Neng Nana
Review by: Editorial Staff
Developer: ACE Team
Publisher: Good Shepherd Entertainment
Platform: PC (Reviewed), PS4, Xbox One
Price: £21.99
In the landscape of modern gaming, where sequels and established franchises often dominate the charts, occasionally a title emerges that defies conventional categorization. The Eternal Cylinder, the latest offering from ACE Team, is precisely such a game. It is a surrealist, terrifying, and ultimately captivating odyssey that forces players to reckon with existential dread while navigating one of the most imaginative alien ecosystems ever rendered. While it may falter in its mechanical execution, its sheer ambition and visual audacity make it an unforgettable experience that lingers in the mind long after the credits roll.
Main Facts: A Surrealist Survival Odyssey
At its core, The Eternal Cylinder is a survival-exploration game that eschews the standard "crafting and base-building" tropes found in titles like Minecraft or ARK: Survival Evolved. Instead, players take control of a "trebhum," a squat, sentient, trunk-nosed alien creature. Your objective is simple: move forward, evolve, and survive.
The central conceit is the titular Cylinder—an gargantuan, planet-spanning object that slowly rolls across the landscape, pulverizing everything in its path. It is a relentless, unstoppable force of nature that dictates the pace of the game. Unlike other open-world titles, The Eternal Cylinder imposes a linear, desperate momentum. You are not meant to settle; you are meant to flee.
The game is a masterclass in atmospheric world-building. The setting is a bizarre, vibrant dreamscape that feels like a collaborative effort between Salvador Dalí and Hieronymus Bosch. From floating, snot-like monstrosities to snails that function as living bear-traps, every element of the flora and fauna feels alien, yet consistent within its own internal logic.
Chronology: The Evolution of a Species
The player’s journey begins in a state of vulnerability. You start as a single, solitary trebhum, thrust into a world that feels hostile and alien. The early hours are defined by a sense of scale; you are tiny, and the world is vast.
Phase I: The Struggle for Existence
Initially, the player must learn to forage. Using their trunks, trebhums can ingest various organic materials. These are not merely food; they are the catalyst for survival. Consumption leads to mutation. By eating specific materials, your trebhum can grow fur to withstand arctic temperatures, develop elongated legs for superior traversal, or even undergo bizarre transformations—such as turning into a cube, a mutation that is as mechanically useful for puzzles as it is inherently comedic.
Phase II: The Formation of the Tribe
As you progress, the game shifts from a solitary survival tale to a communal one. You encounter other trebhums, often trapped or in need of aid. Whether by hatching them from incubation flowers or reviving them with mystical crystals, the player builds a family. This is not just a cosmetic feature; it is a tactical necessity. Certain geographical barriers require multiple trebhums to unlock, and the death of your lead creature forces you to inhabit another member of your tribe, effectively acting as a system of "extra lives."
Phase III: The Race Against the Horizon
The game’s structure is punctuated by "Towers." These blue-tinted sanctuaries are the only places where the Cylinder’s progress is halted. These towers act as waypoints, providing the player with a brief moment of respite to evolve, explore, and breathe. However, the respite is always temporary. The looming threat of the Cylinder, with its infernal orange glow and deafening roar, serves as a constant, ticking clock, driving the narrative forward.
Supporting Data: The Mechanics of Alien Life
While the atmosphere and art direction are world-class, the mechanical foundation of The Eternal Cylinder presents a more complex picture.
The Control Conundrum
A significant point of contention lies in the moment-to-moment movement. Despite the thrill of evolving new appendages, the actual act of controlling a trebhum often feels floaty and imprecise. Jumping—a mechanic essential for navigating the complex terrain—often feels disconnected from the weight of the creature. While the visual feedback of your mutations is excellent, the tactile feedback of using those mutations often leaves the player wanting more.
Emergent Narrative vs. Mechanical Simplicity
The communal aspects of the tribe, while narratively satisfying, feel mechanically thin. Your fellow trebhums, once added to your group, are largely passive. They lack an advanced AI that would allow for complex interaction, serving mostly as a headcount or a requirement for specific environmental puzzles. However, the game compensates for this through its exceptional narration. A voice-over guides the player through the history of the trebhum, revealing an emotive and tragic backstory for a race that has been pushed to the brink of extinction.
Official Responses and Developer Intent
ACE Team has explicitly stated that they wanted to create a game that felt "impossible" yet "believable." In interviews, the developers have highlighted the influence of classic sci-fi and surrealist art. By focusing on the "ecological disaster" theme, they sought to mirror real-world anxieties about climate change and environmental destruction, albeit through an alien, allegorical lens.
The choice to make the Cylinder a "character" in its own right was intentional. It is not just an obstacle; it is an adversary. The sound design team worked extensively to ensure that the Cylinder’s approach would trigger a visceral, physiological response in the player. The low-frequency rumble and the escalating roar as the machine nears are designed to induce genuine panic—a design goal that the game achieves with terrifying efficacy.
Implications: The Legacy of the Cylinder
The Eternal Cylinder is a game that will likely polarize the gaming community. For those who prioritize tight, responsive combat or deep, simulation-heavy mechanics, the game’s flaws may be difficult to overlook. The movement is arguably its greatest weakness, potentially alienating players looking for a polished platforming experience.
However, for players who value artistic vision, narrative depth, and the feeling of discovery, the game is a triumph. It dares to be strange. It refuses to hold the player’s hand in the traditional sense, instead inviting them to inhabit a world that operates on its own inscrutable, terrifying rules.
Why it Matters
The success of The Eternal Cylinder lies in its ability to generate "emergent moments." The anecdote of losing a lead trebhum to a predator, only to be reunited hours later, highlights the game’s capacity for storytelling through gameplay. It forces the player to care about these little creatures, not because of complex stats or gear scores, but because you have spent hours guiding them away from an unstoppable, crushing doom.
Furthermore, the game serves as a critique of the "safe" design choices often found in AAA titles. By opting for a surrealist aesthetic and an unconventional, linear-survival structure, ACE Team has created a work of art that feels singular. It is a reminder that video games, at their best, are not just about "winning," but about experiencing a journey that feels alien, challenging, and profoundly evocative.
Final Verdict
If you can look past the occasionally clunky controls, you will find a game that is truly unlike anything else currently on the market. The Eternal Cylinder is a flawed masterpiece—a game that manages to be simultaneously charming and nightmarish. It is a testament to the power of imaginative world-building, proving that sometimes, the most effective way to tell a story is to give the player something to run away from, and a small, trunk-nosed friend to run alongside.
For the price of £21.99, it offers an experience that is far more memorable than many titles priced at triple that amount. It is a haunting, prismatic, and spectacular achievement that cements ACE Team’s reputation as one of the most innovative developers in the industry today. The Cylinder may be a force of destruction, but in the realm of interactive media, its arrival is a welcome, if terrifying, breath of fresh air.
Sagoh
Basiran
