Giant monsters roam the landscape, begging you to climb and topple them. A distinct magic system makes you feel the power and danger of spellcasting. A dangerous open world demands you prepare for each journey and travel at the world’s pace. I’m describing Dragon’s Dogma 2, one of my favorite games of 2024, but all of that also describes the ambitions — if not the reality — of the most fascinating but still mediocre new RPG on Xbox Game Pass.
Eternal Strands is the first release from Yellow Brick Games, a studio headed by former Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw. The game follows protagonist Brynn and her Weaverband as they become the first people to enter the Enclave via the Strand Road since the Surge cut it off behind the Veil. Don’t worry, the story is just as bewildering when it’s delivered in-game, but in short, you and your group of mages sneak through a crack in the wall around a fallen magical civilization and root around for all the arcane goodies left behind after the apocalypse. Eternal Strands is not a game you play for its story, full as it is of cliches and stock characters, but there sure is a lot of it there.
