Echo of the Wilds is a tricky game to review. It's a mixture of a survival game, a time management game, an adventure game, and a kind of metaphysical-lite experience. It doesn't really have an easy comparison point in other games to label it as 'like x'.
That said, I really enjoyed the game--I'd played it during early access days when it could get very esoteric and obscure, but it holds together very well in its final product. It's an experience. I love that it doesn't handhold you through discovering its ins and outs... it's one of very few games out there these days that rewards intuition, trial and error, and a genuine sense of exploration and discovery. Even minute discoveries feel meaningful and 'achieved'... kinda like those early moments in Minecraft, way back when.
Overall, you're trying to survive day-to-day in nature, with so many 'time points' to spend per day exploring or securing resources, and the eventual passing of the seasons to contend with. Beyond that, you're trying to figure out why and what you're trying to survive, and what the purpose of your situation is. I won't say that the answer is especially deep or complex, but the process is quite nice and ultimately rewarding.
It's an excellent playthrough if you're looking for a survival-puzzler-adventure, or just something quite different from the mainsteam genres of gaming these days. I appreciate that the developer stepped out there a bit with his ideas.
A final comment, for those of you familiar with survival genre mechanics: play the game on survival and not 'story'--it's a better challenge without sacrificing any of the game elements--and likely how the game was originally intended.
