Eternal strands Ten Minute Taster "Who's Pulling The Strings?" 🧵 @YellowBrick_Qc #IndieGame #GameDev #EternalStrands

Rich plays Eternal Strands which is an action-adventure game developed and published by Yellow Brick Games. The game released on January 28, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Britt reviewed it here 👇7.5/10

👉 https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2025/01/eternal-strands-xbox-series-x-review.html

In the game, players control Brynn, a warrior on a quest to uncover the secrets of a long-lost civilization known as the Enclave. Brynn has the ability to manipulate elements and temperature using a magical cloak, which can be used to freeze or burn enemies, as well as alter the game's environment. The game features a third-person perspective and includes telekinetic powers that allow Brynn to perform feats such as hurling objects at enemies and constructing bridges using ice. Players will encounter nine distinct bosses throughout the game, each requiring unique strategies to defeat. Upon defeating a boss, players are rewarded with new magical abilities that can be used for exploration or combat. The game draws inspiration from titles like Shadow of the Colossus, Dragon's Dogma, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The development team aimed to create a game that makes players feel like a "fantasy superhero" with its physics-based combat system.

Eternal Strands Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "Eternal Strands That Don’t Quite Weave Wonder" 🧶🧵 @YellowBrick_Qc #IndieGame #GameDev

A cel-shaded open world adventure that features deep lore abounds in this release from Yellow Brick Games (comprised of a team featuring several ex-Ubisoft developers), Eternal Strands excels in performance and world-building; but lacklustre, weightless combat and certain design elements gives this the faint air of a game that started in a more MMORPG style that pivoted to a single player experience.

Eternal Strands casts the player as Brynn, a mercenary accompanying a group of travellers trying to find out the secrets of a long-lost civilisation. Your camp with the travellers acts as a hub, whilst Loomgates scattered around the land allow you to teleport to different areas of the world, each with their own biome, items, and enemies. The opening anime-style cinematic is impressive and engaging, although it hints at a slightly goofy humour that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the mostly po-faced game, where dialogue with the fully-voiced cast of characters is rich, but mostly eventless and dry. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of lore and world-building to discover and learn, more that doing so isn’t a particularly engaging aspect of the game.