echoshift

echoshift certainly isn't afraid to make you think. A gentle start quickly escalates into multi-stage problems with multiple routines to consider, along with dead ends and traps. Even though many levels are, after a bit of experimentation, actually far easier than they may first appear, there are real challenges here which require planning, forethought and great concentration. Despite each level giving you nine cast members to play with, highest honours are usually reserved for those who use three or four. echoshift encourages such a meticulous nature that even the slightest portion of non-optimal play usually saw me restarting from the beginning rather than muddling through with a less-than-perfect run.

Progression is well judged and there's little frustration as you work your way through the game. Levels are divided into bands with nine events apiece, each of which features at least one new mechanic such as the deadly papier-maché geometry or the pressure pad switches. This means there's always a bit of variety in the challenge, and room to change it up if the old cogitator starts to grumble.

Wonderfully polished and consistent design and presentation combine with the well judged and executed puzzling to create a very solid game, but echoshift falls prey to one of the main criticisms of its predecessor: a simple lack of charisma.

Unique and classy it may be, but after a while it tends to feel like a sterile chore dressed up as entertainment - like a maths test which you fill in with crayons, or a teddy bear designed by Steve Jobs. That said, it's hard to get a puzzle game to engage in any more meaningful way than a sudoku without jazzing it up with brightly coloured characters and flashing lights, and Artoon deserves credit for having a stab at the sophisticated approach. It's not quite there yet, however, and sometimes starting a new level feels a bit like staring at a blank page in Excel, knowing full well that you have to have a complete Christmas staffing and cover rota with at least 14 colours on it finished by lunchtime.

Perhaps it's because of this slightly enervating aspect that both echo games work well on the PSP. Playing the original in short bursts on the handheld felt much more natural and enjoyable than in sofa sessions on PS3, and PSP was certainly the right choice here. There's probably a good chance it will see light of day as a PSN download, along with plenty of new levels as DLC, but for me echoshift is very much a portable game.

There are some incongruities here which fracture the mood a little, such as having to hammer the X button repeatedly to shake off obstacles, a strange addition to such a purportedly cerebral title. Surprisingly imprecise controls grate in times of tension too, especially when exiting or passing stairs. One or two rage quits during my time with it can probably be assigned to that fault, rather than my usual lack of cognitive ability.