible group to, in quotes, have a bigger inventory. But having several Trebhums also allows you to have more possibilities of mutations and to specialize your creatures.

For example, it is a good idea to have a Trebhum in your troop who can automatically convert all the minerals he sucks up into experience points, to be spent on improving his general abilities, recruiting new creatures or bringing back missing companions to the life ; and another that turns flora into water. A Trebhum may be specialized in combat (to be avoided anyway) by being able to create and throw small bombs and camouflage it, while another will have all the capabilities to swim without losing its stamina bar in 10 seconds, saving him from drowning.

JVFR

The tree of mutations allows, with specific resources, to permanently unlock abilities

In short, it's up to everyone to do as they see fit, the game does not offer a "good" or "bad" combination. You just have to pay attention to the mutation that you will activate if you already have it, because a mutation that affects the legs of the creatures will replace the mutation already in place there.

Roll, Jump, Explore, Repeat

What Eternal Cylinder offers in terms of gameplay and mechanics is extremely pleasant even if everything regularly tends towards "too much" without ever exceeding the limit. Throughout the adventure we are introduced to new possibilities, whether during a boss fight, a puzzle dungeon or during a storyline event. If it is possible to feel at the beginning an overflow of information, the game still gives us time to get used to it and we realize, after a while, that each brick fits together well overall .

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Temples are kind of dungeons with not very complicated puzzles

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Meeting elders at the end of the temples allows you to have a new objective

For example, we could be afraid of the repetitiveness of the game when we finish the first part and we could see the gameplay loop set up. Basically: we live a phase where the cylinder pursues us and we have to go to a tower in front of us to activate it and stop the race of the entity. Once the cylinder stops we explore the procedurally generated area which almost always contains at least one point of interest, be it a shrine that houses an elder - old Trebhums who are waiting to pass on their knowledge and tell us what then look for, last words before their inevitable death by the cylinder -, a temple where it is possible to improve its gauges, a point of storage and recovery of Trebhums or a story mission.

Then, we cross the force field that was protecting us and the cylinder resumes its course, forcing us to get to the next tower as quickly as possible, paying attention to our Breath of the Wild endurance gauge which is quickly emptying. when you roll the creatures to go faster, and so on, with a few variations however (the cylinder which in fact does not stop at the tower, an appearance of the Mathematician which will put a spoke in your wheels... .).

JVFR

Escaping the cylinder is more stressful than complicated

But the constant discovery of environments, the search for mutations and vital resources as well as the desire to better understand the history of the game (quite cryptic and open to interpretations) motivate us each time to start the gameplay loop again with pleasure, all accompanied by a very pleasant fluidity. We regret, however, the few approximations of the gameplay during the platforming phases or in the narrow underground caves which come to undermine the gameplay cut for the large areas outside the game. Nothing too bad, but it leads to some frustrating failures, which are even more so when playing against the clock (for example in a room filled with icy water which both quickly lowers the endurance of the Trebhums but also their life bar).

The level design, although generally successful, also sometimes suffers from weak moments that make us scratch our heads on several occasions to know where to go to recover hidden rewards that will be useful to us. Again, when playing against the clock, it can get annoying. Fortunately, the very permissive save system leaves a big margin for error.

JVFR

To beat the level design, we must use the right mutations available to us

The Eternal Cylinder, l'avis de JVFR

Constantly bordering on “too much”: too long, too many elements, too many enemies; However, The Eternal Cylinder never crosses it and therefore offers us an experience as original as it is pleasant. Obviously, and you will have understood it, the artistic direction has a lot to do with it, but the more global proposal of the ACE Team game is of such quality that you come out of it with a real impression of having been transported.

The Chilean developers offer us a unique journey into THEIR universe. And this universe will not please everyone unfortunately. By offering us radical design and gameplay choices, the studio is playing a game of heads or tails. Heads, you love the face of the game, heads, everything worries you. But whether we like the proposal or not, it is still difficult to say that it is not unique and that it does not bring a breath of fresh air and originality to a world of ultra-competitive video games. and clogged. If you want to travel and take a slap in the face of weirdness, then give it a shot and you won't regret it.

The Eternal Cylinder

The Eternal Cylinder surprises with a design that is as original as it is eccentric but will leave some on the sidelines despite a proposal for gameplay and mechanics, brought about by the mutations, as complete as it is mastered. A new pearl to explore.