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In the age of near photorealism, it takes a lot for a game’s visuals to impress me. As cramming yet more pixels into a videogame character’s face provides diminishing returns, standing out from the crowd is increasingly about how creative developers get in applying that power. All that said, I was genuinely mesmerised by the debut footage of Etre, an upcoming action adventure game with a truly eye-popping art style.
Created by LA-based developer Studio Lifeforms, Etre is a narrative driven-action game set on Orbis, which Studio Lifeforms describes as a “planet-scale alien mind on the brink of awakening”. You play as a character named Xyle, who arrives at this sentient cityscape in search of his soulmate Atel.
According to Studio Lifeforms, the game’s distinctive visuals are inspired by graphic novels of the ’70s and ’80s. Studio Lifeforms doesn’t specify which graphics novels, and I am too much of a comics philistine to tell you. But the result is an incredibly distinctive visual style. In terms of games, Etre’s closest visual cousins are the likes of Rez and Tetris Effect. But Etre applies its aesthetics to a much more grounded type of game.
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From a mechanical perspective, Studio Lifeforms cites Remedy’s Control as the primary influence, with the game letting you explore Orbis in a semi-open fashion, while the story will be shaped by your actions on Orbis. Like Control, Etre features a highly movement-based combat system. Also like Control, the enemies you fight are super weird, including environmental anomalies and “living geometry.”
While I’m transfixed by Etre’s art, I will say that, in the few clips present on the Steam page, the combat looks a little flat. One of the great things about Control was how it fully delivered on both a weird setting and the joy of obliterating enemies by cobbing massive chunks of concrete at then. Pretty as it is, Etre can’t rely on good looks alone, and will need that tactile satisfaction to back it up.
For now, though, Etre being pleasing to look at is enough. Studio Lifeforms hasn’t announced a release date yet, but I’d expect Etre to arrive sometime next year.
