Virtual Reality is in this weird space where everyone is trying to get into developing games for it but nobody really understands how to make those games great. There are only a few real stand-out games and everything else is mediocre at best. Eclipse: Edge of Light is no different. From the moment I entered the game, I could tell immediately that it wasn’t going to be anything special. That’s not to say I wasn’t hoping for a change. I love it when I go into a game, VR particularly, with low expectations only to be blown away by something incredible the developers have done. Again, Eclipse: Edge of Light didn’t really offer me that experience.
Eclipse: Edge of Light
Developer: White Elk LLC
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC, PS4(Reviewed), and Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review
The first thing I noticed is how bad the game looks. When a game looks old you wonder if it was a design choice or a result of circumstance. A lot of games are choosing to go with a pixelated art style and absolutely killing it by creating intricate sprites and beautifully animating them. Eclipse: Edge of Light looks like a Playstation 2 game, and not a good one. There are lighting inconsistencies all over the place, down to some objects receiving light from an unknown source. Models that are paper thin, geometry that’s broken allowing you to see through to other parts of the level. Even as a game originally created for mobile, this is unacceptable. Graphically, this is an amateur effort at best, riddled with inconsistencies.
As I continued through the game, there was a lot to be desired. Your primary role is the universes’ greatest baseball pitcher. You have ‘The Artifact’ which is a spherical item that glows but is also just a ball. You toss the ball at objects and they either break or open doors. You do this by holding R2 and making a ball throw motion with your controller. It never feels right though. I threw that ball well over a hundred times and never did I feel like it was going where I wanted it to go. Unless of course, you were throwing it at an object nearby, in which case the artifact became a seeker missile.
Half-way through Eclipse: Edge of Light you’re given a crash course on what the story is about. You’re a spaceman and you’re stuck in a time loop on a planet that was taken over by a once benevolent prophet but destroyed once he became too powerful. Your job is to use the artifact to save the planet. Really though, your job is to use the artifact to save yourself from the time loop though because nobody is left alive on the planet to save. The story is absolutely boring until you get towards the end and see other versions of yourself that have been killed by traps meant to prevent you from killing the prophet. That they didn’t show previous versions of yourself struggling with the time loop earlier is an absolutely wasted opportunity.
There were a few things that were cool, like how the ending played out, a few scenes that actually utilized the sensory deprivation that VR thrives in, and I really liked using my head to scan objects in the world. But overall this entire game feels like a checklist of things the developer needed to do to label this a game and kick it out the door. Between the broken geometry, poor graphics, and mediocre puzzle/platforming required to complete the game I was severely disappointed.
The Final Word
Despite being a complete VR experience, Eclipse: Edge of Light falls short in most areas. If I had to describe Eclipse: Edge of Light it would be ‘low effort.’ At the very least, it didn’t make me nauseous while playing.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
