Systems: Windows
Release Date: TBD
Publisher: PlayGenix
Developer: PlayGenix
Time Spent: 15 Minutes
Something stood out to me about Fear Underground when I started. First, there was an introductory movie showing the setting as England, 1450, so there was a reason why this character was wearing plate armor, as this will come up in just a moment. There is a knight who collapses on the ground in the dead of night and is absorbed/taken by a rolling shoggoth-like mass which then crawls down a well. The scene cuts to a sci-fi portal opening up to a metallic shaft like something out of Cube, eventually showing our deposited knight at the bottom of this vertical shaft. Then I was brought back to the opening menu, but when I selected to actually start the game, I started with my knight character already in the bottom of the shaft. There was no replaying of the opening cinematic to further develop the scene, setting, character, or environment. I don't think I would categorize that as a criticism, but I feel like it would be something for PlayGenix to update before release.
So, we're at the bottom of some pit without the option to try and climb our way out, so our only option is to move to the right. Then it hit me. This isn't a standard third-person perspective survival horror adventure game, this is a third-person side-scrolling survival horror adventure game, which is something that I feel is not all too common. Your primary mode of moving is on your hands and knees since you're wearing full plate mail and moving through tunnels no taller than three feet. So on one hand, this game plays on claustrophobia both in terms of visuals and as an actual gameplay mechanic. Granted there was one area where I could have my character stand up although I couldn't find a reason behind the option to do so. So your movement is going to be slow and limited as well as your actions, least of all because you are unarmed, but mainly because there is not a lot of room to make any kind of attacks while you're crawling through muck wearing 30-50 lbs of armor. I did die in one instance because I was initially confused by a puzzle and what I was supposed to do, but the game thankfully autosave frequently and it only took me a minute at most to get back to where I had previously been.
Fear Underground is a strange and welcome addition to the current world of survival horror video games. Its side-scrolling approach, especially while not going the pixelated/retro trend of horror 2D side-scrollers like Carrion or Lone Survivor, is unique in that regard, and unfortunately, I could see it being seen as a negative since the premise of a 15th-century survival-horror limits the player to only moving forwards or backward. In classic survival-horror fashion though, there is some element of puzzle solving, both in terms of environmental puzzles and solutions that require specific objects that allow further exploration. There was a thread asking for first-person and/or VR support, but I think that that would fundamentally change the game into something that it isn't. For VR, would you need to actually be on your hands and knees or would playing while sitting on a couch have the same feeling? There are also environmental elements like visually obstructing chunks of earth that add an element of tension as we know our character is moving but cannot see them. With this perspective, we have simultaneous views of what is in front and behind us requiring the player to watch all sides of the screen at the same time. It might be able to be done, but it may not be the same game and experience.
Yes, the demo is short, lasting only 15 minutes, but it was enough to get a general feel for what the game might eventually become. I don't see this being more than a five to six-hour game as anything significantly longer than 10+ hours might run the risk of losing that feeling of fear, tenseness, and claustrophobia. I would much rather play a well-crafted and tight horror game than one that tried to pad out the length with more of the same for needless hours.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
And The Soul Is Driven To Madness
P.S. And despite how dark the pictures are, the game never felt too dark to play or understand what was going on while playing on the Steam Deck.
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