With all the games that came out over the holiday season, it’s easy to miss the ones that fly under the radar. Indie games in particular can get the shaft during big game release windows, barely getting a scratch of the publicity that “AAA” games do. After having a long week and needing something to relax my mind, I decided a little indie game goodness is what I needed. The game I ended up rolling with is a little indie title called Below, billed as an action-adventure and rogue-like game developed by Capybara Games.
Upon starting the game, I was greeted with an oddly long, yet relaxing, cutscene of a boat adrift at sea. After a few minutes, the drifting boat makes landfall on the dark and empty beach of a remote island. The first thing I noticed from a top-down perspective of my wandering character was how simplistic but distinct the ambience of the game was. The sound of only waves crashing on the beach with an underlying soft ambience tone in the background. The graphics are toned down in Below as well, exhibiting a calming atmosphere but still demanding your attention at the same time. As I started up the beach, I quickly noticed what appeared to be the remains of an old, small camp. Upon approaching I found some food and a jug full of water among other debris in the water and sand. I also found I was able to light a fire at the small camp which appeared to open up some crafting options. There was no crafting list or any explanation whatsoever of how the crafting system worked. After bumbling around for a few moments, I managed to select a few materials and create a soup. Upon eating the soup, I noticed what appeared to be hunger and dehydration levels fill up.
I then began to explore the beach and cliff until I found what appeared to be a mystical lantern that allowed me to open a door into the side of the cliff. From there I descended into what appeared to be an underground maze. The maze was dark and most silent. The only like came from my lantern. I quickly lit a torch to offer a little more light just in case. I noticed then that the maze employs what appears to be like a fog of war traditionally seen in RTS games. Any area of the current maze you have not stepped foot in is covered by a thick fog, only dissipating as you explore forward. Every so often I would find another campsite that I could light, allowing me to craft items from other stuff I had scavenged or found on the cavern floor. After exploring a little bit and fighting off what appeared to black shadows with red eyes, I found a path down to a stone staircase, taking me even further down into the dark cavern. As I arrived on Level 2 of the maze, I took a few steps forward and stepped on spike trap that was hidden in the dark. My wanderer was ran through by sharp spikes as the his life faded. The game went dark and re-emerged at the beach where another helpless wandered had arrived on the beach, with nothing to his name but the starting weapons and a flask of water. Everything I had collected and crafted was lost, including the mystic lantern. I made my way back to the cavern’s cliff entrance and as I walked through, I realized that the layout of maze had changed and the concealing fog had returned. “Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be is it? Challenge accepted.”, I thought to myself as I began navigating the dense fog once again.
In Below, exploration and survival is the focus of the game. The game unapologetically does not hold your hand at all, expecting you to figure everything out for yourself as you play. Furthermore, every time you die, the maze rearranges itself. The corpse you left behind is also somewhat hidden, waiting to be discovered with all your previous items. This even includes the mystic lantern and other exploration items that are required to progress at certain points of the maze. The game presents a bleak and sometimes haunting atmosphere with gameplay and difficulty that just begs for you to try again every time your wanderer bites the dust. If you wanna check it out yourself, you can find Below on Steam and Xbox One.
