Eternal Strands Brings Single-Player Monster Hunting To Xbox Game Pass

Ahead of its day one arrival on Xbox Game Pass tomorrow, we’ve been hands-on with Eternal Strands; the brand-new action-adventure IP from Yellow Brick Games. Part Monster Hunter, part Dragon Age: The Veilguard, this single-player affair strips back some of the complexity of both of those titles for a more focused experience, perhaps losing a bit of nuance along the way.

Having said that, we have only put six or seven hours into this one so far, with our experience solely based on those opening hours of Eternal Strands. At this point, the game has felt very single-player Monster Hunter-like – we’ve spent most of our time moving between a homestead area and multiple vast open levels in search of big bosses that typically grant essential information and/or materials to progress the main campaign.

And, at this stage, that’s the main hook with Eternal Strands. Structurally it feels rather similar to the famous Capcom series as well, with plenty of low-hanging-fruit enemies to tackle as you explore each mission area on your way to a boss fight. Crafting materials? Those are here too and take many forms; becoming useful for forging different tools and armour pieces as you traverse lands with various, threatening weather patterns.

Speaking of weather patterns, these harsh conditions — along with various elemental powers at your disposal — do attempt to set Eternal Strands apart a little bit. You can use chunks of the environment, fire, ice and magic to both fight enemies and forge new paths for traversal, and we quite liked these mechanics even at an early stage. Sometimes, the game’s big creatures aren’t a part of your main objective but will be hanging around anyway, and we could see these mechanics providing plenty of variety in how to fight or escape the game’s boss creatures along the way.

In the early hours of Eternal Strands, we paired these powers with a sword & shield combo up close, and a bow & arrow for ranged attacks. Both of these combat techniques worked well depending on the scenario, but they did lack a bit of punch, especially in the case of ranged combat. Firing arrows just lacked that satisfying feedback you want when they land a hit – and some fights do feel a bit like you’re just watching a health bar dwindle as a result. Up-close fighting felt better, especially when you find that sweet weak spot on an enemy – but the feel of combat definitely seemed a bit lacking in the early stages of Eternal Strands.

With this monster-hunting adventure being single-player in nature, Yellow Brick Games is attempting to weave a full narrative into this one, but it hasn’t really grabbed us just yet. Our cast of colourful characters keep talking about ‘The Veil’ (which combined with the art style made us think of the latest Dragon Age title quite often), and the game is just about getting into why the world of Eternal Strands is the way it is – but yeah, it’s nothing to write home about just yet. We will say that the voice acting is really quite good which helps add some personality to proceedings, especially as some conversations play out on-screen as animated stills.

There’s definitely potential in Eternal Strands, and we’re curious to see how things change and evolve in this world by the time its supposedly 20-30 hour campaign wraps up, but the experience does feel a little generic so far. It certainly pulls elements from some pretty big titles and mixes them up in a competent way, but nothing about the story or the core combat is really pulling us in right now. The real standout elements are the bright and colourful visuals and the fun and energetic voice acting, and we’ll have to see how the rest of it progresses down the road.

However, as we mentioned at the top, Eternal Strands is launching on Xbox Game Pass tomorrow, January 28th, and we definitely think it’s worth trying out if this sort of experience appeals to you. Microsoft’s subscription service feels just right for a new IP like this, and it’s definitely worth having a bash with these opening hours to see what you think as well. There’s merit in Yellow Brick Games’ single-player taking on monster hunting, and we’re curious to see what the community thinks when Eternal Strands hits Xbox Game Pass this week.