Echoes of the Deep Review

There is a moment, about two hours into Echoes of the Deep, when you stop playing and start listening. The game’s echolocation system is not a mechanic bolted onto exploration — it is the exploration.

Lumen Works has built something rare: a puzzle adventure where difficulty comes from attention rather than obtuseness. The haptic suite on iOS is the headline, but the desktop translation loses surprisingly little.

The ending will split players; I found it brave, others will find it abrupt. What is beyond argument is the craft. This is the kind of game that justifies the existence of the medium’s quieter corners.