Alter Echo

The future is almost now. Check out the latest on THQ?s bizarre, organic action title.

THQ?s surreal sci-fi action game Alter Echo is coming out next month; GamePro recently got a chance to check out the game and see how things have changed since we first saw it.

First, a quick recap of the concept: You play Nevin, a ?Shaper? who can morph a substance called EchoPlast to his will. As the game begins, Nevin is given a suit made of the stuff by a living planet, and told that he?s got to use this suit to go get a bad guy that?s taken control of the planet?s nervous system.

Part of Alter Echo?s appeal has always been the interplay between Nevin?s three forms?Sword, Gun, and Stealth. The game?s combat system is designed so that you can switch between the three forms on the fly, linking their different moves into outlandish chains to score Tony Hawk-style ?trick? points that, in turn, buy more new moves and upgrades for his PolySuit. In the latest build of the game, the enemy A.I. had been tuned so that they adapt to you using one form too often; other enemies were simply immune to certain forms of attack (Gun Form, for example).

While earlier builds of the game had a fixed camera, Outrage has sinced changed it so that the camera has been freed up and controlled by the right analog stick. The game?s Time Dilation attacks (a timing-based mini-game that resembles TRON Light Cycles) are also a lot more restricted now, meaning you won?t be able to whip out your major ?kill everything!? attacks with quite the frequency you could before.

While the preview build showed off areas and levels that threaten to get repetitious after a while, Alter Echo is shaping up to be a cool, different kind of action game, something for those who are sick of button-mashers and want a little more finesse. It?s coming out for PS2 and Xbox in mid-August.

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