Echo Night Beyond is survival horror game. It seems developers love those things at the moment. This one, however, has a twist on the usualy zombies, and has even managed to not be set in Japan. Taking a futuristic space setting, Echo Night Beyond is certainly different.

You play Richard Osmond, on holiday with his fiancee, and a victim of a tragic moon shuttle crash that killed almost everyone on board. Waking up after the crash, stranded outside the Lunar Station, you see no sign of your fiancee. As you set off to find out what happened, you find yourself trapped, and surrounded by ghosts.

As the fear sets in, your heartbeat increases rapidly. Let your heartbeat get too high, and you'll end up joining the ghosts.

Echo Night Beyond uses a first person system, which is immersive and intuitive, although it does sometimes lead to you missing clues as your eye skip over them.

The interface is simple and streamlined - most interactions, except using items, are contextual, this means that nce you've found whatever it is you need to interact with, you are fine. There is a lot of running (well, walking) around, and a lot of looking in obscure places and focussing on things just to see if you can use them. In that respect this feels like an old style point and click adventure.

The graphics are mostly nice - the interiors are well done, and the glare of your helmet is realistic, but some of the ghosts are a little fuzzy - yes, I know they're ghosts, but since some of them look nice, you would expect the others to look the same too.

Sound-wise, they've kept everything to a minimum - you hear your heartbeat and breathing, and you hear doors opening, but theres not much else - the cries and taunts of the ghosts, but no music. This does add to the tension, but if you're stuck and wandering around trying to figure out what a ghost wants, their repeated taunts get irritating fast.

I can't deny the immersion of this game - the physics model is good, the world looks real, the controls are intuitive, and the heart rate system nicely done. The vibration of the controller in time with your heart rate while you are scared does help raise your own heart rate.

It would be nice if things were more obvious - even save points are just discrete devices on walls, and it was a long time before I found one.

This is a great attempt at a survival horror in a different setting, and the motivations of the characters, and back-story are nicely done. If you like the survival horror then this is well worth checking out. There is more than one ending, so it should keep you going for a fair while.

Check it out if you like the genre. This one is a refreshing change from zombies and slashing. The lack of combat, and the fiendish puzzles may deter some gamers however.

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 5/10
Interface: 8/10
Game Play: 7/10
Longevity: 7/0
Overall: 7/10