Everreach: Project Eden Review

"Aimed Too High"

Campaign

February 10, 2020 at 8:53pm
By Jason Stettner

This is definitely an experience that’s inspired by Mass Effect, while failing in almost every aspect to reach that height. It’s not exactly a terrible experience, but one that’s certainly plagued by issues. Mechanically it doesn’t handle well, with a number of bugs and a rather weak set of animations along the way. I thought the narrative was somewhat intriguing in how you sort of just get thrown into this world, but it the story seems too generic or well odd to really be something that stands out.

You’re playing as a Nora Harwood, a member of the security division and sent on a mission to secure this location on Eden. Things don’t go well on this alien world and you’ll have to deal with issues that arise within various factions. There are some aspects for side missions, but largely this is a very linear setup. You’ll move through areas battling along or working on minor objectives and dealing with harsh death penalties.

The checkpoint system is not cool, especially during the biking situations which are at times fun to do. I liked the biking element, it was sort of awkwardly integrated narrative wise yet a distinct mechanic within the game to help it stand out a bit. They could have leaned into the mystery of the narrative a bit more, with this largely feeling like just a mutiny dispute as you get into it, and not enough about the potential lore this alien world provides.

Gameplay

This is a shooter, and honestly some of the shooting elements felt rather rough. The switching, and or positioning of your shots were hard to setup at times. I found this annoying, there are also some weird difficulty spikes during segments and long replays if you die due to an awful checkpoint system. I noticed a number of bugs while playing, and smaller glitches. A number of performance issues as well in this one.

The animation quality was not good, despite them aspiring for higher which I did appreciate. They certainly have dreams of a Mass Effect like game, and we really need more titles aiming to reach that. I feel they over-extended at times, perhaps a tighter and shorter setup might have helped for additional polish. I liked the setup of the backdrop for this world, whereas the levels felt somewhat uninspired. They ranged from awkwardly open, to tight with a large feeling area.

Perhaps not enough cover, or too spare of an area. Visually it had some spots that looked really good, and other ones where it was certainly rougher to take in. I will note that it had a good variation within the types of biomes you did visit. There were some RPG elements present in terms of a skill tree, and gear to a smaller form. This was nice to have. The choice system was also a good addition, but that could have used expansion.

The Conclusion

Everreach: Project Eden aspired to be like Mass Effect, but over extended itself and ultimately made an experience that is rough to play through. I’m not necessarily straight up hating on this title, as there was certainly potential there.

You can see the aim to be something that I’m not sure they could hit unless additional polish was used. The level design wasn’t great, checkpoints were rough and the combat came across as awkward for the most part. I did want to get into this, but the narrative wasn’t intriguing enough for me to get past the gameplay mechanics that held it back. The flying bike segments were neat, and they could have been executed better.

They had neat ideas here, and a potentially unique lead character. Some aspects were really quite cool, and I wish we had more games like this. I think they could have tightened this more and perhaps hit the mark better. Some neat ideas, and a scope that was a bit more than they could pull off.

Read our Ghost Recon Breakpoint Review
View our Game Hubs

Everreach: Project Eden Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by UberStrategist

Rating Overall: 3.8