Echoes of Elysium Hands-On Preview: Skybound Survival With a Twist

Echoes of Elysium doesn’t start like your typical survival game. You’re not dropped into a forest or stranded on a beach-instead, you begin high above the world, aboard a floating skyship. The moment you gaze into the vast blue horizon, speckled with floating islands and shimmering resources drifting upward, it’s clear this game is aiming to stand out.

This unique entry point immediately changes how you engage with the world. You don’t begin by chopping trees-you start by activating engines and building out your airborne base. And yes, you have a jetpack from the get-go, which adds a sense of futuristic adventure and vertical freedom that’s rare in the genre.

As part of the June 2025 Steam Next Fest, I had the chance to test out the Echoes of Elysium demo. While limited to crafting and base-building mechanics, the slice of gameplay on offer is enough to hint at the game’s potential-and some of its early growing pains.

Movement is initially sluggish. You’re tethered to your ship, and the process to get it moving is slow: gather resources, craft fuel, and slowly drift toward nearby islands. But even when you arrive, there’s not much to interact with yet. Fortunately, the jetpack-especially when used strategically with stamina-becomes your best travel tool. A rhythmic boost-glide-boost pattern lets you cover impressive distances more efficiently than your underpowered ship.

Despite the slow start, the game is visually stunning. Its art direction evokes the serenity of The Falconeer, giving you plenty of peaceful moments to absorb the scenery. That said, after a few hours, you’ll likely wish you could see more of what the game promises for its future-customized ships, dynamic environments, and more involved gameplay loops.

The real charm of Echoes of Elysium lies in how it makes your ship the true heart of your journey. You’re not just surviving-you’re engineering, designing, and fine-tuning a personal sky fortress. That core idea is already engaging, and it’s what kept me coming back even when there wasn’t much else to do in the demo.

Still, technical issues persist. I experienced softlocks, freezes, UI bugs, and even a few full crashes. Some resources and enemies clipped through geometry, and my ship once got stuck beneath an island with no way to retrieve it. These hiccups are common in early access builds, but they’re worth noting.

Ultimately, Echoes of Elysium shows a lot of promise. Its setting is refreshing, its visuals are captivating, and its concept of ship-centric survival is compelling. With time and polish from developer Loric Games, it could soar beyond its current limitations. For now, the sky isn’t just the limit-it’s the launchpad.

Tested on PC. Demo build provided by the publisher.