Echo Night: Beyond, known in Japan as is an adventure

Adventure game

An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...

 video game for the PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 console. It was released during 2004 in Japan and the United States, with the European release not following until 2006. It is the third game in the Echo Night series.

The game tells a science fiction ghost story

Ghost story

A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has...

, set in the not-too-distant future. Players take the role of a newlywed, off for a honeymoon on the moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

. The vessel crashes before reaching its lunar resort destination, however, separating the just-married couple and leaving the hero alone at an abandoned research base. Players explore the station from a first-person perspective, inside a spacesuit. In addition to the many spiritual anomalies that seem to haunt the forgotten station, strange lunar lighting and relative weightlessness add to the unfamiliar creepiness of the game's environments.

Gameplay

Echo Night: Beyond is played from a first-person perspective, but unlike most other first-person games there is no use of firearms in the game. When confronted by a ghost the player must run before the player character's heart rate reaches a critical level, otherwise he will die of a heart attack. There are no means of directly defending against ghosts, they must be avoided. The player's space suit is equipped with a flashlight, but must be kept charged by batteries. The ghosts can be defeated only by clearing the mist they inhabit, this is done by using a control panel to activate the ventilation system. To purify the souls of the dead, personal items important to them in life must be found and brought to them. The only exception to this is the priest ghost, who will pop out from time to time. When ghosts must be avoided, they can be spotted through the use of security monitors, which are placed throughout the station.

Plot

The game's storyline concerns Richard Osmond, who is flying in a space shuttle to a moon base with his fiance, Claudia, who he will wed upon arriving. A supernatural force causes the shuttle to crash during landing, killing many and releasing their ghostly spirits upon the base. Richard awakens and decides that Claudia is still alive. The game centers around finding her, while also putting to rest the uneasy souls that roam the base.