Everlasting Strands has quietly turn into considered one of early 2025’s greatest surprises. Whereas it is not topping the gross sales charts nor dominating the web dialog, the sentiment which surrounds it’s usually optimistic, and within the age of bloated open-world experiences (that are in any other case good), many gamers are discovering nice consolation in its smarter method to world dimension and tightening the gameplay loop.
Yellow Brick Video games, based in 2020 by AAA business veterans from BioWare, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and EA, has knocked out a notable recreation that feels neither too massive nor small, in roughly 4 years. With the business dealing with many difficulties as I kind these phrases and polarisation main to larger and costlier experiences in addition to small itty bitty indies that usually chunk greater than they will chew, Everlasting Strands is the form of uncommon beast that sometimes flies underneath many radars.
I arrived a bit late to this occasion as a result of my gaming commitments elsewhere, however largely optimistic chatter and feedback that got here from people who’re sometimes burned out from enjoying big-budget behemoths made me way more within the recreation than any piece of promotional materials. Yellow Brick Video games CCO Mike Laidlaw’s enthusiasm and customarily healthful vibes on Bluesky additionally helped, I will admit.
Latest disappointments with formidable video games that had been constructed with UE5 additionally had me a bit apprehensive. Might Yellow Brick Video games ship on all it had promise, whereas additionally coping with that tech’s weaker factors on the primary strive? Effectively, I can say all that AAA expertise did not go to waste. Everlasting Strands is a darn positive online game that feels laser-focused on what actually issues most when devs haven’t got a ‘ceaselessly’ funds and creatively clueless executives respiration down their necks.
Everlasting Strands’ premise is straightforward, and even the preliminary cutscene retains issues concise regardless of all the colorful worldbuilding executed with the textual content and the (glorious) voice appearing: Weavers are this world’s model of mages they usually’re not welcome in most locations after some dangerous stuff occurred way back. In some ways, management of magic is a misplaced artwork, and whereas there are practitioners transferring from one city to the subsequent and seeking to unearth misplaced secrets and techniques, the very fact is that most individuals do not care about or just hate these weavers and what they do.
After all, Brynn, a younger weaver, and her band of cheerful and passionate magic buddies are on the transfer and looking for a option to restore weavers to their former glory. With out entering into extra early story particulars, they arrive throughout the Enclave, a area that was basically the centre of magic on the planet. These days, it is a hazardous magic wasteland the place nature thrives, however hazard lurks round each nook. And that features large scary constructs referred to as Arks, in addition to behemoths corresponding to drakes.
Yellow Brick Video games’ key members have not been shy about explaining the largest influences on their recreation. Shadow of the Colossus, latest Zelda video games, and even Dragon’s Dogma have been introduced up repeatedly. You need not play a lot of the sport to really feel their DNA everywhere in the Enclave’s ruins and Brynn’s talents. There may be, nonetheless, a definite curiosity in making the gameplay loop breezier and way more targeted than in your common open-world extravaganza.
A couple of hours in, Everlasting Strands should not be thought of a small recreation. Its areas, that are laid out like and related in dimension to Monster Hunter’s, change underneath totally different climate (and even magical) situations and are designed to be revisited throughout hunts and aspect quests. The important thing distinction right here is that they are fairly straightforward to memorize and navigate shortly. It isn’t concerning the sheer dimension of all of the mixed areas, however about how that area is used.
The final feeling is that the majority of Everlasting Strands’ growth was spent determining give gamers sufficient management over the sport slightly than maintain them engaged. It seems that, if the fundamental instruments and loop are cool and distinctive sufficient, folks might be curious about exploring extra of a world. There are clear aims driving the entire thing (exploring a misplaced civilization and defeating huge enemies with inventiveness) and greater than sufficient cutting-edge tech powering the artistic imaginative and prescient up.
Monster Hunter figured this out way back (Wilds is about to show Capcom proper once more), and Nintendo’s refreshed open-world tackle The Legend of Zelda was a big win that labored twice as a result of its astounding freedom wasn’t restricted to ‘extra issues to do’ and a placing visible presentation. Each Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are video games that merely are enjoyable to determine and ‘resolve’ in a large number of the way. Everlasting Strands feels precisely like a downsized model of the mix of these design philosophies.
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Probably the most enjoyable I’ve had to date with Everlasting Strands has been making an attempt totally different spells on totally different components of an enormous automaton’s physique, luring large monsters into elemental traps when my well being bar was nearly depleted, or seeing how a lot I may actually break the sport’s environments with the restricted (however expertly crafted) instruments I might been given. It is the form of recreation that speedrunners will most likely tear aside sooner slightly than later, and I am pretty positive they’re going to have a blast making an attempt to determine all of it out, as the sport actively encourages you to ‘mess’ with its limits and check out totally different methods with finite sources always.
After all, the very fact the thriller on the centre of the narrative is intriguing and that dialogues and exposition by no means go on for too lengthy (including to the general breezy vibes) are massive pluses that do not disrupt, and even elevate, the sleek pacing of an journey that strikes an nearly excellent steadiness between epic and swashbuckling. Plus, the artwork has a definite, clear fashion and is fairly cute!
I’ve received my complaints, positive, however they’re comparatively straightforward to miss when a recreation runs and performs so nicely, along with having that visible attraction. Extra importantly, Everlasting Strands absolutely is aware of what its limits are and what it desires to do. I want that occurred extra typically.
Everlasting Strands is now accessible on PC through Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer, PS5, and Xbox Sequence X/S. It is also a part of Recreation Go’ present providing of third-party video games.
