Alter Echo is a third-person action adventure game released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2003. It was developed by Outrage Games and published by THQ.
In the far future, "Plast" is a miracle substance that psychics, called "shapers", can use to form anything, including spaceships that allow humans to travel to distant planets. Young shaper Nevin accompanies a team sent to the planet Proteus, the only place in the galaxy where Plast can be found, now under the thumb of Paavo, a brilliant shaper who intends to use Plast to wipe out humanity. Their ship is shot down and Nevin is saved by a mysterious being who gives him a new suit made of EchoPlast, and instructions to stop Paavo.
Alter Echo provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: the post-credit scene for the game makes it ambiguous what happened to Paavo, Gherran, Kess, and especially Arana who are last seen covered in Echoplast as Echo itself tells Arana to wake up. it's unknown whether they are kept in stasis or Echo resurrected them nor do we know its motive behind this.
- A God Am I: Paavo puts his mind in a body made of EchoPlast, and he begins making statements about how he is now a perfect form of life.
- Ax-Crazy:
- Paavo by a longshot, having such a massive god complex he became an Omnicidal Maniac.
- Kess is very vocal about the fact she's a sadist who does what she does simply because she likes killing people.
- Big Bad: Paavo, being the cause of all of the game's problems as well as being the creator of Echo, the titular sapient plast.
- The Brute: Gherran acts as the Dumb Muscle while Kess acts as the brains.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Kess, one of Paavo's hired goons who admits to being a sadist who loves killing people.
- Co-Dragons: Gherran and Kess acts as the two secondary antagonists for the Big Bad Paavo.
- Dark Action Girl: Kess.
- Demiurge Archetype: Paavo claims to be this and a darwin during his Motive Rant.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Kess may be verbally abusive to him, Gherran and Kess do genuinely care for each other. Kess was deeply upset when Gherran was killed (or so it seems) and tried to avenge him later on.
- Faking the Dead: Paavo faked his death, so he could continue his experiments on plastids on the planet Proteus.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The three battle forms Nevin can use fall into these three classes.
- Sword Form: The well-rounded melee-focused fighter ideal for engaging with most enemies.
- Gun Form: Low mobility, but with an assortment of ranged attacks similar to a mage.
- Stealth Form: Agile, can turn invisible, but a weak fighter, filling the role of the Thief.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Kess spends most of her fight dashing around like a lightning bolt or leaping to a higher stage that requires you to make a tedious platform climb to reach.
- Hydras are the mook equivalent as they will always spawn a great distance away and shoot you with ranged attacks (while being immune to your ranged attacks), then run away as you close in, and only stop moving if you finally manage to get a melee attack in.
- Interface Screw: In the final stage of the final battle, you have to block/avoid Paavo's attacks then use Time Dilation attacks to damage him. As you're progressing through the node map of the final attack, he interrupts you before hitting the last node, taking you to the FINAL FINAL stage of the fight.
- Mad Scientist: Paavo has created a new form of Plast, EchoPlast, which he intends to use to wipe out humanity and replace it with a race made of EchoPlast.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Paavo seeks to wiped out all human life on every inhabited planet so he could reshape them in his image.
- Not Quite Dead: At the very end, Arana is revealed to be alive within the core of Proteus, and possibly Paavo, Gherran, and Kess are as well.
- Sentient Phlebotinum: Echoplast is a variety of "Plast" (material which can be shaped and reshaped psychically) developed in secret by Paavo, which ended up becoming sentient.
- Sequel Hook: As Nevin and Stome take off for Earth, the camera dives into the core of Proteus, showing the bodies of Paavo, Gherren, Kess, and Arana wrapped in Plast, whereupon Echo calls for Arana to wake up, which she does, followed by Echo saying "[They] have much to discuss..."
- A Taste of Power: The game grants the player all three forms in quick succession during the opening chapter, allowing the player to get used to the shapeshifting mechanics and using all three forms in tandem effectively. At the end of the first chapter, the resident super-villain steals all but your basic form until your ally restores your other forms after beating the second and third chapters.
- Transformation Trinket: The EchoPlast suit, which allows Nevin to change between three forms: Nevin's default form, equipped with a sword, the Gun form, a large hulking creature with a large energy weapon, and a Stealth form, a four-legged creature that can crawl on walls and ceilings.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: After using all the abilities provided by the 3 forms through the game, the very final stage of the final fight is... A ping pong game where you and Paavo deflect a big energy ball between the two of you, as it speeds up and eventually you hit him with it.
- Unobtainium: Plast can be used by shapers to form anything they can imagine. However, it is only found on planet Proteus.
- Psycho for Hire: Both Kess and Gherran, with Kess being more so due to being a fully-admitted Sadist who knows how crazy her boss is, but still works for him out of Greed and because she loves killing people.
