Author: Night Traveler - Magic Moon
Foreword: The actual experience of this game and the video promotion content are slightly inconsistent
Earlier last year, a promotional video for a horror-inspired indie game was a sight to behold: in a cave deep underground, several expeditionaries (explorers) were caught in the ceiling by large Pippi shrimp falling from the sky while walking. This is followed by a constantly high-energy clip, in which several team members are chased by a group of moths that can spit bugs; the player climbs in a closed cave, the front wall sinks, and the back is full of chasing bugs; especially at the end of the video, when the comatose team member is doing cardiac pacing, he reaches out from the human body and devours his hands, and the team member's head reaches out like a parasitic beast to pounce on the player.
The whole clip is high-energy, so that I, who is not interested in horror games, is a bit of a ye gong good dragon. In-game multiplayer collaboration, overwhelming variety of monsters and other elements are something to look forward to. The monsters rushing in with the screen not only satisfy the alien controllers, but also make this year's horror co-op adventure game "GTFO" players and the previous 2D simulation survival game "Dive" audience players eager to try. But after playing "Claustrophobic Abyss", you will find that the game is not a multiplayer cooperative game (the manufacturer announced that the future will do PVP mode), nor is it a monster spawn action game, is a decryption game that strictly conforms to Newtonian mechanics, players need to collect key props in caves similar to Castlevania Maze or reach a certain place to complete the task, although the goods are not right, but the playing process has a lot of freshness.
Advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages: The game creates a dark atmosphere, the player will have a certain sense of freshness due to tension during the game; the physical modeling is realistic, even if the platform jumps too high will die; the level prop design is more reasonable, making the otherwise difficult game process coherent and comfortable
Disadvantages: the goods are not right, the multiplayer scene in the promotional video is somewhat misleading to the audience, there is no special multiplayer mode in the game; at present, the EA stage, the game flow is short, all four levels do not exceed 10 hours; there are not many monster types, only 4 or 5 kinds; there are more keys, which need to be used to adaptation; the game has some BUGs, and some will lead to card levels
Press dead Newton's coffin board for the passing experience
Like most games, Claustrophobic Abyss will teach you how to jump and go up and down stairs at the beginning, and if you habitually omit these annoying instructions, you'll be greeted with your first GG in a matter of seconds. In the game, if you jump from a platform three or four people taller than you, you will fall to your death, so in the game, you will generally use the hook to lock the gun or grab the edge of the wall to fall; after encountering monsters, the character will shoot to simulate different degrees of hand shaking in real shooting (the weapon infrared device will shake), and the engineer's hand shaking will be more serious than that of the armed personnel; when operating the engineering facilities in the cave or descending with the hook lock, the characters and objects will oscillate, and the power needs to be used to reduce or increase the swing frequency to descend or swing to the desired platform. Unlike other action games where the protagonist is an undead Xiao Qiang, the game design is close to the real world, if you play according to ordinary action games, it is easy to die violently, and the player must treat the operating characters as "porcelain dolls" to pass the level.
Surprisingly, the actual gameplay experience in such a realistic gaming environment is not very stuttering, and if you are proficient in the use of provided props, the process of passing the level will be fun. The game provides a wealth of weapon props, so that people can play smoothly after familiar with the operation of the character, the hook lock gun with unlimited bullets can allow people to reach many places, in addition, the game also provides an infrared exploration ball, allowing players to explore the unknown area after the sphere and then go deeper into it, avoiding the occurrence of many jumpscare such as monster faces, but immersing themselves in the dark atmosphere created by the game.
Claustrophobic Abyss's level design also allows players to play smoothly in a realistic environment comparable to the "synthetic watermelon". As far as the current 10 levels are concerned, the plot is relatively simple, basically ordered by the superior, and the protagonist as a scientific expedition or mercenary is completed alone or leading the engineer (the player operates multiple people separately), mostly transporting items, reaching the destination, and finding something. The game's scenes are designed so that players are less prone to sudden levels or deaths (but with bugs), and the quest prompt changes when they reach different areas. After the player completes the mission, the difficulty and complexity of the next level will gradually increase, and the staged mission and reasonable level scene will allow you to gradually experience the charm of exploring in the dark cave.
Scary but not so scary
"Claustrophobic Abyss" as a cave exploration action puzzle game, there are high-energy scenes in the video, the real experience is that the game process has a sense of tension, but there are not many high-energy scenes, there is a kind of experience of playing the old "Resident Evil". I don't know whether to delete the game style during the internal test, or simply use promotional videos to attract attention. The in-game cave map design is like a castlevania in the "fog of war" shrouded scene "open map", players can feel the tension and sense of achievement of exploring the unknown.
After reaching an unknown area, the player must first clear the monsters in the scene before exploring the interactive items in the area. The experience of using such a "fragile" character to fight monsters and solve puzzles is very similar to the feeling of "Resident Evil" that was decrypted by the "tank movement" method, due to the complexity of the old biochemical operation, the player is afraid every time he opens the door, because once he encounters a zombie, he needs to raise his gun to shoot immediately, otherwise he will use a crappy movement to avoid the zombies that fly over. "Claustrophobic Abyss" also needs to clear out moths and spider holes in new scenes or after opening the door to avoid being chased by monsters, but unlike the monsters in action shooters such as "Lone Gunner", most of the monsters in the "Claustrophobic Abyss" scene are limited (the number of difficult monsters will be increased), and its meaning is to bring a certain tension atmosphere to decryption and exploration, and there is not much threat in the case of sufficient ammunition.
The goods are not on the right board
Although the atmosphere of "Claustrophobic Abyss" makes people feel substitution, there are only four or five kinds of monsters in the game, of which a large spider only appears once, and the only thing that can bring me freshness is the Pippi shrimp that falls from the sky. As a game developed by one person, the monster is understandable, although the game content is not rich in the EA stage, it is really difficult to face its price of up to 80 soft sister coins.
After watching the promotional video, players generally have the impression of "Claustrophobic Abyss" as a cooperative action adventure game (cooperative PVE), and the game is only a personal decryption game, which is difficult to meet the expectations of players who are planted by the promotional video. At least last year, there was a co-op adventure "GTFO" with a sense of atmosphere, and there were also 3D co-op adventure games like "Alien: Fire Squad" launched, and players can cooperate in killing aliens in these two games. "Claustrophobic Abyss" as a 2D single-player puzzle game, it seems not so attractive, although the game will have a PVP mode in the future, but the personal feeling is still a cooperative adventure of PVE, in the atmosphere of the confined space to kill monsters in a more interesting way.
Personally, I also expect that this 2D game will allow people to experience the experience of cooperating against unknown monsters in Alien, and because of the new strange work "Annihilation" movies and novels in the past few years, in which the unknown towers, various strange monsters, and the protagonists with limited abilities have made the atmosphere tense, making people have a great interest in the fear of name but invection. Although the atmosphere and decryption of Claustrophobic Abyss are interesting, they do not live up to the expectations brought to me in the video.
summary
"Claustrophobic Abyss" as a horror game that is still in the EA stage has its own style and characteristics, if you accept the gameplay of the game, there will be a certain freshness, but the current game flow is shorter, and the game mode is single. Players who watch the promotional video may wish to experience the demo version first, and learn about the future online PVP mode, and then start if they are looking forward to it.