Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Echoes From Ciudadela is a first person narrative adventure taking you on a journey from a father's dying wish. This game is really immersive with puzzles that are from historic inventions of the past. You have a little of everything with these environmental puzzles with the past, present, and future intermixed. Your curiosity keeps you looking, fiddling, and figuring them out from clues found throughout the environment or in the journal left to Katari by his father. And there are downsides to this game as you read on.
A dying wish. From Ciudadela starts outwith Katari, the son, reluctantly driving up to the cabin to fulfill that wish. You hear Katari leaving a message for his mother, I presume, on his cellphone. Even though he’s driving on open country roads, I really think the devs should have had him thinking about the call rather than showcasing cellphone usage while driving because it’s distracting and dangerous.
The first part of this story takes place in and around the cabin. Katari remarks later that his father could have been more present in his life rather than becoming a hermit who was holed up in his cabin. While we are here we are led into the tutorial of all the skills Katari (you) will need for the part after spreading his father's ashes on the mountain, which is what ciudadela means.
Other than my playing Echoes From Ciudadela on an Ubuntu system, there were a few troubles throughout the tutorial. Before you come to the start new game menu screen you are shown a rotating icon for the game's autosave feature. I thought this very handy until I saw that there weren't slots for game saves, nor did it save exactly where I was when I exited the game. It didn't even show the save icon either while I exited the game! And should you start a new game, all progress is lost. Personally I would like to manually save the game myself as I sometimes like to mull them over the puzzles in my head.
First things first, arriving at the cabin where Katari settles in before heading out on the trek to find the spot to spread his father's ashes you exit the truck. You walk up to the cabin door to find you can't open it with an interactable keybind of the letter 'E' as you look at the door knob. You will need to do a simple search for a key to the front door. Next you are instructed to, "Find the generator to restore power to the house." There isn't any mention of needing a second key to open the power generator box, yet your clue is right there as you are looking at that box. No closing of the box door after completing the puzzle, so I am assuming it as a clue for how other puzzles are solved in this game.
As I was running around to find the generator, there was no bar or gauge to show stamina use nor indication on how long before you need to stop to gain it back. I guess I am used to that in Outbound and other games I play where there was a clear indicator. I find that most games now automatically have movement keys of WSAD and the spacebar for jumping. What changes are the interaction keys as in this game both 'E' and 'F' are used.
The first real puzzle in Echoes From Ciudadela comes in the bedroom and it wasn't all that hard. This is where Katari finds a Balearic sling which is an ancient artifact of his people. Looks pretty well kept though the first person view of it looks more like a set of bows. He remarks "25 years and you never taught me how to use this thing father. Guess I'll learn by myself." Usually it is carried in one hand by the two ends so the stone is released quickly. You can find the Spanish Balearic sling (on page 5) in this document of slings and their descriptions.
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Next is Katari learning how to use the Balearic sling with him searching for a target to use outside. As you walk out to the workstation set up on the right side of the cabin (when you're facing the front door) outdoors you spy a hanging object that you figure will be good to practice on. As I was lining up my shot by holding down the left mouse button I noticed my cursor was just a small dot. I would love a crosshair radical for lining up my shots, please. As you fire away at it, on the third throw or so, depending on where you stand, you are prompted about needing stronger projectiles and to find them. I bust out laughing when Katari says: "Ok, round two you silly target."
There is no mention of putting away your sling after target practice. I did find out you can scroll through what you are holding during your search through the cabin, but still no way to put it away while walking around after that segment. When you break the target, your next clue drops to the ground. At this point I thought I would see the save icon on the bottom right corner, but nope.
In Echoes From Ciudadela your next 3 clues lead you to your father's journal. From here we are presented with a beautiful cinematic accompanied by lovely music. A few seconds later you wake and mull about if the truck will die on your journey to the mountain. Now you are ready for finding a place to spread your father's ashes. Katari leaves another message for his mother about finding his dad's journal and a couple of artifacts. Since the reception is terrible he'll call again when finished. We’re shown another cinematic of the truck driving up to the mountain and you're given a choice of an obvious branching path.
I must say that the music, graphics and gameplay bring back fond memories of my time with the Myst games. As with those games I find the music tends to add that little bit of flavor to the immersive experience. Kronos Interactive is an indie games studio based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So, the inclusion of Spanish notes and colors found throughout the game makes sense. There is mention of Katari's people whom I assume come from the Balearic Islands of Spain, hence the name of the sling.
I must bring up a point I found odd, which is that nowhere in the cabin is there an actual rotary dial telephone, yet when you hear Katari 'hang up' the phone you hear that very distinct sound of the click of a rotary dial telephone hanging up. Upon thinking on this further I remember during the first message he left for his mother might have been from a gas station payphone, and yet we don't see a scene of that, or even a screencap of him standing at a phonebox at a gas station. I just found it to be a little odd.
Finally, for the first time in any of my playthroughs of Echoes From Ciudadela, I see the saving icon as well as the text of 'Saving game' in the bottom right corner. You're directed to check for hints using the 'F' key and as you move forward the screen freezes and opens a window reiterating the fact to use the 'F' key for hints. You can't move until you close that window. At least I found that had happened during two of my playthroughs. As with all things from the beginning, there is no 'getting ahead' of yourself in this game. Everything is connected to the story and everything has something to say or reveal as you play.
After you solve the first three puzzles on the mountain you come to the next step of finding an entrance. In each of my playthroughs, not once was that door in my field of vision. Katari's remark on the entrance comes early each time with the above view for me. The controls are not as smooth as I would have liked and this is another game in my list of 'made for controllers, don't try on keyboard.'
From this point on I'll let you experience the game firsthand and to enjoy yourself. Oh, and don't worry about the door closing behind you. You'll eventually get out! *Laughs*
All in all I did have a good time in Echoes From Ciudadela, even with the fact that it felt like my hand was being held most of the way. A few of the puzzles had me thinking for a bit so much that the immersion factor of this game kept me from a couple of my meals! Thank you, Kronos Interactive, for your first game that, to me, needed a bit more time in the playtest portion before its release. To any puzzle and relaxing game buffs out there I would recommend this game, if only for a short break as you can quickly do this game in less than a day.
Score: 7 / 10
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