It turned out that the Vortex Queen was far from vanquished, and had in fact followed Ecco to Earth to build a new hive for herself. When Ecco used the time machine to save his pod, he split the stream of time in two. Ecco must now restore the rift before the alternate future of a dead, mechanical world sucked dry by the Vortex becomes a reality! It's up to Ecco to once again navigate the depths and heights of this sidescrolling world to meet up with marine life, solve puzzles and take on the alien threat!