70%PC

I accidentally played through this on Easy Difficulty and I'm not entirely sure to what extent that affected my perception of the game. It did come across though as a noticeable step up from its predecessor. The elements that difficulty wouldn't affect directly, such as level design, lend credence to this, being much more focused, less tedious to navigate and relying more on interesting and unique gimmicks rather than overused and finicky ones. Various levels for example see you transforming into other animals and adapting to the changes in gameplay that brings. Even the worst levels in Ecco 2 seemed mercifully more tolerable than the best of Ecco 1.

It's not without its problems. Some of the futuristic alien levels are annoying with their gravity shifting mechanics. Some levels like the Tubes of Medusa, while pretty fun, are almost chaotically impossible at times. It has more variety but not all of that variety is of equal quality. Another good example is the traversal stages between locations, that sees you take on a 3D view as Ecco teleports across the oceans by going through rings. These stages become fairly repetitive and it can be very easy to miss rings. You can thankfully miss a few without consequence but getting unlucky enough to have multiple spawn high in the air and mistiming a single jump can make them very easy to miss.

I don't want to be too harsh on it though. It's definitely more approachable and more readily enjoyable than Ecco 1. Definitely give it a try though be aware it won't be for everyone.

70%No Platform Specified

And that's Ecco: The Tides of Time. If it sounds almost exactly like the first Ecco the Dolphin, that's because it is -- it's almost difficult to take it as a separate game, because it's essentially the same experience as what came out for the Genesis one year earlier. If you think an adventure that downplays action and promotes open-ended exploration sounds good, look into either this game or the first Ecco the Dolphin.