Salvation: Echoes of War

If you're looking for a beautifully atmospheric story that actually stays with you, Salvation: Echoes of War is your game. The game has great variety and styles of play with focus on stealth mechanics and puzzle solving. Visuals are wonderful with large environments and it's clear the devs have put a lot of effort and attention into the game. What is refreshing is that it skips mindless shooting in favor of tense, non-aggressive stealth and environmental puzzles.

Although I didn't have much faith in Salvation: Echoes of War after the AI-generated cutscenes, I was ultimately pleasantly surprised; in fact, the story's message and the game's oppressive atmosphere will likely stay with me forever.

The visuals and atmosphere were probably my favorite parts of the game. Some environments look genuinely beautiful, and combined with the music and overall mood, there are moments where I just stopped for a second to look around. The puzzles are mostly simple, but I actually liked that they often feel connected to the story or the environment instead of just being random obstacles. They’re not really there to challenge you as much as to tell you something. I also really liked the dog companion. It’s actually useful and surprisingly reliable. At one point I was dealing with two enemies and the dog basically got me out of the whole situation, which was a pretty cool unscripted moment. The cutscenes are interesting too. They look like they were made with AI, but what surprised me is that the characters, locations and things you see in them are also actually present in the game. I’m not exactly sure how they made the two work together, but for me it worked and gave the game a pretty distinctive look. I recommend it if you want to play indie games with a look and music like an AA game!

I played the game, and based on the number of developers, I can say they did a great job! It may not be perfect, but they delivered a good experience, especially the atmosphere and locations.

It's a different type of game showing a symbolic world of a soldier with war traumas. I actually liked it because the devs tried to make something different while still make a good game out of it! The game is built around narration, atmosphere and mechanics like puzzles and occasional stealth sequences. It's not a typical shooter or action game with many clones around the corner. The environment art and graphics are very good. The atmosphere is well designed with narration. Controls are also good however you need to play it with controller. The game also runs pretty smooth on a budget hardware. It's an indie game so some parts like animations look clunky.

Salvation: Echoes of War will be a polarizing title due its heavy usage of AI: AI voice acting, AI music, AI cutscenes, AI image stills, etc. Quite a bold (and dare i say, ambitious?) choice to rely so heavily on AI for one's first release, particularly at a time when anti-AI sentiment is so strong. That said, I don't inherently mind the use of AI in games as long as it is done well. Was it done well here? **Mostly yes, and sometimes no.** The voice acting ranges from good to passable, the soundtrack is great, and the score ranges from mediocre to excellent. The cutscenes and flashbacks are generally well executed, although some still retain that unmistakable AI aesthetic one often sees with low-end image generators and/or unrefined prompts. At times, the artificiality is difficult to ignore. As for the actual gameplay, it is perfectly serviceable, albeit occasionally tedious. The inability to change keybindings is particularly frustrating, as one is forced to use the traditional inverted flight controls during the game's flight sequences. Both the combat and flight mechanics are rather simplistic, underdeveloped, and ultimately underwhelming - it was folly to begin the game with one of the weaker flying segments rather than one of the stronger first-person segments (I almost refunded the game before i realized how good the first-person portions were going to be). The sound effects and orchestral score during these sections also become hyper-repetitive. Where the game truly shines, however, is in its environments and cinematic presentation. The maps are surprisingly detailed, well executed, authentic to their respective era, and often beautiful. I particularly enjoyed the way cutscenes are occasionally overlaid onto the FPS sections, effectively demonstrating that the protagonist is experiencing flashbacks while one is actively playing. It is a wonderfully cinematic touch. The memory-visitation sequences are even more impressive. They pair beautifully with the music, and specific flashbacks can trigger—or fail to trigger—depending on what one chooses to look at. At times, it feels like being dropped into a transformative 1990s surreal music video; at others, one feels as though the game has suddenly become a Tarem Singh film. I can't say I've ever experienced anything quite like it, and that's bloody awesome. I also appreciated the deep ingrained Zdzislaw Beksinski and Thomas Ligotti vibes represented throughout the aesthetic and narrative, respectively. The overall ideas and execution are spectacular, and it is immediately apparent that the developer has an incredible talent for cinematography and editing. I can understand why AI was employed as a means of realizing such an ambitious vision; recreating this breadth of cinematic material "the old-fashioned way" would have been exponentially more expensive and time-consuming. On a more personal level, I also appreciated the game's heavy reliance on symbolism and metaphor to convey the horrors of—and consequences surrounding—war. Having experienced the loss of a brother to war and politics—not through his physical death, but through the experience of watching the person who returned become unrecognizable and irreconcilable—I found those themes particularly resonant. Whatever one's feelings about AI in game development, there is clearly an extraordinary amount of creative vision here. The execution isn't always successful, but when it works, it produces something genuinely unusual, deeply atmospheric, and unlike much else I've encountered.

A rough but promising attempt in this game which is worth supporting. Salvation: Echoes of War is a game I have very mixed feelings about. The storytelling itself is good, and there are definitely moments where the game manages to pull you in and make you want to see what happens next. However, the execution could use quite a bit more polish. Visually, the game looks great. The graphics are one of its strongest aspects, but unfortunately, the video customization options are very limited as i was locked out in 60 fps and the awful motion blur which i do not like in my games. I also wasn't able to properly change some of the settings in-game, which was frustrating. The biggest issue for me was the number of bugs. Some levels were seriously broken, with elements not working as intended. During my roughly 2.5 hour playthrough, I had to restart checkpoint and some chapters around 15–20 times just to get certain broken sections or elements to work. That can become very frustrating and also breaks the flow of the experience. The use of AI is interesting. In some places, it works surprisingly well and adds to the experience. In others, though, it feels extremely cringy and poorly executed. Unfortunately, those moments can completely disrupt the storytelling and take you out of the experience. The soundtrack is another mixed bag. Some tracks are genuinely good, while others are so poorly fitting that they become almost laughable. For some reason, many of the songs seem to follow the same rhythm, which makes the overall soundtrack feel repetitive. Movement also feels quite stiff, and the sense of direction can be confusing at times. There were moments when I wasn't sure where the game wanted me to go, which added to the frustration. As for the chapters themselves, some were genuinely good and kept me interested, while others felt pretty meh. The game is definitely inconsistent in that regard. So, after finishing it, I'm honestly mixed on whether this deserves a positive or negative review. But I'm choosing to leave a positive review because this is clearly a very good attempt from a small team, and there is a worthwhile story here that I think more players should get a chance to experience. A kind note to the devs - please fix the bugs. Some of them are genuinely frustrating and can make the game difficult to enjoy. If you can also improve or update the in-game video/cutscene elements, that could make a huge difference to the overall presentation. Despite all the issues, I can see the potential here. I hope the developers continue learning from player feedback and bring us more good stories in the future with that feedback properly integrated into their next games. Wishing the team all the best in their future endeavors. If you see the developers actively learning, improving, and listening to feedback, I encourage you to support them and give this game a chance. From me its a Recommended!!! Try it!!!

I wished some cut-scenes that had been done with AI were being done in the engine like the rest of them. It’s a decent game with nice environments and gameplay variety and good music. I felt the story, particularly the ending, sounded a bit like a slogan. But the dog gameplay was fun. I wished it had more levels like the ending one where you could fly through that strange world, and fire at stuff.