Once you acclimatise to the aesthetic, the mutations are surprisingly dull. The survival elements are unobtrusive to the point of superfluous: hunger and thirst are easy to sate, even before you eat things that turn Trebhum into water filters and larders, though later desert and tundra environments raise the stakes.ДЄ larger issue is that The Eternal Cylinder is on some level a basic upgrade-a-thon pretending to be something weirder. The narrator-a student of the Bastion and Stanley Parable school of fait accompli storytelling-is extremely generous with hints and guidance, making this a fine choice for younger players. If The Eternal Cylinder is unwieldy, it can also be over-forgiving. You can press a shoulder button to switch to a Trebhum you're looking at, or hold the other shoulder button to leap around the group in freeze-time, but it's simpler to drag and drop resources in the menus. Micromanaging the growing herd and redistributing the contents of their stomachs is just as fiddly as moving around. Their survival relies mostly on strength of numbers, as you'll learn when you ricochet off the wrong boulder and become something's lunch.

The game's partly procedural terrain is uneven, and Trebhums are not built for precision manoeuvres. (Image credit: Good Shepherd Entertainment)ДЄt least, when you're not battling for control. Its approach is sometimes blocked by towers that dome their surroundings in shimmering blue energy, creating an oasis where you can forage, toy with mutations and delve into ruins that house basic platforming challenges, together with lore and rarer consumables. The game's colossal antagonist doesn't chase you relentlessly.

By eating the right things, from grasshopper dung to fish, they can acquire mutations such as third eyes and furry skins that (mostly) equip them to weather the trials ahead.ДЄ vivid but slightly unfulfilling getaway story from the punchdrunk creators of Zeno Clash, The Eternal Cylinder mixes moments of frenzy with indefinite periods of contemplation.

But they do have one critical advantage, and that is their capacity for change. All they can do to begin with is hoover up and store objects for later consumption, spray water from their trunks and roll around like Sonic the Hedgehog. The Trebhum, which you'll control individually with the rest of the herd tumbling behind, are neither lovers nor fighters.

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