Etherborn (PC) Preview

Etherborn is a fascinating low-poly puzzle platform soon to be out on a variety of game platforms, including PC and Switch.

Here at STG we were given the opportunity to give a small chunk of the game a look in ahead of schedule, to see what players can expect when it launches soon.

Set in a pastel-infused world, you are a semi-transparent character trying to make it from A to B. Along the way, and in between levels, you’ll be confronted by vague allusions to a story; mysterious quotes that sometimes left me scratching my head. All of this though is in service of the puzzles. While some puzzle platforms are 3D, only a rare few truly make use of all dimensions available to them. This is where Etherborn comes in, and demonstrates it’s unique selling point.

The game takes clear inspiration from surrealist images such as those by M.C. Escher, weaving that aesthetic directly into the gameplay itself. The trick is this: at all times your character’s gravity is perpendicular to the ground they’re currently walking on. That means you can walk around the levels in ways that frankly sometimes broke my mind. Each level plays out like a diorama turning in your hands, and you’re hunting for the key that unlocks the next path.
One moment you might be walking straight along a path, then climbing up a wall and dropping “down” onto another platform horizontally. Along the way you’ll also collect orbs of light that let you open switches, raise bridges and shift the environment around. When several of these switches come into play for a single puzzle, it can be a real mind-bender, and the difficulty ramps up fast. Fortunately there’s no punishment for failing, so experimentation feels easy and natural. There’s no combat and, mercifully, no time limits, so the focus stays on simply working your way through to the end.

On another note, the music in the game so far is excellent. It’s a strong reminder that even an indie title like this can carry a soundtrack of real quality. The low-poly visual design also earns its keep, highlighting what can actually be interacted with. There are no superfluous details here to distract or confuse you.
Etherborn is shaping up to be an intriguing game, built around that eureka moment when a level that first looked visually incomprehensible suddenly clicks. The levels are smartly designed, it looks great, and the fundamentals already feel firmly in place. Whether the developers can sustain that creativity across a full game is another question, no mean feat. But what we’ve seen so far is a fantastic start, and it should give backers on Fig (a crowdfunding platform where you buy slices of revenue as well) confidence that their money is well spent.

For the rest of us, this taste of the game is alike a fun-size candy bar, enough to get a taste, but leaves us looking to the full size one, coming later this year.