MAGICAL

Big hearts and bigger monsters make ETERNAL STRANDS something special

- By Kerry Brunskill

I don't even have to waste my time trekking across boring expanses of open field to reach the things that have caught my eye, as this compact game is broken up into a series of carefully crafted areas attached to a homely hub. It reminds me of Monster Hunter more than a seamless but flabby open world sprawl of #content.

The missions I undertake in these areas often overlap in some way, so even though one character's request to collect glowing plants at night didn't exactly have me rushing out of camp, I ended up easily gathering everything I needed anyway when I later found myself in the same area as part of an expedition.