So, what do you get when you cross between Nova Terra from StarCraft and Mass Effect – Everreach: Project Eden. Yes, when you look at this game basing on the advertised screenshots and clips, you really cannot help yourself saying “wow – poor man Mass Effect” or “That’s Nova” (or something like that). Heck, it got me as I looked at it and felt a little gooey thinking it’s Mass Effect on a budget as I need more “Mass Effect”. And even the plot is so cheesy that it hurts so much – that is, humans discover first hospitable planet filled with beautiful vistas, alien artefacts, colonists living in harmony then all communications halted from Eden – you have been send in to investigate and blah, blah, and more blah.

This kind of storyline is so overused it’s no longer funny – like storylines when you have amnesia or there’s a plague – nonsense stuff. So, I marched on as I mentioned before, I need more Mass Effect. And about halfway through, it’s the same ole path – nice vistas yet some squad attacks you from time to time accompanied by some flying robots, and the list goes on and on as this have been done this a million times before.

Then, something happened…something changed about 2/3 into the game. Something that really got me hooked. Out went the cliche storyline and in comes “WTF just happened?” – and I really mean it. It was something straight out of left field and then hits you like a sledgehammer. All I can say is this; it reminded me when I first played Bioshock back in 2007 – the game starts off like some cheap thrill – all that glitter and no gold then 2/3 in, the game does a complete 180 degrees turn for the amazeballs effect. Everreach has done the exact same thing – the amazeballs was in full force that it was simply astounding to see. And here I’m referring to is the storyline.

The game’s length as advertised is about 8hrs so it’s pretty “typical”. I took around 14 hrs to complete as there was a glitch that seems to only affect me. The glitch was, when I load a saved game (checkpoint saves – not a fan), my character had negative stats – yes you read it right – all stats are in the negative. I loaded the entire chapter again and it seem to correct this. Not sure how this was triggered yet this added into my playing time. For achievement hunters, there are 10 to collect and all can be earned during a single playthrough. Mind you, there are some that can be easily missed as I think I got lucky with two of the achievements (not saying which one though).

So, Everreach boils down into two paths – you play it for the “tactical” gameplay or play it for the story. I want both however the gameplay is somewhat lacking – to put it simply, clumsy. The skill tree where you need to locate materials to improve them is a great idea though. The storyline though is brilliant – sucked me right in. This was the saving grace of this game and it really excelled. A couple of morale choices (as some are shrouded extremely well as I groaned at the end only because of my lack of tact) and as explained before, the storyline that suddenly does 180 degrees turn roughly 2/3 in, that’s worth the playthrough just to experience that. Whilst the price tag of about $36 AUD is steep for this game, it regularly goes on special. I feel between $20 - $25 is a good price to pay for this.

So, bypass the obvious Mass Effect / Nova Terra “influence” and the clumsy controls and enjoy the story – it’s a blast.

Full review here - https://www.gamespot.com/everreach-project-eden/user-reviews/2200-12841850/

8 / 10