If Little Nightmares and Dead Space had a baby, it would be Section 9’s End of Abyss, hands down. Over time, I’ve become not-so-much of a fan of top-down games, but this one has won me over. I want to thank Section 9 and Epic Games for the review opportunity and for restoring my faith in top-down games.
End of Abyss is a top-down atmospheric dark sci-fi action-adventure where you play as Cel, a combat technician sent deep into an underground facility to uncover what’s happened to those inside and what’s trying to reach her.
Now, onto the game itself! The controls for End of Abyss will take a little getting used to, but after a little time, you’ll get used to them. Headphones are a must for this, as they’ll help immerse yourself into the dark world the story is taking you into, along with helping you hear what’s crawling in the dark…
There is no true “spoken dialogue,” as the characters (when they do speak) are speaking what sounds like a made-up language, but what I love is that the game does not punish you with walls of text like most games do when they overcompensate for the lack of spoken lines; notes you find are short and sweet. “Spoken” dialogue subtitles are short and to the point, much like notes you find. Most games that do this tend to, as mentioned before, overdo it with text that just makes you bored, but the way they’re doing it here, the game keeps moving.
The game’s art is spectacular! The graphics are smooth and flows well; the game’s lighting engine is balanced perfectly without having to adjust too much of the game’s brightness levels yourself!
Gameplay-wise, what I love most about this game is that it’s exploration-heavy. I love to explore in games, but most are either too linear OR won’t allow you time/peace to explore. You can also go back to different levels to explore places you could not explore previously. Combat is fun; there are times you’ll be surprised by the sudden appearance of some enemies. You can find workbenches to upgrade your equipment or craft consumables. It should be noted that if you die and are respawned at a Restoration Pod (save point), your spent consumables and ammo won’t respawn; you’ll have to make more. I’m saying this because I thought this was a glitch when I was first playing, but I found out later that this is actually a game mechanic.
Overall, I’m very impressed with End of Abyss. The story is interesting; it looks amazing, sounds good, and is quite fun to play. I really didn’t find anything wrong with the game; no crashes/glitches, the story is flowing, the music is good, and the graphics match what’s in the trailers (if you know you know). It has the look and feel of Little Nightmares, but not as linear; that alone is all you need to know about what the game is like.
On my scale of 1-10, End of Abyss is a 10!
End of Abyss comes out October 1st for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
