But Ecco is too far in the other direction. Everything is so open-ended that you begin to feel abandoned. In addition, there is no progression of difficulty to speak of. The last levels of the game are easier than some of the very first. One level may take you five minutes to play through and the next will take you days.
Boss fights are all over the map.
This sort of inconsistency is baffling. I have always been of the mind that a game should get progressively harder and reward you with extra challenges when you get to the later stages. In fact, I was more excited about seeing the beauty of the next level than I was in actually beating the game. In fact, this is one of the few games I would suggest playing through just to witness all of the levels. The world invoked in Ecco is one of the most gorgeous yet created.