Eternal Return, a battle royale with MOBA gameplay, crafting and anime aesthetics, has finally been released after almost three years of being in early access. Read on to see if the gameplay can lure you into its deadly struggles in our review.
Eternal Return Review and Score Explanation
Eternal Return Score Explanation
| Overall | Eternal Return is a novel take on the battle royale genre. Using MOBA gameplay and adding the item crafting mechanic from its predecessor, it has become an entirely distinct competitor in the battle royale scene. It still suffers from being somewhat unfriendly to new players, but those who persist will be able to enjoy its wide cast of completely unique characters, beautiful and functional sounds, and its deep, engaging, and intense gameplay. |
|---|---|
| Story | Eternal Return has the standard premise of people having to fight each other for the greater good. Beyond that, there's basically no story that's told in-game. Although the tutorials give you a rough idea of what it should be like as one of the so-called "test subjects," in a deadly battle royale, it's extremely barebones. However, there are manhwa you can read to learn more about the lore. |
| Gameplay | Deep, complex, engaging, and frequently frustrating; these words I think are apt to describe Eternal Return's gameplay. The game has an incredibly high skill floor and the changes the developers made between its early access and full version did little to address the issue. Although most of the test subjects had been reworked to become much simpler, it didn't solve the problem of the game having numerous aspects to monitor simultaneously. However, once players can get used to it and stand on that elevated skill floor, the game opens up as one of the best battle royales the market has to offer. |
| Visuals | The game features stunning visual effects and gorgeously-modeled characters. Each skill is visually unique, showcasing the developers' commitment to making the game as visually pleasing as possible. However, this often comes at the cost of making the screen explode with lights from overlapping skills. This used to be addressed by setting the game's graphics to the lowest it can go, but, ironically, since the developers have improved the visual effects on those low settings, that is no longer a viable solution. |
| Audio | The audio in this game is as much of an instrument to enhance your immersion in the game as well as a tool to help you achieve victory. Not only is it functional, but the game's theme songs and scores are also great bangers to listen to. More often than not, you can simply idle on the main menu and enjoy listening to the songs. However, the voice acting on scripted cutscenes is all over the place. Sometimes the game starts with Korean voice acting, which then suddenly switches to English, even though your system settings are set to Japanese... |
| Value for Money | Finally, a free-to-play game with a very generous monetization scheme. Eternal Return is anything but pay-to-win. The in-game store only features cosmetics and quality-of-life items on sale. Though it has a Battle Pass that gives progress-boosting items, those only make collecting currency and other prizes, like even more cosmetics, easier. They do nothing to influence the gameplay itself. Even the test subjects, the collectable characters in this game, can just be purchased with the game's free in-game currency. |
Eternal Return Review: The Unspoken Diamond of Battle Royales
2,371 hours. That's how much time I've invested in this game since its early access release back in October 2020. I have a love-hate relationship with this game, a feeling shared among the many players who continue to stick by it until now. However, I think this also gives me the right amount of credibility to give this game a fair review.
Eternal Return, a game by Korean developer Nimble Neuron, is a battle royale game in a MOBA format. There have been a few other games that have tried this formula, such as Battlerite Royale. However, Eternal Return doesn’t just use your typical battle royale formula. The game also carries over the crafting mechanic from its predecessor, Black Survival. This simple addition creates an entirely new and unique layer of gameplay to an otherwise already frantic genre. And it works. Really well, might I add? The result is a highly engaging gameplay loop that entices players to fight for objectives to maintain their advantage.
However, it isn't without its faults. The game has many, but the most prominent one is how unfriendly it is to new players. This has caused the game to struggle quite a bit to gain some traction. To promote itself, Nimble Neuron organizes regular tournaments across different regions to bring more exposure to the game. But this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. Games should always be considering the "New Player Experience." It's just that the things that make Eternal Return unique is also what makes it difficult to get into.
Fortunately, things are looking up, as Eternal Return's official release has brought a lot of chances to the game for the better.
Eternal Return Full Game Review
Pros of Eternal Return
| Things Eternal Return Got Right |
|---|
 The Gameplay Is Frustrating...ly Fun The Audio Is Your Best Friend All Of The Characters Are Very Unique Cobalt Protocol Provides A Different Experience |
Every game of Eternal Return starts with you spawning at a pre-designated location on the map. There, you must look for as many materials as you need to craft before moving on to the next. During the early game, you must repeat this until you can gather enough to craft the gear essential for you to fight with. This can make Eternal Return's early game either a calm experience, where you leisurely travel around the map gathering items, or a hectic one, where players doggedly fight all around you, desperate for that last piece of paper left in the area.
Once you craft your essential equipment, Eternal Return shifts to the transition phase, or the mid-game. Here, the fights will become far more intense, and you’ll often see the first teams getting eliminated from the game during this phase. This is because the materials needed to upgrade the first set of equipment you crafted into stronger, higher-rarity ones are scattered in predetermined or forewarned locations on the map. Those items attract all the players in the map, each vying to upgrade their gear into stronger ones.
None of these interactions are forced. And that’s great because it means any conflicts the player has in this game are due to their choices. You fight because you want to become stronger. This is further incentivized by the game's mastery system, which basically turns "experience" into numbers. For example, a player who takes many fights may have stronger attacks and skills than those who don't. But, they might still lose against players who fight less often but were able to amass more experience by increasing their other masteries. Everything in Eternal Return is a delicate balancing game.
Eternal Return has basically made combat, which tends to be few and far in-between in most battle royale games, preferable due to its crafting system. There's no need to wait until most areas have been closed off.
On top of that, the variety of characters in the game makes every encounter entirely unique. The challenges change as your enemies pick different test subjects.
There is no dead air in an Eternal Return game. At any given moment, you can do something to become stronger, even if you’re simply checking unopened item crates. Unlike in many other BR games, where a common and very valid strategy is to simply stay put and wait for others to pick each other off, Eternal Return encourages, and perhaps even requires, that players move all the time. And for that, Eternal Return may be one of the most satisfying battle royales to earn a victory in; because you know for a fact that your victory was hard-earned, and not one from just sitting in the right place at the right time.
The Audio Is Your Best Friend
In Eternal Return, the audio is more than just a means to add immersion to the game. It's also your teammate, as the audio alone can provide much information about your surroundings and your enemies.
For example, enemy footsteps sound quite distinct from your own or your allies'. Not only can it alert you of any potential threats nearby, it can even help you determine how many of them there are, if you listen closely enough. You can also identify which test subjects you’re dealing with, purely by recognizing the sound effects of their skills.
But that's still just surface-level stuff. Using purely auditory cues, it's possible to determine what the enemy is doing to the point of certainty. Examples include:
- If an enemy's cooking pan sizzles twice, he must have cooked a low-tier food item. But if it sizzles thrice and sizzles for a fourth time after a short pause, then that's definitely a legendary-tier food item.
- If someone crafts with one hammer strike, they made a low-rarity item. But if they do so with three, followed by a long sequence of a wrench being operated, that's a legendary item.
- If you hear wet, scrubbing sounds near a supply drop, that's definitely a Luke player opening the crate.
Carefully listening to the game's audio is critical to winning the game. It will often help you survive the early game, pick fights during the mid-game, and identify and detect hidden enemies during the late game. It’s a perfect blend of immersion and function that most games can seldom achieve.
All Of The Test Subjects Are Very Unique
Eternal Return's 1.0 release has 65 test subjects, with many more to come. Each of them has a unique playstyle that can differ wildly from each other. As such, there's little chance that a player will get into the game and not find a character that suits their playstyle. There are casters who want to get up close and personal with the enemy, those who can change forms to use a different set of skills, and those who can use cameras (or sentries wards, for you Dota 2 players) to travel around.
On top of that, the game features 23 distinct weapons to choose from. While most of the characters are limited to only one weapon, there are a few that have the option to change the weapons they use. The best example of this is Jackie, the game's brutal chainsaw murderess. She can choose between daggers, axes, dual swords, or two-handed swords. Though her role as a backline killer mostly stays the same regardless of what weapon she uses, the options available change depending on the weapon. For example, a dagger-wielding Jackie can stealthily sneak toward an unsuspecting enemy and deal a large amount of damage to open up; meanwhile, a Jackie using a two-handed sword can parry attacks and charge toward enemies with impunity.
Some characters even have a unique way of interacting with their surroundings. A few examples of that include Lenox, who can fish for more than just cod in rivers and the seas, and Eva, who can interact with objects from a distance using her telekinesis. These unique abilities can even fundamentally change how a character is played, such as Xiukai needing to cook food as often as he can to build bulk or Li Dailin, who can drink an alcoholic beverage to buff her performance in battle.
This also makes almost every game of Eternal Return unique. Unlike battle royales that use guns, Eternal Return, in true MOBA fashion, will force players to adapt to the enemy lineup, where their special skills matter more than their equipment. There are many synergies that exist between characters, and those who are just starting out will appreciate learning about them as they face different lineups.
Cobalt Protocol Provides A Different Experience
Are you tired of the high tension the game's normal mode always puts you in? Do you prefer arena-type games over battle royale? Or maybe you just have a fourth player who wants to play with the gang, but none of you wants to make room for him? Then, fortunately, Eternal Return's Cobalt Protocol has you covered. It is an alternative game mode supporting up to four players per team. It was THE mode to play among early release Eternal Return players, loved for its simplicity, all the while retaining the exciting team fights that the three-man squads can offer.
Unlike Eternal Return's normal mode, Cobalt Protocol has no crafting system. Instead, you can choose from three items per slot, selected randomly from the game's equipment pool. Sometimes, you'll be fortunate enough to get a legendary or two among your choices. But more often than not, you'll have a long string of unlucky pulls with no good options. Regardless, since Cobalt Protocol doesn’t include a crafting system, the bane of existence for many new players, it makes it one of the most popular modes for fresh faces to invest time in.
Another reason why this mode is so popular is because it isn't a battle royale. Instead, it's a mode similar to Call of Duty's Domination mode, where players must take control of three control points for as long as possible. It also means that players can technically respawn as many times as needed, unlike battle royales. Points are deducted from the enemy team by holding onto a control point for forty-five seconds. Another way to deduct points is to kill an enemy test subject, subtracting one point from the enemy's score for every kill. Since each team starts with forty points, they can only die so many times and lose so many control points before they are defeated.
Lastly, a standard Cobalt Protocol game lasts only 10 minutes, which is very appealing for those who dislike Eternal Return's usual 20-ish minutes per game.
Cons of Eternal Return
| Things That Eternal Return Can Improve |
|---|
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It’s Not Beginner-Friendly Poor Onboarding Process For Cobalt Protocol The Best Graphics May Kill Your Visibility |
It’s Not Beginner-Friendly
This is the game's most glaring issue, a fact that the developers have singled out as their top priority in their developer notes before its official release. To adequately explain this issue, I'll walk you down the typical new player experience of Eternal Return 1.0.
You start with the tutorial (as everybody should), which is divided into three sections. The three tutorials cover the basic MOBA controls, crafting, gathering materials, transitions, masteries, and how the game closes down areas. They aim to cover the fundamentals you need in order to play the game. Fortunately, these tutorials are all engaging, and even have opening animations (with rather gripping scenes) to pull you in.
But, what the game doesn't prepare you for are the eventualities that a normal session of Eternal Return's battle royale mode has. For example, what do you do when your area has been completely swept clean of the materials that you need? The tutorial never teaches you that. It also doesn't teach you when the materials needed to transition your items appear, or even where they are. And god forbid if you encounter high-level players in your match (and you will), because those people have already mastered the early-game and the subsequent phases to a tee.
As if requiring situational awareness wasn’t enough, there are a great deal of other things to keep track of in one game, such as your masteries, if you have enough food to heal with in your inventory, where the next objectives are, the positions of your enemies, etc. You'll also have to keep track of time and space, such as checking the map for places to farm in, where to get food ingredients, the time of day to gather rare materials, and so on. All the while you'll have to keep moving.
Yes, all of these things need to be done simultaneously.
Even outside a match, the game is already puzzling. For example, creating a loadout, or a "saved plan" as they’re referred to in the game, is a completely different puzzle that you need to learn to solve and we won’t be able to even start talking about here.
A big part of Nimble Neuron's efforts during the official release preparation focused on making the game much more accessible for new players. One example they implemented was to have the first legendary materials spawn after night 1. This provided more time for players to finish their items before they had to fight over objectives.
Because of the changes they adopted, the game is much less problematic now, especially compared to how it was back in early access. But a lot of the problems are still there and there are still many things to juggle during the mid and late stages. Unfortunately, it's difficult to address these issues without fundamentally changing the features that set Eternal Return apart from other battle royales. Until they can figure out a way to do so, new players willing to commit to the game will just have to bite the bullet and soldier on.
Poor Onboarding Process For Cobalt Protocol
Unlike the game's standard mode, which has a decent tutorial to hold your hand, Cobalt Protocol does nothing to teach you how the game works.
More often than not, you'll find yourself having no idea how things are done there. This is particularly true for Cobalt Protocol's item gacha system. Though it hints that you'll have to roll for your equipment at the beginning of the game, it doesn't tell you what button to press to bring up the item shop. It also doesn't teach you anything about the minibosses nor the control points, the turrets at your base, or the item spawns that appear at certain game phases.
What's even worse is that players aren't informed that they can sell the useless items they get from the item gacha, which is what allows a kind of "pity" system to trigger and provide you with a set of three legendary equipment to choose from. This is a major turn-off for many, especially for new players who may run into bad luck and get multiple bad rolls.
This is likely just an oversight. The mode never had a tutorial since it was in early access and it hasn’t been addressed by the developers yet. But there's also a chance it's been done intentionally to make you play the game's normal battle royale mode instead. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Cobalt Protocol has a minimum account level before the mode is accessible, despite being the more straightforward game mode. It means that all players will have to play the normal mode multiple times regardless, just to be able to try it.
Having a game mode without a tutorial is pretty disappointing. Nimble Neuron has created a decent tutorial for the battle royale at Lumia Island, complete with opening animations, so I fail to see why they wouldn't do so for Cobalt Protocol. The game is at a 1.0 release already, for crying out loud.
The Best Graphics May Kill Your Visibility
With great graphics comes great clutter. Each of the characters in Eternal Return have beautiful effects for each of their skills, and due to the nature of the game being a team-based MOBA, there will be times when the visual effects of several skills overlap. This creates a regrettable scenario where the detailed visuals actually only work to hinder your visibility. It certainly doesn't help that most characters' skills appear on the screen extravagantly with explosive effects. Back when there were solo modes during Early Release, only a couple or so players would fight simultaneously at a time so it wasn’t too bad. The issue is undoubtedly apparent now that the only modes available are Squads, which have three players per team, and Cobalt Protocol, with four players.
Most Eternal Return streamers play the game on the lowest possible graphics setting for this very reason. Only bitter feelings will persist if you lose a fight just because you couldn't see.
To their credit, Nimble Neuron tried to address this issue as the game transitioned from early access to its official release. But their decisions were, to put it nicely, pretty strange. For example, skills overlapping is a certainty now that they’ve removed (temporarily) the 1-player and 2-player team modes. There are also no good workarounds to avoid the visual clutter anymore since they’ve improved the graphics on low settings, ironically making things worse by making them better.
Eternal Return Overview & Premise
The game follows the same premise set by its predecessor, Immortal Soul - Black Survival. It follows the deathmatches set on an isolated island called Lumia Island, where the organization, the AGLAIA, is conducting experiments in an effort to force human evolution. They do this by repeatedly having "test subjects" kill each other until only one remains. Then, they repeat the process by reviving them and wiping their memories, hoping to reach some penultimate result that would better mankind.
More details are provided through the manhwas "Black Survival," which features the test subjects Hyunwoo, Isol, and Hyejin as they work together to survive the battle royale, and "Black Survival - Bottomless Pit," which focuses on the mysterious Doctor Wickeline, a brilliant and deadly scientist who also serves as one of the major boss entities in Eternal Return.
Both "Black Survival" and "Black Survival - Bottomless Pit" feature very gripping stories about the realities of widespread murder, distrust, and personal goals.
Who Should Play Eternal Return?
Eternal Return is Recommended if You Enjoy:
• Dota 2
• Battlerite Royale
• Battle Royales or MOBAs in general
Fans of MOBAs, such as Dota 2 or League of Legends, will surely enjoy Eternal Return, especially if they like anime aesthetics. Battle Royale enthusiasts will also enjoy the game's fresh take, putting a novel spin on the formula with its item gathering and crafting mechanics. It truly is unlike any of the other battle royale games out there. Those interested in competing on an e-Sports level should also give it a try, as the game already supports a healthy competitive scene, with regular tournaments held between each region it has been released on.
Is Eternal Return Worth It?
With Enough Persistence, It's Worth All The Pain
As I mentioned, I have a love-hate relationship with this game. On the one hand, many of the changes they made during the game's early access disappointed me (stop nerfing Sylvia, please). However, I repeatedly return to this game. Why? Simply because I've gotten to the point where I can appreciate Eternal Return for what it truly is; a deep, complex, engaging, fun, and oftentimes very frustrating game that challenges every aspect of what it means to be competitive.
Eternal Return is a game that’s truly worth investing time into. Sure, there may be times when you'll get angry at your teammates or yourself. But that's all part of playing a battle royale, isn't it? In fact, once you taste victory for the first time, you may even find that all of your previous vexations were worth it.
How Eternal Return Matches Up to Recently-Released Games
| Games That Came Out Recently | Explanation |
|---|---|
 Cross Tails |
As a turn-based strategy game, Cross Tails lack the punch that real-time games like MOBAs have as a standard feature. Eternal Return offers fast-paced action and requires the kind of strategizing that involves the player's experience, logic, and intuition. |
 Pikmin 4 |
While Pikmin 4 certainly is a much better quality game, it cannot provide you with the deep, co-op experience that Eternal Return offers. For those itching for a competitive game, Eternal Return can scratch that itch to a wide degree by pitting you against a dozen other players simultaneously. Pikmin 4 is far less exhausting (and far less frustrating), though. |
 Exoprimal |
Eternal Return' gameplay loop is actually exciting, unlike Exoprimal's disappointing one. Danger lurks around every corner in this game, one that's not artificial and one that depends completely upon your team's, as well as the enemies', decisions and skills. |
How Eternal Return Matches Up to Similar Games
| Games Similar to Eternal Return | Explanation |
|---|---|
 Dota 2 |
The two games have very little difference in controls. However, they are differentiated mainly by how the game works. If you're looking for an exciting battle royale experience, or are a fan of anime aesthetics, choose Eternal Return. But if you’re one who likes games of attrition, then Dota 2 is definitely for you. |
 Super Mecha Champions |
Both games are battle royales, which means their goals are the same: survive until the end. However, both bring something new to the table; while Eternal Return is played like a MOBA and has a deep crafting system, Super Mecha Champions is a third-person shooter where the players can ride giant mechs to fight with. Both are great games, but Super Mecha Champions is markedly more difficult to match in as there’s barely any players on the server at any given time. |
 Battlerite Royale |
A true one-to-one competitor. Both are played like MOBAs, and both are battle royale games. However, Eternal Return features deeper character progression mechanics in its crafting, gathering, and mastery systems. The action in Eternal Return is also far more fast-paced, with each fight potentially only lasting less than ten seconds if a team is caught completely unaware. Players who seek more excitement should definitely lean toward Eternal Return. |
Eternal Return Trailer
Eternal Return Product Information
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| Title | ETERNAL RETURN |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 20, 2023 |
| Developer | Nimble Neuron |
| Publisher | Kakao Games Europe, Nimble Neuron |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | MOBA, Battle Royale |
| Number of Players | 1-24 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Eternal Return Website |
