Eternal Strands is a game that has caught me off guard and by surprise as I hadn’t heard much about it before my review. For those on Xbox consoles, you’ll be pleased to know that it is in January 2025’s stack of Xbox Game Pass titles available on day one into the service. Another exceptional thing for those who own the game is that it is play anywhere enabled. This means that in between sessions on my beloved Xbox Series X, I have been ploughing hours in using my Lenovo Legion Go as well and picking up progress there. So it is worth noting that this title is super accessible pretty much anywhere you want to play, on console, handheld or across cloud gaming.
This is the first entry into the gaming space for developer Yellow Brick Games and ticks the Zelda-esque moments that players not on Nintendo may crave. From the outside looking in, the aesthetics and setting may remind you a little of Immortals Fenyx Rising. It seems to take the best similarities from these mentioned titles with a dash of Monster Hunter thrown in. Where the game shines is in the abilities and power you possess throughout using physics to alter situations and environments.

Weaver World
Eternal Strands has a brilliant opening cutscene that paves the way for the rest of the game. In this adventure, we play as Byrnn who is searching for the secrets of a long-lost world known as the enclave. The experience focuses on the magical cloak that Byrnn possesses known as the mantle, which in turn grants magical physical prowess and power to manipulate enemies and the environment. Alongside these magical abilities, you also have telekinesis skills which can send critters flying whilst you follow up with melee attacks. You’ll get a hold of how all these powers and attacks function in the early stages of the game and it is impressive being able to use your ice magic to extinguish the fire the dragon has created.
The mechanics are seriously impressive being able to mess around with fire and ice and it makes engaging with combat versatile and interesting. Scaling massive bosses and chipping away at their armour whilst jumping back down and dodging their heavy attacks were simply exhilarating. Trying to navigate to the weak spots whilst they try and shake you off makes for intense moments which turn into great satisfaction when you finally make them crash to the floor. I adored the way that you could approach these fights any way you choose, making it your decision which weak areas you want to target in any order you wish. There are around nine of these huge beasts to go head to head with and you can repeat the scraps you have with them which is great if you fancy replaying your encounters differently.

Great To Explore & Navigate
Throughout the game, you’ll be unlocking different areas and returning to base camp on several occasions. Eventually, you’ll have the ability to fast travel to any of the locations discovered on the map, meaning you don’t have to traverse too far to get to where you require to be. I did eventually get to a stage where it started to get a little grindy, returning to the same locations to fight enemies I’d fought before to tick off certain quests. The perfectionist in me didn’t let this bother me too much, but I could see it potentially getting a bit stale for some players at that point.
For the most part, though, the world is genuinely excited to navigate through with seemingly nowhere out of bounds as such. You can climb all surfaces, look for loot, craft blueprints and upgrade your gear. There are hidden bits and bobs and chests to crack open and I enjoyed going out and looking for the resources to craft particular parts of my loadout. Sometimes I did get a bit tired of heading back to base camp over and over again but this is just a me thing I presume. Camera angles and lock-on functionality did have their niggles occasionally, mostly during the boss fights it became tricky to see the surroundings due to the field of view. Also locking onto enemies didn’t always perform the best when several were on screen at the same time, but hardly game-breaking stuff in the grand scheme of the overall package.

Visuals & Audio
Eternal Strands looks stunning on a huge 4k screen and equally looked great at 60fps on my Lenovo Legion Go. It is a world full of rich, vibrant yet warm colours that feels like a joy to explore and be a part of. The game runs buttery smooth and at no point during my review did I encounter any issues with performance, even in the heat of high-intensity boss battles. Enemies are varied and well-designed but the highlight for me was some of the bosses and larger opponents. This is where the development team have excelled when it comes to the combat mechanics and animations. Being able to clamber around these enormous foes just makes way for versatility in how you approach them with the physics-based attacks and movements.
The voice acting, cutscenes, sound effects and soundtrack truly stand out in the presentation of Eternal Strands. The thud of attacks landing, the grunt of your character as you move through tricky situations, the plod of your feet throughout the worlds you encounter, they have just nailed it here. The atmosphere is felt through the music and you see the quality of this shine in the early moments of the game as a fire-breathing dragon swoops down and creates burning chaos. It just oozes perfection for me and I was hooked from the get-go just from how beautiful everything looks.

Final Thoughts
Yellow Brick Games should be super proud of the project they have produced here. Both the Xbox and Playstation platforms especially have been crying out for a game like this for some time and Eternal Strands is a journey that is well worth your time. The fact I could play this on my Legion Go on my handheld in downtime at work and then pick up where I left off at home on my Xbox Series X made it an absolute pleasure to play. It is refreshing to see a real success story in gaming from a new studio and IP from an industry that has struggled and suffered layoffs en masse in the last few years.
I highly recommend picking up and playing Eternal Strands whether it is on Xbox with Xbox Game Pass, Playstation or Steam. It is a title that oozes fantastic design choices right across the board with a compelling storyline and engaging gameplay consistently. You’ll get a good 30+ hours out of this game depending on your pacing and whether you want to explore every nook and cranny as I did. This is the first stand-out game of 2025 for me and deserves to be a roaring success, I can’t wait to see what Yellow Brick Games create next!
Overall
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85%
Summary
Pros
- Fantastic presentation across the entire game
- Excellent combat and clambering mechanics
- Magnificent soundtrack, voicing and sound design
Cons
- Camera angles were a little janky at times, especially on boss fights
- Returning to camp quite often got a bit tiresome at times
- Lock on for enemies didn’t always execute well