Can you evolve, adapt, and survive long enough to escape the threat of the Cylinder?
The Eternal Cylinder is a game about exploration, survival, and mutation, set in a fascinating yet unforgiving alien world. Originality drives both its concept and its artistic vision. In this strange universe, evolutionary logic bends: every creature morphs and adapts to unpredictable conditions, while a colossal, mysterious force—an endless cosmic Cylinder—rolls forward, crushing everything in its path. Players guide a small herd of Trebhum, fragile-looking beings capable of incredible feats: they mutate, grow new abilities, and change their bodies by absorbing plants, materials, and other lifeforms.
The game immediately strikes with its visionary aesthetics. Instead of realism, it builds a brand-new alien mythology. Survival takes center stage, but the journey also leads through mysterious biomes and coherent ecosystems. Every creature, structure, and mechanism follows its own internal logic. The world teems with bizarre architecture, surreal flora and fauna, and a strange vitality where each detail plays a role in the ecosystem’s functioning.
The Cylinder itself dominates the experience. It’s an unstoppable entity—a blazing, rolling monolith that wipes out all life. It represents both a gameplay mechanic and a powerful symbol: it urges constant movement, exploration, and quick decision-making. More than just tension, it embodies inevitability and change—a cosmic metaphor for extinction, natural selection, and biological adaptation.
The game blends symbolic storytelling with survival mechanics. Far from genre clichés, The Eternal Cylinder rewards observation. Progress requires ecosystem knowledge and continuous experimentation, not precision or technical difficulty. Creativity, empathy, and curiosity drive success—especially before the Cylinder wipes everything clean.
This unusual and brave title offers a richly detailed alien world, unique mechanics, and a deeper message hidden within its creative chaos. It may not suit everyone, but players searching for something surprising, unsettling, and thought-provoking will discover a rare and precious experience.
ACE Team: A Visionary Studio
Development came from Chilean indie studio ACE Team, founded by brothers Edmundo, Carlos, and Andrés Bordeu. Known for their distinctive style, the team leans toward unconventional, experimental art direction. Their previous titles—Zeno Clash, Rock of Ages, Abyss Odyssey—defy traditional market logic. With The Eternal Cylinder, they may have reached the peak of their creative identity, merging aesthetic boldness with uncompromising gameplay.
The project took shape over a decade. ACE Team conceived the concept more than ten years before release. Only technological progress and sufficient funding allowed them to turn the original idea into a full game. They built a world completely disconnected from Earth’s imagery, rejecting terrestrial references in flora, fauna, and internal logic. That ambition extends to the visual design, gameplay systems, soundtrack, and narrative approach.
Publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment, based in Amsterdam, supported the project. Known for backing artistically ambitious games like Phantom Doctrine, Monster Train, and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, they allowed ACE Team full creative freedom. This rare level of trust preserved the game’s vision and avoided marketing constraints or structural simplifications.
The development team also included international artists and technicians, adding a multicultural dimension. The world they built reflects a post-identitarian aesthetic. Every creature, structure, and phenomenon feels original—part of a self-generated mythology with no ties to Earthly traditions.
Good Shepherd also managed marketing and distribution with a restrained but focused strategy. They targeted indie-savvy audiences and presented the game at events like Indiecade and EGX. Multi-platform releases improved visibility, and despite its niche appeal, the game earned praise from critics and the indie community for its authorial depth and consistent vision.
A Singular and Creative Story
The game’s narrative remains minimal and fragmented but carries strong symbolic weight. It doesn’t follow a traditional plot. Instead, the story unfolds through exploration, discovery, and the Trebhum’s transformations. The setting: an alien world slowly destroyed by the unstoppable Eternal Cylinder. Players guide a herd of Trebhum who awaken in a dying land, tasked with surviving, adapting, and uncovering secrets.
The journey unfolds through strange encounters, complex environments, and a constant need for change. Storytelling emerges from events and environmental clues rather than dialogues or cutscenes. Each new mutation, encounter, or landscape reveals more about this world’s logic and ancient history.
Despite the sparse narrative, the game conveys urgency and decay. The Cylinder symbolizes both destruction and perpetual change. Its unstoppable advance tells a story about life cycles, extinction, and adaptation, drawing parallels with Darwinian theory and ecological fragility. Players encounter ruins, lost civilizations, and cryptic clues—pieces of a narrative they must assemble themselves.
The herd plays a key narrative role. Instead of a single hero, the story focuses on a collective that evolves together, creating a shared and organic journey. This dynamic reflects the importance of community, both in nature and human culture. Mutations don’t just enhance abilities; they redefine identity and signal a response to pressure and danger.
The game avoids traditional tropes. There’s no “villain” to defeat or mission to save the world. The Cylinder isn’t evil—it’s a natural, unstoppable force, more like a god or cosmic cycle. This narrative choice adds uncommon depth, inviting reflections on existence, death, adaptation, and constant change.
Ultimately, the story becomes a symbolic mosaic—revealed through gameplay, not exposition. It transforms a survival adventure into a cosmic tale of evolution.
Real Themes in an Unreal World
The game tells its story through atmosphere, mutation, and ecological interaction. Players interpret symbols, unearth secrets, and learn how this alien world operates. The Eternal Cylinder dives into deep philosophical themes: survival, identity, and change. The Cylinder serves as a metaphor for time, entropy, and natural cycles—relentless and unavoidable.
Trebhum evolution reflects a fluid identity: they morph, adapt, and reinvent themselves in response to threats. Each new ability shifts perspective and unlocks different interactions. The game encourages players to abandon rigidity and embrace transformation—not only for survival but as a broader reflection on life’s dynamism.
Ecological interdependence forms another key theme. Every lifeform, plant, and natural phenomenon fits into a system. Players need to observe and respect these connections. This ecological sensitivity speaks to modern concerns—recast in a fantastical setting but rooted in sustainability and coexistence.
The story feels more like a philosophical meditation than a traditional narrative. The group dynamic of the Trebhum, with no central hero, challenges individualistic tropes and suggests a more realistic vision of collective resilience. Cooperation and diversity become survival tools.
These themes—delivered symbolically and without words—create a thoughtful experience. The game invites emotional and intellectual engagement, offering a commentary on existence through surreal gameplay. Its depth, ambition, and contemplative tone elevate it far beyond typical survival games.
Inspired Art Direction
Powered by Unreal Engine 4, the game achieves a visually striking world. Lighting and animation shine, enhancing immersion and bringing its alien dreamscape to life. ACE Team designed a coherent universe full of visual surprises.
The art direction relies on saturated colors, strange shapes, and a blend of organic and geometric forms. Nothing looks “real,” and that’s by design. The result feels bizarre and wondrous—like walking through a surrealist painting. Many compare it to avant-garde sci-fi or experimental contemporary art.
Despite its complexity, the world remains readable and functional. The design ensures visual clarity without overwhelming players. Transitions between biomes feel smooth and natural, each with its own color palette, lifeforms, and structures.
The Cylinder affects lighting as well, casting dynamic shadows and shaping the mood of each area. These atmospheric effects deepen immersion and emotional connection.
Animations also deserve praise. Trebhum mutations change creature designs in real time, clearly signaling gameplay impact. Movements shift from ethereal to aggressive depending on situation and form.
The game world spreads across a wide variety of biomes, each with its own color palette, unique flora and fauna, and architectural styles. Transitions between these zones feel smooth and organic, with visual elements that gently blend into one another. Despite the world’s complexity and originality, the visual design maintains a clear functional balance. It avoids visual clutter and ensures readability of gameplay-critical elements.
Lighting plays a major role in shaping atmosphere. Shadows and light shift dynamically with the Cylinder’s movement and according to each biome. Some areas feel desolate and ghostly, others vivid and almost dreamlike. These effects don’t just beautify the landscape—they enhance immersion and deepen emotional impact.
This bold, innovative art direction has become ACE Team’s signature. It pulls players into a strange, compelling universe that stands far apart from more conventional game worlds.
Immersive Sound Design
The soundscape of The Eternal Cylinder plays a crucial role in building the immersive and alien atmosphere that defines the entire game experience. ACE Team collaborated with skilled composers and sound designers to craft a soundtrack and audio design that do more than support the visuals—they act as narrative elements in their own right, capable of conveying emotion, tension, and mystery.
The music embraces ambient and experimental tones, shifting between faint, atmospheric layers and more intense surges. Most tracks combine electronic and synthetic elements with digitally manipulated natural recordings, creating a soundscape that feels alien, ethereal, and sometimes unsettling. This approach matches the game’s visual aesthetics perfectly, enhancing the impression of being far from anything terrestrial.
Sound design reaches far beyond simple background music. Every ambient noise—rustling plants, subtle terrain sounds, and especially the Trebhum’s varied vocalizations—feels intentionally crafted to communicate a sense of organic and dynamic life. Each creature and mutation emits unique sounds that shift depending on emotional state or biological function. This sonic variation brings the herd to life on an auditory level, reinforcing emotional immersion.
Silence, or muffled sounds in key moments, adds dramatic weight. These quiet stretches help build suspense and highlight the Trebhum’s vulnerability, especially when facing the relentless advance of the Cylinder or hostile creatures. The absence of music or the use of restrained effects amplifies feelings of solitude and desolation, making the struggle for survival feel tangible.
Environmental sound interaction is rich in detail. Players hear the wind shaking alien vegetation, the crunch of earth under pressure, or distant tremors—each subtle cue reinforcing the sensation of moving through a living ecosystem. These sound layers aren’t just atmospheric; they also support gameplay. Some audio cues signal the presence of nearby resources or lurking threats, integrating sound into the survival strategy.
Another key feature lies in spatial audio and volume management, where sound shifts depending on the player’s position and proximity to sources. This spatialization adds depth and dimension to the world, aiding orientation and situational awareness in a world without conventional guides.
The sound design of The Eternal Cylinder defines its identity. Through experimental music, detailed ambient feedback, and carefully constructed acoustic interaction, the game creates a deeply engaging auditory experience that draws players into its alien reality. Without this level of attention to sound, the emotional and immersive impact would fall far short.
Well-Crafted Gameplay and Worldbuilding
The gameplay in The Eternal Cylinder stands out thanks to its seamless blend of survival mechanics, exploration, and mutation, all embedded in a rich, immersive worldbuilding. ACE Team designed a system where the player doesn’t simply observe or fight, but acts as a dynamic force within a living ecosystem. Every decision and mutation directly affects the herd’s ability to survive and adapt.
There are no traditional combat mechanics or structured missions. Instead, interaction flows through discovery and transformation. Every mutation functions as an upgrade, every new Trebhum a potential tool. Players don’t control a lone hero, but a group—a herd they gradually expand and customize by choosing form and function. Managing the group requires attention, intuition, and planning. Some Trebhum grow legs to leap higher, others sprout giant nostrils to vacuum objects, or gills for underwater traversal. Each mutation reshapes the herd’s dynamics and strategy.
Gameplay revolves around the flexible control of these strange creatures. Trebhum acquire abilities by consuming different substances and interacting with the environment. Mutation forms the core of both gameplay and narrative. Players must carefully study which mutations to adopt, decide when to switch characters, solve environmental puzzles, and face natural threats—including the constant advance of the Cylinder. Each mutation affects both aesthetics and function, transforming how the herd moves, survives, and interacts with the world.
The mutation system is complex and varied, encouraging strategic thinking and experimentation. Players must observe the ecosystem, identify usable traits, and test combinations to create effective synergies. This freedom allows for a highly personal and dynamic gameplay experience, avoiding repetition and keeping exploration fresh.
Exploration benefits greatly from the game’s thoughtful and original worldbuilding. The alien planet is divided into biomes, each with its own aesthetics, challenges, and logic. Unique flora and fauna populate every region, shaping both atmosphere and gameplay. Ancient ruins and strange structures suggest a lost civilization and invite the player to piece together fragments of lore by observing and interacting with the world.
The Cylinder, ever-present and relentless, injects a constant layer of pressure into the experience. It’s not just an environmental threat—it reshapes the map and forces players to keep moving. It alternates between dormant phases and high-speed destruction, requiring players to plan routes and mutations accordingly. This mechanic creates a dynamic tension between relaxed exploration and genuine escape, as players must flee from the rolling monolith to reach safety before the next area unlocks.
In the end, The Eternal Cylinder merges gameplay and worldbuilding into a cohesive, compelling whole. Its mutation-driven systems, combined with freeform exploration and a detailed, mysterious environment, offer an experience that feels both fresh and thoughtful. This game stands as a strong example of how mechanics and environmental storytelling can intertwine to reflect on evolution, mortality, and the struggle to survive.
Generally Well Received
The Eternal Cylinder undeniably stands out for its originality and its ability to address complex themes through a highly personal and unconventional gameplay experience. ACE Team took bold risks, delivering a visionary art style, an innovative gameplay loop, and a narrative approach that puts emotional and intellectual exploration at its core.
One of the game’s greatest strengths lies in its power to immerse the player in a cohesive alien world, where every detail contributes to a full sensory experience. It stimulates the imagination while offering a quiet reflection on survival, transformation, and the life cycle itself. Choosing environmental and symbolic storytelling over traditional plotlines allows for layered, subjective interpretation—but that same choice may challenge players more used to linear stories and explicit goals.
From a mechanical standpoint, the mutation system brings a fresh spin to the survival-adventure formula. It invites experimentation, strategic thinking, and adaptation, and it fits organically into the game’s narrative and world. This synergy is rare and welcome. That said, certain segments—especially long exploration sequences—can feel repetitive or slow, as managing the herd and experimenting with mutations occasionally breaks the pacing.
Another possible drawback is the game’s preference for slow, contemplative play. Players seeking fast action or structured combat might find the lack of a defined antagonist or narrative climax unsatisfying. The emotional stakes feel real, but the arc remains abstract.
On a technical level, the game runs smoothly and delivers a unique, consistent visual style. Still, some minor issues may appear—occasional long load times, frame drops in complex environments, and occasional quirks in herd AI that can lead to frustrating moments.
In terms of sound, the experimental score and detailed audio design serve as real highlights. However, the lack of recognizable themes or musical variety might not appeal to everyone, skewing the experience toward a niche audience that values ambiance over melody.
As for worldbuilding, the game crafts a convincing and vibrant universe, yet it remains enigmatic and cryptic. This duality may enchant or frustrate players, depending on their narrative expectations.
The Eternal Cylinder
PRO
- Visionary and consistent art direction that brings a truly original alien world to life
- Excellent creature, environment, and mutation design, creating a strong aesthetic identity
- Experimental sound design that enhances immersion
- Mutation-based gameplay that offers high levels of creativity, strategy, and personalization
- Well-crafted exploration and worldbuilding that fuel curiosity and discovery
- Deep and creatively integrated themes
CON
- Non-linear narrative and slow pacing may frustrate players expecting traditional structure
- Some repetition during exploration and unintuitive herd controls can break immersion
7/10
