Eternal Hope
Developer: Double Hit Games
Much like a writer ready to use a clichéd opening, hope, too, springs eternal. This brings us, on a rather tortured literary journey, to Eternal Hope, a game centred entirely around a tortured journey.
Eternal Hope is a puzzle-platformer adventure game with a tragic story woven through. Our character, Ti'bi, is a lonely soul. Luckily for them, one day they meet a girl and the pair fall desperately in love with each other. Happy and content, they live a long and happy life together. No, of course not, where would the tragedy be in that? Ti'bi’s beloved becomes trapped under a rock during a storm, precariously perched on a cliff edge. As Ti’bi attempts to save her, lightning strikes and the ground beneath her falls away.
Enter shadiness. Or “The Keeper of Souls'', to give them their proper name, with a deal. If Ti'bi will collect the parts of her soul strewn about the world, they can bring her back. Good deal, right? Not quite. You’re also going to have to bring back a few other souls. Because that never turns out poorly. Still, heartbroken Ti’bi sets out to fulfil his task and bring his love back.
On the face of it, the gameplay is what you’d expect from a puzzle-platformer. You pull, push, jump, and even glide (with the help of a scarf) your way around to advance to the next area. The difference comes with Ti’bi’s ability to see into the Shadow Realm, which he does with the help of a mask. This shifts some of the platforms around and puts objects in different places. It’s not an indefinite power, though. Once the charge has run through, you’ll have to wait a little bit for it to recharge. This is your timed puzzle, often resulting in long falls to your death if you happen to be mid-jump.
There are boss battles, but they don’t involve you actually fighting anything. In fact, pretty much anything alive around here is bigger than you, and would probably make a light snack of your tiny body. No, bosses are like normal gameplay with some added pressure, be it by having something chase you, or force you to hide and sneak. There aren’t too many, but it breaks up the usual gameplay.
The world has a few secrets hidden about. Stone tablets offer some extra lore about the world and its inhabitants. They’re not required reading, but there’s been some thought put into fleshing out the world that I think is worth seeking out. There are also hidden souls that can be found with a little exploration if you’re looking to check everything off the list.
Eternal Hope is very reminiscent of Limbo, especially visually. The ‘boy alone in a dark world’ is central, with everything around you reinforcing that. The character and the foreground, which is often used to hide puzzle elements, are black and white. The background, however, changes colour depending on which realm you’re in. The normal realm is full of vibrant colours, presented in stark contrast to the darkness of the Shadow Realm. There are some nice touches to the character’s appearance as you do things, such as Ti’bi’s eyes showing strain as he pulls objects. From little things during gameplay to cutscenes, the game conveys quite a bit of emotion with a limited palette and shapes.
Music is a fittingly muted affair running in the background. During heavy-pressure scenarios, it ramps up, with some beautiful and evocative scoring for the sad moments. There is no voice acting, but the creatures make little noises, as do objects. Nothing repetitive or annoying, which is always a plus.
Eternal hope is short and bittersweet, offering some well-thought-out timing puzzles and utilisation of both realms. There are a couple of small physics hiccups which can lead to a missed jump and untimely death, but nothing game breaking It can easily be run in a couple of hours - a little more if you want all the collectables - but it doesn’t leave you feeling robbed. It’s a little slice of beautiful tragedy.