Eternal Strands Isn’t Just a Game—It’s a Physics-Bending Playground for Chaos Mages
Yellow Brick Games, a studio stacked with ex-Dragon Age and Assassin’s Creed talent, just dropped Eternal Strands, and let’s cut to the chase: This isn’t your grandma’s RPG. Forget fireballs and frost spells as mere tools—here, magic is a weaponized science experiment. Launching today on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Game Pass, the game throws players into the boots of Brynn, a Weaver tasked with reclaiming a fallen kingdom by any means necessary. And “any means” includes setting forests on fire, freezing lakes into battering rams, and hurling molten debris at skyscraper-sized monsters. It’s glorious. It’s unhinged. And it’s already breaking the internet.
Magic That Feels Like Cheating Physics
The star of the show? Eternal Strands’ spellcasting system, which lets you Frankenstein elements into absurd combos. Early players are sharing clips of a boss fight where someone froze a tidal wave mid-crash, climbed it like a staircase, then detonated the ice into shrapnel to shred the beast below. Another Redditor bragged about luring enemies into a canyon, collapsing the cliffs with telekinesis, and roasting the rubble with fire magic to create a “meat-and-stone fondue.” As creative director Thomas Giroux told me last week: “We didn’t want spells to be buttons you press. We wanted them to be stories you tell.” Mission accomplished.
Boss Fights That Fight Back (Literally)
The game’s nine “Great Foes” are less traditional bosses and more Kaiju-sized puzzles. Take the Highland Iceclaw, a wolf-like titan that stalks snowfields. Beat it once, and it’ll return later clad in magma-hardened armor, forcing you to rethink every strategy. Or the Ark of the Stricken Earth, a walking fortress that weaponizes weather—dodge lightning strikes in a storm, avoid hypothermia in a blizzard, or get roasted alive in a heatwave. “It’s like Shadow of the Colossus if the colossus studied your playstyle and cheated,” laughed one Twitch streamer during last week’s preview event.
Crafting? More Like Creative Anarchy
Yellow Brick Games clearly hates boring loot. Instead of grinding for preset gear, Eternal Strands lets you build gear from anything. Melt a dragon’s scales into armor that deflects fire? Done. Freeze a charging boar mid-attack to harvest unblemished hide for stealth gear? Go nuts. Even the game’s economy rewards chaos: Burn enemies for rare materials, freeze them for pristine ones, or electrocute them to… well, the devs are staying coy on that. “Experimentation isn’t just encouraged—it’s mandatory,” said a previewer at Game Informer.
The Hiccups: A Ferrari with a Fiat’s Trunk
Is it perfect? Not quite. The melee combat feels like an afterthought compared to the spell-slinging spectacle, and the inventory system struggles under the weight of all that crafting freedom. (Pro tip: Ditch the “collect everything” mindset.) Performance, though, is silky—60fps on consoles, 4K/120fps on beefy PCs—and Game Pass day-one access guarantees a massive audience.
The Bottom Line
Eternal Strands isn’t just a game. It’s a dare: How creatively can you break our world? While its rough edges keep it from masterpiece status, few games this year will match its sheer audacity. For $60, it’s a riot. For Game Pass subscribers? It’s a no-brainer.
Score: 4.5/5 | Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Game Pass
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