Publisher: Epic Games
Developer: Section 9 Interactive
Platforms: Playstation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, PC (Epic Games Store exclusive)
Price: $29.99
One would think the fact that I regularly forgot End of Abyss' name as I played it would be a bad sign. One could also view the fact that I have a hard time thinking of things to say as a bad sign. One would be wrong.
Anyone who knows me (particularly from High School) knows that one of my all time favorite games is Metroid Prime. That flagship Metroid title instilled a love of the metroidvania formula in me from an early age. It also made me a complete slut for atmosphere, but that's neither here nor there.
Nowadays, the humble metroidvania isn't quite the most saturated genre on the market, but that's only because soulslikes and roguelikes exist. Follow indie development studios on reddit or youtube, and you'll constantly see metroidvanias in the works.
And it makes sense. It's a formula that rocks, and it provides the player with an illusion of non-linear exploration that seems pretty easy for developers to craft.
What most metroidvanias lack from their inspiration, however, is atmosphere.
Enter End of Abyss, which comes out swinging with some of 2026's most immaculate vibes. It stumbles a little bit in its pursuit of other metroidvania staples, but it nonetheless serves as a worthwhile entry in this genre.
However, early on, you find you're the only one who can hear a mysterious voice calling for help. Who does this voice belong to? For what purpose are you in the abyss in the first place? How would you know your name was Cel if not for the game description? Some of these mysteries as well as the atmosphere will carry you until the credits roll.
Until that point, though, you'll be partaking in standard metroidvania fare: progressing through semi-open areas finding items that help you progress through even more semi-open areas. What the abyss lacks in the usual illusion of non-linearity, it more than makes up for in size and intricacy. It's not a huge map by any stretch, but it feels sufficiently big for its level of linearity. I'd say there's probably...maybe 2.5x more side content than there is critical path content. So fear not, you'll get your money's worth.
With all that said, I do have two major qualms with the world and its design.
The first is the variety...or lack thereof. Despite how immaculate the vibes are, they're also a little one-note. Every area looks exactly the same. The exact same lighting, the exact same furnishings, mostly the exact same enemies (with some notable exceptions). The only bit of variety to be found is in one critical path area that trades the usual blue lighting for slightly green lighting. That's it. The atmosphere remains strong throughout, but I couldn't help but be disappointed that the look of the abyss never once evolved.
The second qualm is the level of obscurity. Obscurity isn't new to metroidvanias. Indeed, it's part of the thrill in a lot of cases. You typically don't know where exactly to go. And in the most generous situations, all you'll get is a marker on the map that gives you no clues as to how to get there.
With End of Abyss, though, things are obscure in ways that didn't exactly feel like my fault when I couldn't figure things out.
For instance, there's a bit early on where you need to open a large shutter door. This is done via a terminal in a nearby security office. But when you "scan" the relevant computer, the scanner tells you the computer is locked. So, back to the drawing board, right?
Wrong.
You still have to interact with that computer.
You tell me...in what universe does a locked down computer with a red screen work? I spent longer than I care to admit combing the immediate area for any kind of special key card or other switch for the door before looking up a walkthrough and realizing my mistake. That seriously doesn't feel like me not being smart enough.
The same goes for an instance on the critical path where I had to destroy some boxes to reveal a vent to crawl through. Boxes rarely contain any loot, so I ignored them a lot of the time. Furthermore, there weren't any little indents on the map to signify there might be a hidden path. Most metroidvanias feature something to inspire the imagination when a level is designed with this kind of environmental searching in mind. Not End of Abyss, though.
Finally, there are the door scans. If you scan a locked door, the map gets populated with a red overlay on the door and a little symbol to show what needs to be done to get through it. It might be an arrow to indicate it's locked from the other side, or a couple indents to signify a need to destroy energy nodes for access. If you don't actually scan the door, however, the icon on the map remains blue.
That would normally be fine by me, but it legitimately seems like the game forgets which doors were scanned sometimes. I could easily be projecting and I'm the one forgetting, but I don't think I am since I obsessively scanned everything I could find. Either way, I'd end up needing to find where to go next, traipsing all over god's half acre trying various doors it didn't look like I'd gone through yet, finding they were locked by something I didn't have, then eventually finding the right way through trial and error. And despite the modest map size, I found that getting from one area to another tended to take far longer than I'd like. Even at sprinting speed, you're a little too slow in my humble opinion.
So, the world is fascinating and immersive, but there are still some not-insubstantial flaws.
Either way, you move with the left thumbstick and aim with the right thumbstick, with precision being the name of the game. The chaos of twinstick shooting can be entertaining at times, but you're going to be missing most of your shots until you fully upgrade the weapon you're using. The bullet spread is simply too large by default, and it makes something like 90% of the shots you take trial and error to get the thumbstick pointed the exact right way. Even the most basic enemies are pretty tanky, too, so even the smallest fights can take a long time.
I realize that sounds like...not the best time in the world. I also realize that feeling will not get better once I mention that "death by getting trapped in a corner by enemies" happens more in End of Abyss than in every other game I've ever played combined. But this is a gameplay loop that is significantly more than the sum of its parts.
This is because despite what you might expect from the deliberate atmosphere, the actual combat loop is pretty frantic. Last-minute dodges, desperate realignments of your thumbstick, consistent strafing around small areas, it all joins together for a loop that demands enough of your attention that you won't be thinking too much about what it gets wrong. Aside from the "death by getting trapped in a corner by enemies" thing. That's gonna suck every time.
Another somewhat weak facet of the gameplay equation is the boss roster. None of them are bad, but none of them are inspiring. And nearly all of them are slightly too tanky and come with at least one truly annoying mechanic.
One of the earliest bosses spends the first half of the fight emerging from the darkness then retreating almost as soon as it arrives. So you only get to take pot shots at it and do minimal damage until you deplete half its health and force it back into the light for good. And remember how you'll need to be constantly doing thumbstick trial and error? Yep. You can bet that plays a part in this particular fight's runtime.
For another example, several bosses summon minions. The weakest minions are also tanky, so many bosses will take much longer than they should for that reason.
And for one last example, the final boss has an attack that knocks you down and forces you to mash the bottom face button to get back up to avoid a grab. And if you get hit by that grab anyway, you have to once again start mashing that button to avoid taking the brunt of the possible damage.
There's no point in the entire rest of the game where you have to button mash, by the way. It's introduced in this fight and this fight alone.
Even the worst fight is inoffensive at the end of the day, but idk. Wasted potential all around.
In one late-game area, there are some minor framerate drops. It's just in this one area, nowhere else. Needless to say, it breaks that particular zone's immersion.
Then there's the little logs you get when you finish scanning an enemy or boss for the first time. Sometimes they freeze the action around you...but sometimes they don't. This cost me a promising first run against a boss one time.
Finally, there are some totally innocuous things like proofreading issues. For example, a tutorial screen that reads "Elevators shows up on map." I can't exactly throw stones in that department since I tend to miss some things in my own work, but still.
There you have it. Not the most damning technical state ever conceived. But in something as dependent on vibes as End of Abyss, every one of these flaws has a slightly more tangible impact on the experience.
I suppose I'll say this in closing: End of Abyss is for two kinds of people and two kinds of people only. It's for people who are suckers for vibes and people who are just metroidvania fans. I happen to be both of those people. I recognize that my tone has tended to veer towards the negative as this review has progressed, but I truly think you'll be able to forgive this game's missteps if it's for you.
Let us review:
Un-tuned obscurity/other world woes - 1.0
Gameplay woes - 1.0
Weak bosses - 0.5
Technical flaws and lack of tonal variety - 0.5
The final score for End of Abyss is...
7.0/10 - Good
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts? Questions? Think I'm full of it?