Eternal Hope review for Xbox One, PS4, Switch, PC

Initially, it?s easy to write Eternal Hope as just another puzzle-platformer that?s heavily indebted to Limbo. You start off with a stark colour palette where it looks like your character is shrouded in shadow, and?well, it?s very difficult not to draw that connection, given the sheer number of games that have followed that same path over the past decade.

Eventually, a few more colours start seeping into the world as your character gets closer to being reunited with his dead love (since the whole point of the game is collecting fragments of her soul). While Eternal Hope still feels like a Limbo clone, at the very least the game has expanded its influences ? though not beyond the Playdead catalogue, since that just means the game feels like Limbo and Inside.

To be sure, there are worse games to evoke, since Limbo and Inside were both excellent. But it also makes it hard to take Eternal Hope seriously on its own terms when so much of its identity seems borrowed from elsewhere.

Mind you, even if it?s not very original, Eternal Hope is still a decent game. For one thing, it?s built around an engaging story that never outlasts its welcome ? the story of a boy pining for his lost love has obviously been done countless times before, but the way it?s told here is nicely done. Further, it ties into an interesting mechanic ? since the boy is collecting the soul fragments at the behest of a being called the Soul Collector, he has the ability to switch realities and see another world. This, in turn, makes the puzzles a lot more interesting, as you often have to switch back and forth to figure out what to do next.

Obviously, none of this is enough to make Eternal Hope feel like it rises about its influences. But at the very least, it?s enough to help the game carve out its own tiny niche within the world of Limbo clones.

DX Gameworks provided us with a Eternal Hope Xbox One code for review purposes.