Ecco The Dolphin: Defender of The Future - Gameplay

Gameplay

The gameplay is fairly similar to the old games, except in three dimensions. Ecco's sonar was kept as a means of interaction with other cetaceans (no longer called Singers in the game) and certain environmental objects, and a sonar map could be brought up but were often regarded as inferior to the old 2-D version. The same style of movement is kept with slight alterations for the 3-D environment. The control stick now only changed the direction Ecco is facing; pressing left and right changed the direction he faced horizontally, and pressing up and down changed the vertical direction. To actually move forward, the player has to tap a button to gain speed and hold the same button down to maintain it. Out of the water, Ecco can perform the purely aesthetic flips in the air just like the original games. Charging foes is kept as Ecco's standard attack, though the designers added a homing feature. The health and air meters were also kept, though the health meter can be increased by collecting power-ups called Vitalits, and the meters have a slightly different look compared to the Mega Drive games.

Some new moves are introduced in Defender of the Future. One is a quick 180° turn, useful for battles. Another is a means of stopping quickly; when Ecco has already stopped, the same buttons can make him swim backwards. A third new move is the tailwalk; Ecco can raise his upper body out of the water, able to look at things above the surface; this had limited use in gameplay but is a good way to see small graphical details.

The graphics of the game are generally regarded as one of the most realistic ever seen in a Dreamcast game. Many reviewers have commented that Ecco looks like a real dolphin. There were still a few criticisms however. One of the most major complaints against the graphics is the high level of fog; other reviewers have pointed out that visibility in the ocean is often much reduced from what it is above the surface. There were also some pop-up problems with distant objects. This was apparently caused by the engine not being that efficient overall, and not being able to render as much on-screen as was desirable without the generation of too much slowdown. The fog was used to obscure the distance and decrease the number of polygons that had to be drawn. The few cut-scenes uses the in-game graphical engine, and featured voice-over narration by Tom Baker.

Defender of the Future continues the legacy of high difficulty set by its predecessors. The levels are again divided up, but the idea of a password system was dropped in favor of a memory card save file. The game has few loading times in the levels; the levels load all at once just before they started, and these load times could be moderately long.

The "charge song" and "confusion song" returned in Defender of the Future, but in different forms. The "charge song" is given a name, the Power of Sonar, and is part of a set of five temporary power-ups that could be activated by collecting icons. The powers were:

• Power of Vigor: Ecco moves faster and does more damage when charging enemies, and is able to swim against strong currents.
• Power of Sonar: Sonar does damage to enemies, and is able to break apart certain stones.
• Power of Air: The air meter is temporarily doubled.
• Power of Endurance: The health meter was maxed out to double the normal maximum; it couldn't be replenished until it reached the level the player had already obtained, and would be lost if the player made it to the next level of the game.
• Power of Stealth: Ecco becomes temporarily invisible.

The "confusion song" was named the Song of the Shark, and it too is part of a larger set of songs. These songs were permanent and activated by singing at the right thing. They are:

• Song of the Shark: Confuses sharks, leaving them vulnerable to attack. This does not work on the great white or the white sharks in later levels.
• Song of the Turtle: Turtles will follow Ecco around.
• Song of the Fish: Schools of fish will follow Ecco.
• Song of the Ray: Makes manta rays go in the direction the song pointed; makes smaller sting rays panic and flee.
• Song of the Plant: Makes a certain kind of plant spray ink, and another plant "sing" while bobbing up and down, which distracts the Clan.