Echo of the Wilds is a survival game, but not in the Minecraft sense

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Survival doesn't have to involve procedural generation, crafty mines or zig-zagging zombies - too few games concern themselves with the spiritual/philosophical/Call of the Wild side of living out in the wilderness, subsisting on berries and avoiding bears. Echo of the Wilds is one game that does. It's an adventure/survival game featuring a beautifully crisp art style, exploration and gathering and crafting out the wazoo, and a metaphysical story involving an incongruous TV screen and a semi-translucent girl. It's not another Minecraft clone is what I'm saying. Echo of the Wilds is out now, has a demo up for grabs, and can be witnessed in video form below.

Here's the synopsis, in case you're wondering why you're lost in the forest without a shirt on (the answer, this time at least, isn't 'peyote'). "Finding yourself in mysterious forests you must unfurl a spiritual tale of solace before the unending winter consumes all. There a spirit guide will help you learn the skills of survival and the secrets of the wilds: why you awakened there, their purpose, and how to finally be free from its clutches and malevolent apparitions."

As for your involvement, well that boils down to exploring the game's 22 areas, gathering items to build gear or to fend off starvation, all while "learning new skills and the intertwining interactions between the various areas, seasons, and weather". There's an Endless mode too that stripes the narrative from the game to focus purely on "surviving through the ever fiercer ages".

Echo of the Wilds can currently be had for $6.99 at IndieGameStand , or for $2 cheaper at Gumroad or itch.io for some reason. (The regular price everywhere will be $9.99, when the sale ends.) The game is also on Steam Greenlight , where it hasn't been liked enough yet to secure a Steam release.

Here's that demo link again. (Thanks, RPS .)

Tom Sykes
Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.