Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a stealth-based adventure game developed by a new indie studio called Baby Root Games. It can currently be played on PC, and it’s slotted to be released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
The word “shadow” in the title is an important clue to what players will do as they delve into the game’s story.
Players take on the third-person role of a woman named Ayana, a member of the Ereban race. These people have the amazing ability to manipulate matter within darkness and thereby become one with the shadows.
I say “people,” but the fact is, Ayana has never met another Ereban. She may be the last of her kind.
That’s what helps draw her to an incredibly influential power company called Helios. This massive corporation claims to be the end-all-be-all to energy needs in the galaxy. And it promises Ayana access to its vast stores of knowledge about her people if she simply joins in their noble cause as an agent of positive change.
Once Ayana gets involved, however, things immediately feel a little sketchy. And she is soon snatched up by the company’s robots to be used for some mysterious purpose. But just before really bad things happen, she’s helped by a gaggle of rebels that break her free and … want to use her abilities for their cause.
Ayana isn’t exactly sure who to trust. But she knows one thing: Helios has info about the disappearance of the Ereban. That evil corporation might even be the cause. And if she wants to uncover the truth, Ayana will need to traverse the facilities, temples and ruins controlled by Helios; aid the rebels; and dig up the facts, piece by piece.
As mentioned, gameplay in Shadow Legacy is focused on stealth. Ayana can merge with any shadowed space (much like ink-diving in the game Splatoon) and glide along the ground, up walls and through blocked areas. Players can only merge with shadows for a limited time, but it can be expanded as the game progresses. Any hint of light, however, will cause Ayana to pop suddenly into view.
Although Ayana can slip up behind the Helios robotic and human forces and stab them in the backs, she is pretty much defenseless and instantly eliminated if caught in the open.
The game rewards players for making the stealthy, pacifist choice with no death-dealing. But if they choose a more assassin-focused tack, they gain shadow-crawling bonuses while facing significant consequences when dealing with other humans.
This is a single player game that doesn’t require an internet connection.
It’s easy to call Ereban: Shadow Legacy an indie gem. It’s a great-looking title with strong elements of play for those who enjoy stealth and puzzle strategy mixed with a dash of platforming.
The game takes Ayana through a series of levels and chapters, but it uses an open-area design that gives players plenty of choices of how to get from one goal to another. Gamers can pursue lots of side quests and gather collectables that reward Ayana with ability upgrades. (Ability upgrades include such things as blinding a foe temporarily, hiding a fallen foe, setting a decoy image, etc.)
Each chapter is also graded—with deductions for time expended, number of kills and the like—and that prompts players to replay a section and shoot for a better score and stealthy performance.
Ayana is asked to not kill any human foes. But she can still stab them in the back if she needs (or wants) to. (Robots spurt a black oil and humans splash a bit of blood.) The foes, however, have no compunctions about their deadly actions. They shoot lasers at the young woman and consistently mean her harm. If she’s caught, the large robots lift her by the head and give her a laser zap to the face. (Ayana then goes back to give the area another try.)
Trusted characters also make choices to lie and deceive as the story unfolds.
Game controls are fairly easy to slip into, but maneuvering through moving shadows and the like can feel a bit tricky at first for younger players. There’s a bit of coarse language in the fully voiced action, including uses of the s-word, “d–mit,” “h—hole,” and misuses of God’s name.
This T-rated indie gem isn’t perfect, but it’s filled with lots of shadow-slipping fun.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
