Sure, its story can get a bit incoherent, its non-voice controls are awkward, and there are moments of spotty voice-recognition, but the good greatly outweighs what little bad there is. If you’ve found yourself bored with all of the monotony and nonsense surrounding recent titles, you’d be doing yourself an injustice not giving There Came an Echo a shot.

The voice recognition controls are probably the best any video game as incorporated, and certainly recommended over traditional controls. However, the overly abridged story paired with limited gameplay can't help but mark this venture as a work still in process.

There Came an Echo with its surprisingly effective speech recognition is pure immersion. But it definitely could be more challenging, offering more tactical depth and more content in general.

I’m happy that Iridium Studios continues to try new and unusual things, and I’ll even say that when the audio interface actually worked for me, it made the missions feel much more involving (perhaps because it made them feel more like multiplayer missions). But the game was far too short and far too broken for me to recommend it.

A good idea implemented in a game that could have been better. Aside from the novelty of the voice control and good acting There Came an Echo is quite a forgettable tactical game.

There Came an Echo is hardly a full-fledged commercial game. It is more like a cool 3-4-hour proof of concept which shows you that yes, you can make a good strategy game fully controlled by voice.

There Came an Echo is a simplified tactical game with the best voice recognition software ever included in a videogame. Unfortunately the simplification seems too heavy and the voice gimmick is both not perfect and not that entertaining on his own.

Voice control just isn’t an improved method of input over just pointing at something and making it happen, but the effort is a worthy one.

A worthy experience, but it's lacking in too many minor areas to achieve greatness. While the voice-controlled strategy gameplay is engaging, it does lead to some design hiccups. While the narrative is entertaining and even intellectually demanding at times, it just as easily falls into navel-gazing jargon. While the technology is impressive, it feels like it belongs in a much bigger game.

Feels like a proof of concept for a much more substantial, and refined, counterpart. [Apr 2015, p.120]

There Came an Echo tells a very good story, supported by an excellent cast of voice actors, but the game definitely fails to deliver.

Switch off voice recognition in the menu and you’re left with a run-of-the-mill budget game that doesn’t have much to offer. [05/2015, p.72]

The voice-controlled novelty wears off to reveal a short, broken strategy that'll leave you speechless. [May 2015, p.78]

Though the plot is poorly delivered, it provides an appropriate context for the role you assume as the omniscient commander. There is an eerie sensation when you realise your PC is actually listening to you. Unfortunately, far too often, it simply isn't.