Level Thoughts

[Golem]

The Undercaves

The game does feel puzzly in a sense.

It didn't make sense to me that the shell would kill the rocks. But I saw I could safely touch the shell, and the rocks were in my way, so I just figured these two elements might interact with each other. It comes down to this: what can I do in the level and what's in my way? Pushing around the shell was a unique thing to do, and the rocks were a unique thing blocking my way.

When you're told to swim slowly past the octopus, I didn't realize it would have to be so slow that I had to gingerly tap up.

Finally, there's a spatial puzzle in the form of routing. To make the most of your air, you'll have to plot an efficient course. The map here helps a little--if you could see the whole thing, would routing be trivial?

[Golem]

The Vents

Key glyphs are not unique to any lock. Instead, any lock will take any key. However, you can only carry one key at a time. I wish there was some way to tell whether or not you had a key.

Also, locks will respawn. If you unlock something, do not turn your back on it, because you've just used up your key. If it respawns, you won't be able to unlock it.

It's hard to tell where to situate Ecco so that he won't get sucked away by the vents. How far behind the rock can he be?

Also, it's really hard to push stuff. I guess that's life as a dolphin, though. That second dolphin is difficult to rescue because you have to push a rock across a vent.

I hope you never have to rely on clams for air. I can't figure out how to get it to work. They open when you sonar them, but I can't collect the bubbles. I've tried sitting still, and I've tried charging the bubbles.

Proud that I rescued everyone, though!

The first time I cleared it, I was trying to rescue the third dolphin. Then the level exit sucked me away when I was exploring. Hooray!

[Golem]

The Lagoon

The rock by the octopus won't respawn. Actually, do any of those stationary, blocking rocks respawn? (Yes, they do. The first one respawns: you kill it with a shell, then with starfish.)

This game feels way better when it doesn't feature the currents prominently.

It's a little easier to handle this with the death sonar, but the hit detection against crabs seems wonky. Or maybe it's accurate, and I just have trouble catching the crabs at a good angle, since they fly any which way.

This level is very long. You rescue three dolphins, then navigate an underwater maze. Judging by the levels that come after this one, this is the length of two levels here.

[Golem]

Ridge Water

I don't remember much about this one. It's a straightforward maze. The sections are pretty discrete.

[Golem]

Open Ocean

I heard you had to hang out at the bottom to beat this level, so I did. You just spam charge and sonar all day, and then the level is over.

[Golem]

Ice Zone

Another straightforward one. Just find the key, then find the lock. You can glide over ice to get from one section to another. You can't use the sonar map while you're sliding, so it's hard to tell how the areas link up. It's cool trying to backtrack and find where you are relative to the other openings in the ice. I'm definitely spamming the death sonar.

[Golem]

Hard Water

The gimmick to this level sucks, but all of the levels after The Lagoon are pretty short, so it's not bad. Whenever you see a thin vertical passage, it'll have big blocks speeding back and forth, threatening to crush Ecco. Ecco's hitbox is unforgiving, so you have to be going fast to get past the blocks. It just sucks to have a one-hit kill that moves so quickly.

But there's just one key and one lock, so it's simple. Don't get tricked--you don't need the hole in the ice on the far right. You can access the same path using the area at the start of the level.

Near the end, there's a huge cluster of ice blocks, all rushing in different directions. It looks hectic, but you can avoid most of it just by hugging the ceiling. It's the only big open area that has the moving ice blocks. After that, there's a thin passage where you have to turn Ecco horizontal to escape being crushed.

These ice levels look and sound great.

Enemy damage is excessively forgiving here, I never bother attacking anyone.

[Golem]

Cold Water

There's honest-to-god platforming here! You have to jump over spikes while sliding along the ice.

You can see the end of the level at any time, but if you haven't talked to Big Blue, Ecco won't go through. So, if you explore everywhere before talking to Big Blue, it's not clear where to go next after seeing him. I just figured I'd try the open passage again.

You're also pretty tight on air. The thin ice is a tease sometimes when I think it's actually a hole. There's also one nasty vent passage that's hard to swim up.

[Golem]

Island Zone

There's one lock glyph in a dead end. If you kill it and swim past, you can still swim above it to escape. If you talk to it, it gives you the shpiel where the guy says "I KNOW NOT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR POD" and "GO LOOK UP THE BIG BLUE."

This stage is long-ish but pleasant: health is plentiful, and it's easy to predict where air will be (always in those thin, vertical shafts, for one thing).

There's a ring of stars that tricked me because they look like the stars you push. They aren't, and they attack you.

There's also areas where puffer fish constantly respawn. They'll chase you until you get them offscreen. It's pretty rough, but you can use the sonar to see them ahead of time and dash past quickly. This challenge screws you unless you look ahead with the sonar.

There's two lock/key pairs, one current that requires a rock (there are other currents that don't require a rock), and one octopus. Nothing new in the island world so far. I don't mind this level, it's a neat little maze to figure out.

[Golem]

Deep Water

A straightforward gauntlet, no locks or rocks or currents I had to block. There's one segment that highlights the fact that Ecco strafes in tight corridors. You do it to dodge spikes. Also, an underwater Vectorman double helix god wants you to go back 55 million years.