In the word's most common usage, an "echo" is a sound that repeats, becoming fainter and more distant until it is barely loud enough to be heard. There is often a connotation of solitude; a person alone, perhaps in a cave with no perceivable exit, calls out, desperate to find some hint of humanity nearby, and is answered by only the refrain of his own voice. This is the definition that has stuck in my mind since The Adventure Company announced they would publish Kheops Studio's new game about the prehistoric Lascaux cave under the name ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern. After playing the game, though, I'm struck by another meaning—"a repetition or imitation of another"—which seems a much more fitting basis for the game's title.

Set 17,000 years ago in the landscape that is now France, ECHO tells the story of a Cro-Magnon young man's desire to study under a painter he admires. In the course of his journey, our hero Arok learns the fundamentals of cave painting just as a modern student would—through imitation and practice—and is ultimately transformed into an artist far more powerful than his master will ever be.

The game's opening cutscene shows Arok making a detour into a mysterious cavern when a lioness takes him by surprise during a hunt. Some familiar-looking markings on the cave's walls remind Arok of an encounter he had years ago with Klem, a renowned cave painter. Arok was too young to go with Klem at the time, but Klem encouraged the boy to seek him out later in life. These markings, Arok realizes, are clues Klem left behind for him. Our protagonist decides to leave his clan and follow his dream of becoming a painter. The cave where Arok will ultimately find Klem is based on Lascaux, the real-life Paleolithic cave discovered in France in the 1940s, making ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern an imagined retelling of how the frescoes of Lascaux came to be.

The game is in first-person perspective, and the player controls Arok using a fairly intuitive interface. Moving the mouse pans the view around pre-rendered backgrounds. An animated cursor indicates when you can go forward. Right-clicking brings up an inventory bar at the bottom of the screen, along with icons to access the in-game documentation and Arok's goals (more on these in a bit), plus a magnifying glass to see inventory objects up close, and an option to select the main menu. Pressing 'Esc' during gameplay also displays the menu, from which you can save, load, and change game options.

ECHO's graphics live up to the high standards set in Kheops' previous games. As Arok journeys to Lascaux, he travels from his snow-crusted homeland to a valley so lush and vibrant you'll feel the river's spray on your arms and the sun's heat on your face. The caves are equally well depicted, with flickering fires casting shadows on the walls and clusters of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The ambient noises and tribal-sounding music provide a fitting backdrop for the prehistoric setting. Occasional cutscenes help the player identify with the main character by showing Arok in a third-person view. These high-quality clips are plentiful at the beginning of the game, but thin out as it progresses.

The game is educational in a laid-back way. If you want to learn more about the time period, there's a ton of information at your disposal in the "documentary database," a vast in-game encyclopedia that's accessed with the shell icon. (The shell flashes on the screen when something happens in the game that is explained in the database, but you can access it at any time.) In a few situations, the documentation helped me understand what to do next in the game, but for the most part the information is only supplemental. (Though it's interesting—who knew that in spite of their reputation, Cro-Magnons didn't live in caves?!) This database has a nice effect of being available for those who want to learn more, yet far enough out of the way that it won't annoy people that just want to play the game.

Another welcome touch is a listing of Arok's goals, accessed by the hand icon. (This, too, flashes when something new has been added.) It's a journal of sorts, in which Arok summarizes what he's just done and what he has to do next. This helped me get my bearings at points, and a few times even guided me in the direction of a puzzle solution. If you're stuck, this is the first place you should look. Arok's comments may save you from hours (or minutes, anyway) of fruitless wandering.

Arok's quest is broken into three parts: his exploration of the initial cave, which puts him on the path to find Klem; his trek through the valley and attempt to locate Klem; and his arrival at Lascaux, where he must prove himself to the great painter. I enjoyed the first part the most. Several of the puzzles in this segment involve animated cave paintings, meant to represent spirits in the rock. Arok has a gift to communicate with these spirits, and what he does in the puzzles affects the environment around him. These puzzles help Arok move through the cave, whether by illuminating a path he needs to follow, getting him past an animal blocking his path, or helping him across a water-filled chamber to reach the exit on the other side (my personal favorite). Although the puzzles are rather "adventure gamey" in nature—in other words, injected into the game to give the player something to do—their role as a form of communication between Arok and the cave spirits helps integrate them into the gameplay.