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Eternal Strands Review

Eternal Strands Review

Eternal Strands is a third-person action-adventure developed by Yellow Brick Games. You play as Brynn, a Weaver who is part of a caravan, which has managed to make it into the Enclave: the abandoned lands of the original Weavers. With dangerous animals, killer constructs, and rampant killer magic (called tangles) all over the place, it’s up to Brynn and her allies to discover the secrets of the Enclave and potentially save their world from further disasters. So let’s see if this world of swords and sorcery can stand on its own… or fall apart at its seams.

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Let’s talk about the story and writing first, I was seriously surprised. I liked the story for what it is: a nice adventure through abandoned lands and untamed wilds. There’s a ton of dialogue, lore, and world-building all throughout the game, which makes the world feel alive and lived-in, even though the only NPCs you’ll run into are your allies and whatever wants to kill you today. All dialogue is voice-acted too, and they really do a good job of playing their characters. There isn’t a single weak performance here and I came to like each and every member of my merry crew. The only somewhat lacking thing I could find was that animated cutscenes are limited and that most dialogue is told through these visual novel-style talks. Make sure to turn on Auto-Play to save button presses for dialogue options… which don’t matter, but are more like exploring different aspects of Brynn’s character. Also, there is a surprising frequency of the use of “kickass”. Did not expect this from a fantasy game.

As for the world itself, it can be visually stunning with some great environments to explore and poke around in. I often found myself forgetting what I was doing and just started exploring, which I thoroughly recommend because you can find some really cool stuff. The various maps, ranging from peaceful forests to ruins of a once thriving capital, are very well-crafted and they aren’t too static. The lands can be affected by various weather conditions like sudden deep freezes, droughts, and rampant tangles. These can be seriously annoying to deal with without the right equipment, but they do make for some great vistas.

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But enough about that, let’s talk combat. If you like Dark Souls with a little bit of Breath of the Wild’s combat, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory. You have access to a sword and shield, a bow, and a greatsword, with stamina used to attack and dodge. All of the weapons feel very different from one another and have their uses in various situations, for example, the sword and shield can block and parry attacks while the greatsword pierces defence. They also happen to be great tools for solving environmental puzzles and cutting down trees and rocks. Some of these also come with magic attacks that can seriously change how you use them, such as the Kinetic Two-hander being able to launch enemies into the air Devil May Cry-style.

You also have magic that, through the use of magically woven mantles, you’ll be able to conjure the elements and use the world around you as your weapon or support your expeditions. Summon minions, create walls of ice, spew flames, and create gravity wells. There are plenty of options to choose from, and they can work together if you get a little creative. Use Ice Wall to create a shield against fire breath, then break part of it off with Weaver's Grasp and throw it at their head. Or just grab the enemy and throw them at the nearest wall/floor/other enemy/bottomless pit. It is a surprisingly effective strategy against the common enemy. You'll learn new spells and upgrade them throughout the game, with all of them obtained through especially powerful creatures.

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These boss fights can be pretty intense. While dealing with normal mobs won’t give you too much trouble, bosses can be a whole other thing entirely. Most of these larger foes have weak points you need to hit, so you either need to shoot it with your bow from a distance or climb onto the enemy and whack them with your sword, a la Dragon’s Dogma. And don’t think there will be a set area for the boss to stay in. The entire map is open to be fought in and running away will only make it chase you. It was amazing to battle across the whole map, needing to adapt to the environment and think about what my next move would be and how to survive. Words cannot express the types of battles I’ve fought.

But, as you explore more areas, the enemies will get tougher and tougher, and the bosses can two-shot you if you aren’t careful, so you definitely need to get stronger. You don’t level up, but you get better stats based on the weapons and armour you craft using whatever materials you find or harvest. And I do mean ANY material. Crafting is quite loose, only needing a recipe and the amount of material types indicated in said recipe. The materials used affect its stats and its looks, so you can be as fashionable or as functional as you want. And don’t worry about needing to craft new equipment every time you want to change something, your weapons and armour can be reforged with different materials to make them better and change their properties. If you want something different, you craft. But if you want to improve what you've already got, you reforge and upgrade. It's actually quite a good system which makes all the materials you find useful and there is a tangible difference between what’s used. The heavier the equipment, the less stamina you have, for example. I would recommend having dedicated equipment for different scenarios.

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But all that looting and hunting will create a lot of junk you don’t really need or want, but that’s where upgrading your camp comes in. It requires supplies, which are obtained by exchanging any excess materials you have, but by doing so, you can improve and access better things to make your outings a little easier, such as more inventory space, more healing potions, and better magic. I'm a little bothered by how small your inventory is, though. There are so many types of materials, but not enough slots to put them all. Still, it makes what you bring back with you all the more important, especially if you die or fall off a cliff. You’ll lose all but a few of your items, but at least you can choose what you lose.

Now, onto technical performance. Rocking an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core Processor and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GPU, my game ran quite smoothly for the most part on my PC, with only a few spikes in lag here or there and the occasional framerate issue. There was some pop-in when loading up the game and I suffered a crash, but overall, I consider it sound. And while the physics are on point, they have led to me suddenly flying high into the air, although that does come with the territory of having this system. I only have one real gripe though, and it’s that I would like a temperature meter of some sort to help figure out how much cold or heat resistance I should have to deal with the weather and elemental attacks. I want to balance protection and resistance, but it’s difficult to gauge how much I need.

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Eternal Strands is excellent, with a great story that enthralls you with the world and lets you do some amazing things, battling bosses across the land while using whatever I had access to for my benefit. It can be a little annoying if you want to find everything and hunt down materials you want, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just a fun time.

9.00/10 9

Eternal Strands (Reviewed on Windows)

Excellent. Look out for this one.

Eternal Strands is an amazing adventure that excels in combat and exploration. Finding unique sights, battling fearsome bosses, and crafting incredible gear makes it extremely fun to play. Highly recommended.

This game was supplied by the publisher or relevant PR company for the purposes of review
Dylan Pamintuan

Dylan Pamintuan

Staff Writer

An Australian-born guy whose trying to show everyone why games are awesome.

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