Fire. Ice. And Everything nice. This… Is Eternal Strands.
When you’re given a looting, crafting, big boss playground like the one Yellow Brick Games
has given us with Eternal Strands. The world is your oyster. What you wield, Who you fight,
and how. The tools are laid out for you to take on this adventure in your own way, on your
own terms. Originally I was going to talk about the fun you can have in Eternal Strands, but
the more examples I jotted down something else came to me. I’m starting to believe Eternal
Strands is gaslighting me in to thinking I’m the hero of this story. Sure, the story is telling me
that I’m good. It’s just my actions are saying something completely different.
You see, there’s freedom in this sandbox thanks to Eternal Strands magic system. 9 skills, 3
each for Arcane, Fire, and Frost. It might not seem like much at first but when you see how
they interact with the world, and each other? A range of options appears before, you your
mind flooded with ideas. That’s where the doubt creeps in. The magic system gives you
myriad options for approaching how you want to dispense justice, and when you pin an
enemy to the ceiling with a gravity well, and fill it with fire and watch them burn?
And that’s not a one off situation. You’ll frequently be finding new and delightfully deviant
ways to approach the challenges before you. There’s a lot of joy to be found in Eternal
Strands, it can be janky and frustrating at times, but that feels like a side effect of the
systems at play. When you end up trying to give the player as much freedom as you have
here then sometimes things aren’t going to work. It can ruin the flow and cause some friction
at times. The climbing mechanic being the biggest culprit of this. Then again, when you’re
climbing all over a moving enemy, things aren’t going to always work as they should.
If you can handle knowing that there’s jank hiding in the trees waiting for you. Eternal
Strands is something you should jump on. It’s a game that lives and dies by how much
you’re willing to give it. One of those, you get out what you put in situations. Let’s break
some of this down as there’s a surprising amount going on. We’ll get to story later, for now
let’s look at the juicy stuff. The world is broken down in to zones. Each zone has several
recipes to collect. More exploration, more choice. Your armor and weapons, crafted by you.
Materials are everywhere, but certain materials can be tempered with heat or cold to get
different variations. Crafting Gear? Those materials are broken down in to 4 categories. You
choose what to build that new sword out of. Each item affects the stats and appearance
differently and with so much to gather there’s thousands of possible permutations. So the
only real question is do you build for fashion or function?
Tools in hand and looking good while doing it, the world is yours to explore. Eternal Strands
isn’t a big open world game, you’re working with smaller zones here, more focused
playgrounds you can hop between. Weather changes in them keep a rotation of enemies
and resources meaning when you’re hunting things down you’ll be jumping between them.
Surviving in this world is about being prepared and being creative. Your base weapon types
are limited, 1 hander with shield. Two hander, or ranged bow. The later variations of each
increase their move set but for the most part it’s a pretty simple combat loop with them.
Simplified combos. It feels intentional to allow them to be easier mixed in with magic
interspersed between them. I would have loved more weapon types as I’m a sucker for that
kind of thing but hey, I’ll take a big 2 handed fire sword any chance I get thank you.
And besides. Magic is the meat here. The weapons you’re wielding are just the sidearm to
assist. When you have the ability to freeze somethings feet to the floor, all you really need is
a big chopper to chop. Remember what I said at the start, this is where things became hazy
for me. See, the game told me I was doing something noble, but then I’d go and throw an
enemy off a cliff. It would get me to help a friend, followed by turning the room and enemies
in it in to a glass crater. I’m not sure how heroic it is to freeze an enemy in a solid block of
ice, and let frostbite take care of them while I fight their co-workers. A wise man once said
‘with great power comes great responsibility’. But when you trying to invent new ways to get
fire to travel long distances, it’s definitely closer to absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Enemy blocking your path? Move him. A pack of local wildlife causing you trouble. Entomb
them in ice and pick them off one by one. Or throw down some ice mines and turn the area
in to frozen battlefield. Fighting in an enclosed space? Fill it with fire. Fighting in an open
space? Fill it with fire. Fighting anywhere, against anything? Fire. The cause of, and solution
to, most problems. It’s all about getting creative.
Because creativity is key. It feels like care and consideration were put in to just how much
freedom a player should have. Rewarding experimentation and exploration, not just with the
world, but with the crafting system too. I wasn’t expecting there to be as many materials to
choose from as you’re given, and some of them are integrated in the world in a way that just
plays off everything else going on. That’s one of the strengths on show. How all these
systems, not only stand on their own, but how they interact with each other. The magic
system is a great combat tool. On top of that it’s then used for gathering. You can use your
skills to do things like temper ore, which changes the loot. That means, different quality,
stats, and appearance. It’s smart, it makes sense but that doesn’t mean you expect it. Again,
rewarding experimentation, discovery. Seeing what things work together. It’s a delightful core
pillar.
Something that’s not so delightful though, are some of the UI choices. It’s great designing all
of these systems and items. But don’t neglect the way that you choose where to go, what to
do, and how you then deal with it when you return to base. I don’t want to spend too much
time on this, but quick examples. Recipe icons are too similar to map colour. You can see
drops for a zone, but a bestiary to see what drops from what would be great for targeting
things. Comparing weapons while in menus. Being able to sort resources by quality or
quantity. Again. little friction points that detract but don’t derail what’s to be found here. You
want smoothness in how you engage with systems. Hopefully some of these get patched,
but for now, they’re annoying.
That’s the takeaway if anything from this. One of those diamonds in the rough. Systems are
always going to have some jank. Hell, in a game like this personally? I think you want a little
jank, it makes some of the interactions a little more hilarious. And let’s be honest, at the end
of the day it’s not exactly a huge problem.
Speaking of huge problems though. The elephants in the room. Great Foes, are perfectly
designed for their respected role. From walking titans to soaring drakes, it was nice to see a
mix of machine and native beast in here. Intimidating in size, varied move sets, and retaining
their enjoyment on repeated kills. Of course you always run the risk of things getting stale
and boring when needing to defeat larger enemies several times and the grind sets in. But
the magic system here helps alleviate that tedium by allowing you to mix things up every
encounter. Freezing limbs to the ground to climb up. Launching yourself on to them rather
than climbing, or heating/freezing parts to then knock them off.
There’s a Great Foe in every zone, you don’t have to fight them when you’re passing through
but I found myself seeking them out practically every time. The fights were well designed,
highlighted the best parts of the game, and there’s something incredibly rewarding about
figuring out a new way to approach them. Which in part is also thanks to the Harvesting
system. See larger enemies can be taken down in your standard way, knock parts off, collect
materials and reduce the shiny HP bar, that’s nothing new. Eternal Strands Great Foe’s also
have a second way to be slain. Destroying certain parts will open a harvesting point, which if
interacted with is a quick way to end the rest of the fight. It’s also integral to upgrading your
abilities.
Quickly touching on the story, it’s your standard fare, and does nothing out of the ordinary
worth talking about. It’s not bad, it’s just safe. The characters that accompany you on it are
solid and help it out a lot, they also keep you inundated with side quests and story beats to
round them out. It might sound like a negative but it’s not, it flows in to that player freedom
aspect. It’s a meaningful enough story, but it’s light enough that it feels like a suggestion
rather than a mandate. Oh while you’re exploring would you kindly, rather than the sky is
falling we need it now!
Eternal Strands does a masterful job of being one of those games that once you’re done with
the story the world still feels playable. Ok that’s done, back to the game sort of things. It’s got
some sharp corners and frustrations, but for every dip you find, there’s a soaring moment of
joy to counterbalance it. For a first outing Yellow Brick Games could have done a lot worse. It
feels like the biggest bounce off point here is going to be the climbing and movement system
while fighting great foes. If that’s a concern try the demo first. If you’re a fan of Immortals
Fenyx Rising, or the crafting and combat freedom of Breath of the Wild, or even very light
splashes of Monster Hunter then you should definitely take a look. Just be warned, you’ll
keep jumping off ledges and then remember there is no glider in this game, 10 hours in, I
was eating dirt because of this.
Eternal Strands costs $40 or around £35. Our playthrough took a total of 27 hours during
which time we unlocked hey look at that, 27 achievements out of a total 44. It should also be
stated that after rolling credits on the story we then went straight back to playing, rather than
writing down thoughts simply to spend more time messing around and finishing off a few
more side quests. Eternal Strands also has a free demo out and is on Game Pass to give
you even more ways to play. Freedom of choice popping up even in this section, wasn’t
expecting that one.
Eternal Strands is one of those games where you get out what you put in. You could breeze
through the story in about half the time we took but you’d be missing out on a lot of the
sauce that makes it a fun sandbox. The magic system of Eternal Strands feels designed with
fun at its heart. Truly a deviant’s playground where the only thing holding you back is your
imagination… And your conscience.
