Ereban: Shadow Legacy PC Review
Summary: A gorgeous and unique take on the stealth-action genre. Ereban: Shadow Legacy's unique traversal makes it stand out from the crowd.
4.1
Sneaky!
Growing up on the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Thief, and Splinter Cell, I love a good stealth game.
There’s something about lurking in the shadows, accomplishing a goal, and getting out again without the enemy ever knowing that you’re there that’s incredibly compelling.
When done right, it can be a lot of fun. Ereban: Shadow Legacy by Baby Robot Games is the latest entry in the stealth action genre trying to accomplish this.
Playing as Ayana, the last of a lost race, the Ereban, you must use a selection of powers that utilise the shadows to discover the secrets of your past and save a universe on the brink of destruction.
On a moment-to-moment basis Ereban: Shadow Legacy plays out like a lot of other stealth games. Enemies patrol the area, take notice of fallen comrades, and ruthlessly hunt down the player once discovered. If you’ve played almost any other game in the niche, then you know what to expect. Where it differs, however, is how it utilises the shadows to create interesting movement and traversal of the game’s 8 locations.
While in darkness you have access to an ability called the Shadow Merge. Activated by holding the right trigger down, while in this state you’re able to freely move anywhere that’s in shadow. Up and over walls, through railings and gates, and most importantly out of the sight of enemies. It’s almost akin to moving through ink in Splatoon and is just as fun a method of getting around.
This emphasis on light and darkness is also used as a primary guide for the player. There’s minimal use of the now ubiquitous yellow paint here (and what is here is pink!) Rather the way forward is often indicated by the light in an area, or lack thereof. Ayana’s armour changes colour based on whether you’re visible or hidden instead of something on the UI, and as such using her darkness based powers and navigation becomes second nature.
Unlike many other stealth games, there’s no direct combat in Ereban: Shadow Legacy. Enemies can be dispatched with a suspiciously Assassin’s Creed-like wrist blade in pre-animated takedowns. Beyond that though, if the enemy spots you and chases you down, that’s it, you’re dead.
Ayana is equipped with a versatile arsenal to prevent this from happening. As well as the Shadow Merge, she has access to 4 primary gadgets, each obtained and upgraded by finding collectibles in each area. Sonar, Mines, a decoy, and binoculars all make planning a route to the objective manageable.
A sizable skill tree is used to unlock and upgrade a whole suite of shadow-based abilities that can be used to dispatch the many guards. These range from small buffs such as quieter footsteps and faster recharging of stamina, to the hilariously overpowered ability to teleport behind an unaware enemy and dispatch them quickly.
Ereban: Shadow Legacy is presented with a curious blend of semi-realistic environments and cell-shaded characters that always somehow manages to look good. It isn’t needlessly overburdened with unnecessary details and is a perfect example of art style and direction over raw graphical fidelity. Similarly, the sound design is somewhat understated. Most areas are filled only with subtle ambiance, with the occasional delicate piano motif filling the gaps.
All characters are fully voice-acted, and most are well done. Even the filler dialogue between the many robots roaming the landscape is surprisingly full, often engaging with each other about all manner of completely unrelated topics while standing around.
Performance throughout the game was generally pretty solid. It doesn’t have high system requirements and maxing it out should be trivial on any relatively modern PC. It does suffer from some frame time issues though, and I noticed some traversal stutter on occasion too. It’s far from a deal breaker, but the gameplay rarely felt smooth because of this, despite being locked at 60fps throughout. Also, even with the low system requirements, I couldn’t get it to run well on the Steam Deck, even with everything turned down.
Final Thoughts?
Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a great, new entry into the stealth action genre. At around 6 hours to complete the story it doesn’t outstay its welcome. I didn’t get anywhere near all of the collectibles or upgrades on my initial run-through, and there are three endings to unlock, so there’s plenty of replay value.
The story is compelling and unique traversal options make this stand out from the competition, and as such as definitely worth checking out.
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