Echoes of Time

Echoes of Time reminded me a little of ashes of the singularity: an odd, ambitious game that asks you to build something of your own while making very sure you never mistake it for safe. Its mechanisms are interesting. They also often feel like more machinery than the game really needs.

At its core, the action programming has you plotting moves in the hope of assembling a working engine. The game does not make it easy to commit to one approach, though: you need to keep alternatives alive and accept that your plan may emerge smaller, wonkier, but still potentially useful.

Then the other players get involved. There is enough take-that to knock your construction sideways at exactly the wrong moment, and a discard lock can leave someone watching the game rather than playing it. You will meddle with each other's gears, and sometimes pull them clean out of the machine. That is where the table either laughs or starts to bristle.

It is not uninteresting, and it is worth a look if the thought of a combative engine builder appeals. But there are better versions of this experience; the newer mistborn deckbuilder, for instance, makes the same sort of game feel less overloaded and more direct.