Eternal Strands was pitched as a sort of Shadow of the Colossus/Breath of the Wild smorgasbord, and while it checks off the main beats of both, it fails to feel as special or interesting as either. Maybe this shouldnt be expected. After all, Yellow Brick Games is a new indie studio and Eternal Strands is a fresh IP. Still, even with a solid core concept and fine gameplay, Eternal Strands failed to keep me excited for long. What it does, it does well enough though, so lets dig into its gameplay after establishing its basic story first.Eternal Strands is about a band of magic users (called Weavers) exploring an ancient civilization that, you guessed it, mysteriously collapsed. Magic was outlawed and Weavers looked down upon following the extinction of this civilization. The story begins with a band of magic-users exploring inside The Veil a magical barrier isolating the long-destroyed civilization from the rest of the world. As a magical Weaver, Brynns task is to find out more about this mysterious civilization and help her band survive its dangerous remnants.Sounds like a premise made for exploration, right? A game like Eternal Strands could have the best exploration and combat in the world and still fall short if it controls terribly. This is one area where Breath of the Wild fans can rest assured on account of Eternal Strands smooth movement tech. Brynns movement is direct, instant, and snappy. Climbing likewise feels smooth and all too familiar for Dragons Dogma or Zelda fans, which is great because pretty much anything in the environment can be mounted and scaled except for the small amount of invisible walls. In general, running around and jumping on stuff can be a fun time."Youre left wildly swinging weapons or using other less reliable means to mine materials."The only time the game feels particularly clunky is when youre breaking down objects for materials. Smashing rocks and barrels just isnt as fun as it should be. For one, your character always steps forward when breaking objects down, which inevitably forces you to readjust positioning constantly until the objects finally breaks down. Theres no way to target lock onto objects either, so youre left wildly swinging weapons or using other less reliable means to mine materials. The survival crafting genre has nailed the satisfying process of material gathering, but Eternal Strands falls a bit behind in that regard, despite the abundance of abilities within the players hands.Thankfully, the target lock for enemies is snappy and quite satisfying to use. Dodging and partying multiple opponents never feels too overwhelming or clunky thanks to the appropriate camera positioning and quick lock-on. That said, some enemies are irritating to fight. The groups of invisible monsters plaguing the early zones of the game render lock-on useless, and they swarm you in packs. Combating the same enemies over and over feels redundant due to the limited inventory you have and the lack of experience points from defeating them."All those crafting materials you find must be strategically conserved due to limited inventory slots for each material type."Thats right, all those crafting materials you find must be strategically conserved due to limited inventory slots for each material type. I still cant figure out why theres such a strict inventory limit in Eternal Strands. It feels like Im constantly returning to the hub area and back instead of freely exploring the areas like a true open-world game. Though, it is true that Eternal Strands isnt quite a genuine open-world title. This is because environments are separated into distinct zones with a hub area to store materials, craft, and talk to your caravan crew. The games flow can be summarized by the word expedition. Youre never exploring the wilds of The Enclave for too long before your inventory fills up and you need more health potions.The save system accommodates this game flow with a semi-frequent autsosave and something I dont like so much: limited manual saving. You cannot save the game during expeditions and must return back to the Southwall Waystation hub to do so. Restricted manual saving during expeditions is further hampered by the lack of fast travel during the opening hours of the story. You get the ability to fast travel back to the hub later in the game, but I still never found it fun going back and forth between the hub and expedition zones."Loomgate towers function as the games teleport points so you dont have to hoof it all the way across a swamp just to continue an expedition."Expedition zones each have their own regions and, you guessed it, towers to activate. These Loomgate towers function as the games teleport points so you dont have to hoof it all the way across a swamp just to continue an expedition. Even with the Loomgate fast travel, frequently needing to end expeditions early due to a filled-up inventory or low health stagger exploration momentum a tad too much. The times you will have to backtrack arent very fun due to the slow traversal and rate of enemies dotting the environments.No, Brynns magical abilities dont really aid in traversal much. I never felt the need or desire to form ice bridges across any gaps or anything. Its mostly in the battles where Brynns magical manipulation is used since the environments typically dont require much clever use of her abilities other than climbing and jumping. Sure, some hot objects need to be frozen and some torches lit to progress forward, but the level design doesnt live up to the potential that such magical terraforming powers can have. But my main issue isnt with potential, its traversal speed and viscerality in general. Some kind of horse mount or glider would have made going from A to B much better, but I suppose the segregated level design didnt necessitate those conveniences, even if they still felt needed at times."Some hot objects need to be frozen and some torches lit to progress forward"Each of the zone maps are decent in size; nothing too vast or intricate to explore, but enough to warrant several re-visits. The Watchers Wisp ability helps Brynn find the direction of an objective as long as you have this ability unlocked after the first three hours. Oh, and theres no minimap or compass to speak of in the game. The map in the menus also lacks any custom pin markers, which is disappointing considering how emphasized locating specific crafting materials are. If a simple compass isnt patched, expect to constantly pull up the menu map just to see what general direction a region or point of interest is in.But what else is there to do in the zones besides gathering materials and completing story objectives? Well, collecting enough manuscript documents in each zone unlocks a bevy of vital information, both in gameplay and lore terms. One interesting piece of info fragments unlock are the weather conditions of that specific area. Eternal Strands has an interesting weather system. Zones get beset by snowstorms, torrential rain, or by sunlight based on a weather cycle. Weather affects the types of monsters that appear in a zone, as well as extreme temperatures which can hinder your character if youre not equipped to deal with it. Preparing for extreme snow, for example, with cold resist armor or potions is necessary if youre to go forth on expeditions in that zone. And its impossible to know each areas weather if you havent collected enough manuscripts yet. At least you can advance time and wait for the weather to change by resting at camp, because this system could get irritating otherwise."Zones get beset by snow storms, torrential rain, or blessed by sunlight based on a weather cycle"Collecting manuscript fragments does more than just give weather info, it also unlocks reams of lore in the Codex covering history, politics, races, and location info. Besides collecting manuscripts and materials, theres not too much to explore for in Eternal Strands. Well, besides the completing story objectives, that is.The highlight of the game for me has to be the towering Ark bosses. These fights are clearly inspired by the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus and Dragons Dogma enemy mounting. Ark battles mostly consist of climbing and stabbing weak points before being flung off hundreds of feet to the ground. The climbing and clinging controls feel responsive and satisfying, and stabbing away at each of the week points while avoiding retaliation is invigorating. Getting the timing right in between clinging for dear life and locating the weak spots for damage never gets old. The enemy design isnt especially noteworthy for these Ark bosses though, and the strategy for felling each of them doesnt escalate into anything surprising, but its a good time all in all."The highlight of the game for me has to be the towering Ark bosses"As mentioned earlier, other enemies arent nearly as fun to fight. Parrying and dodging is fun, but this game needs hotkeys for weapon and spell switching. The swap wheel just takes a bit too much time to navigate in the midst of battle. I cant count the amount of times I accidentally selected the wrong spell or weapon due to the unclear and unresponsive thumbstick scrolling. Enemy battles can lack urgency at times from a lack of any kind of musical cue. Ive had skirmishes where no music is playing and others where the battle music pipes up, so it seems to be pretty random. And I know the soundtrack is scored by Austin Wintory, but it didnt do anything for me. Its appropriately atmospheric, but lacks any kind of throughline themes or motifs, making it feelinconspicuous and ultimately forgettable.As for weapons and magic themselves, theres a pretty decent variety for both throughout the game. You can find various different weapons within each category and they show on your character. Upgrading weapons and armor requires higher quality materials, or you can craft new ones out of different materials. Magic abilities can also be upgraded with materials, but unlocking entirely new abilities generally comes much slower than getting new weapons. I love freezing opponents and then just whacking them with my greatsword while theyre frozen in place. And speaking of the elements, there are fire and ice variants of most of the weapons, which is cool. Its unfortunate that theres no way to compare equipment in any of the crafting or buy menus. Theres also no tab showing you own a particular piece of equipment either. Hopefully these conveniences get patched later because theyre mandatory in a crafting-heavy game like this."I love freezing opponents and then just whacking them with my greatsword while theyre frozen in place"But combat and gameplay is only one half of Eternal Strands identity as this game is surprisingly story-focused. In particular, theres a Bioware style of character interaction and lore within Eternal Strands. The lead designer is a former Bioware lead, after all, so this shared DNA makes sense. That said, while theres oodles of character conversations and backstories to sift through, I didnt find any of it interesting in the least. First of all, your band of Weavers tends to repeat plot points over and over again with lots of unnecessary exposition. The dialogue writing doesnt feel organic, but rather safe and dull. Yes, each of the Weavers has their own personality and backstory, but it all feels by-the-numbers and, to an extent, clinical. And then theres Brynn, the main protagonist who everyone just accepts as the bands leader. She has no faults and the story doesnt justify why shes so much more competent than everybody else. Eternal Strands characters lack the kind of grit and soul that gets us invested."This is not a game where branching dialogue choice matters, but it tries to present itself as such at times"The hefty amount of lore in the game is impressive, no doubt. And the codex entries for the government bodies, races, and cities (much of which you never encounter) are well-written and filled with a minutia of detail. Its just that the main plot itself lacks any urgency at all. I cant think of a single interesting hook or twist in the entire games campaign. Youre exploring a destroyed civilization and trying to survive this new inhospitable landscape, but theres no personal stakes involved or intrigue to get excited about. These story complaints wouldnt be a problem if it were a game focused primarily on gameplay, but Eternal Strands is very much a character-driven, lore-heavy game as per its distant Bioware DNA. Also, some will be put off by the sheer amount of unique terminology being spouted off at every moment. The opening narration is a good example the way jargon is overused.To cap off my disinterest in the plot and characters, theres also no real consequence to the games dialogue choices. Conversations usually branch into three options; all of which amount to flavor lore or added context at most. This is not a game where branching dialogue choice matters, but it tries to present itself as such at times. From a gameplay perspective, knowing whether or not a character has something new to say is difficult in Eternal Strands. Aspeech indicator pops up even for unchecked dialogue choices within the same conversation. Furthermore, indicators even pop up when repeated conversations are available."The codex entries for the government bodies, races, and cities are well-written and filled with a minutia of detail"Eternal Strands didnt quite live up to my budget Breath of the Wild expectation. Sure, the movement and magic is fun to play around with, and climbing up those Ark enemies is a treat. But there wasnt any hook compelling me to keep playing. Once I felled my first couple Ark and ventured into the capital, I felt fine to leave it at that. Youre getting a decent amount of game for the price point, but theres not much here that you cant get from other similar action/adventure games.This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.