While the two investigate the anomaly, a massive unidentified ship appears and Kronos II is destroyed by flying debris. Jack is temporarily decommissioned. When Jack reawakens, he notices that Olivia is no longer on or around the station. In a message left in an emergency beacon, Olivia states that she had to abandon the facility due to power failures and loss of life support, and that she would take her chances aboard the unknown vessel. Jack follows her to the ship to find out if she's still alive.
On the way, Jack discovers a mysterious biomass formation that seems to be activated by nearby electrical currents and which absorbs anything that it touches while active. While travelling inside the unknown vessel, Jack encounters the ship's AI named Apollo, who needs Jack's help to repair some of the ship's functions and reawaken the ship's crew. Apollo explains that the ship, named the Astrea, was attacked and that the biomass spreading throughout the ship is a biological weapon used by the attackers. When Jack releases the crew from their stasis pods, he discovers that they are all human and members of the Atlas Initiative. However, all the crew members are deceased. Apollo informs Jack that, according to his records, Olivia Rhodes disappeared over 400 years ago, in 2126, and suggests that Jack is malfunctioning. Jack is certain that Olivia is still alive and somewhere in the ship, and convinces Apollo to help him. Eventually, with Apollo's help, Jack finds Olivia in the ship. Apollo recognizes Olivia as a member of the Atlas Initiative and promotes her as the new captain of the Astrea. Apollo concludes that the ship must have made a time jump that caused Olivia's disappearance in his timeline.
Jack and Olivia try to repair the ship's life support systems as Olivia's oxygen starts to run low, but eventually fail to pressurize their location due to many structural failures on the ship.They retreat to bridge, the strongest part of the ship, and try to repair the life support there. However, before Jack succeeds in repairing the systems, Olivia's oxygen reserves run out and she goes into a cardiac arrest. Jack uses a defibrillator until Olivia starts breathing again.
In the final event, the ship's reactor destabilizes and threatens to destroy the entire ship. Apollo suggests they attempt a faster than light jump to expend a large amount of energy that could stabilize the reactor. This could, however, lead to the ship making another time jump. With no other choice, Jack and Olivia prepare the ship for the FTL jump by destroying non-essential power systems and finally activate the FTL drive. After the jump, they find out that they are still in an orbit around Saturn, but 400 years in the future. Outside they see the aftermath of a battle that the Astrea was involved in before jumping back in time. A friendly rescue vessel contacts the Astrea and states that help is underway.
Reception
Prior to its launch, Lone Echo won the Game Critics Award for Best VR Game at E3 2017.
Upon its release, Lone Echo received positive reviews. As of August 4, 2017 it had an average score of 89 on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews." UploadVR awarded the title an 8.5/10, calling it "a landmark achievement in three key areas of the VR experience: locomotion, UI, and interaction," but criticized the game's deliberate pacing and abrupt ending. In his review, GameCrate's Leo Parrill called it "one of the best VR experiences I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy," while noting the presence of some frustrating bugs and glitches. Road to VR awarded the game a 9/10, with particular praise given to the storytelling and the relationship between Jack and Olivia.
Lone Echo was nominated for "Best VR/AR Game" at The Game Awards 2017, for "Best VR Game" at Destructoid's Game of the Year Awards 2017, and for "Best VR Experience" at IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. Polygon ranked it 18th on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. UploadVR awarded it Best Oculus Rift Game, Best Multiplayer VR Game, and Best Overall VR game for 2017. The game was also nominated for "Best VR/AR Game" at the 18th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, and won the award for "Immersive Reality Technical Achievement" and "Immersive Reality Game of the Year" at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Outstanding Technical Achievement"; in addition, it was nominated for "Direction in Virtual Reality" and "Sound Mixing in Virtual Reality" at the 17th Annual National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, and for "Best Use of Augmented Reality" at the 2018 Webby Awards. It also won the award for "Best Emotional VR Game" at the Emotional Games Awards 2018.