BELOW

absolute peak (if you're patient)

very sad that this is game was was abandoned, love the art style

Below's number one problem is that, VERY early on, it asks for trust that it has NOT earned. You immediately are given the opportunity to waste resources, which I did, over and over. I happened to find key areas in a bad order. Maybe it will get fun, but so far the developers are presumptuous. I recommend this: on the beach gather but do not use anything. Ignore the first obvious room - it is more opportunity to waste resources. Do NOT hit E to camp. Climb the cliff. Get the lamp. Then go right to the tall slit door. Feel free to explore around and collect a very small number of objects, but don't shoot any arrows, and don't make camp by accident.

Finished the game in survival mode, amazing atmosphere and overall experience. I didn't think it was "too hard" and I think all the bad reviews due to the difficulty are unwarranted, if you don't like the concept of the game then don't play it!

Absolute fire. The rating tanked by casuals.

This game encapsulate the feel of Dark Souls: You are thrown in with no explanation, experience the feeling of loneliness, feel really small and helpless. The ambiance is incredible, the music, the lighting, the weather, are all contributing to making the world feel alive and immersive. The map is big and every part is connected, which is really good. The gameplay is not hard by itself, however there is some things that are really tedious: You have a survival system and have to eat and craft potions/food. But for that you need to find a fire. Fires are not permanent, but you can make one (and only one) permanent for a run, and teleport to it (doing so break the fire). Fire break after a few minutes and can't be re-ignited. You also need fire to store your items. The survival system is not too hard in itself, but the fires however are a pain in the ass. It doesn't make the game more challenging, but more tedious, as you sometimes have to run through the map to find a fire to craft potions and cook food. The map is very basic, and is wiped everytime you die, so you have to remember where you are going. It would be cool to be able to save it. Despite my frustration with the fire system, it's a really good game and small hidden gem. I recommend it !

While the game starts out with great aesthetics and soulful design it quickly goes into the other direction: boring procedual maze-like structures that are hardly visible if you don't waste your torches all the time. The game lost its appeal quickly when I died and had to rush through these halls for a second time, fighting the same boring looking enemies again. The combat is mainly "click a few times at the right moment into the right direction". It just enhances this feeling of foul play by the devs. A supposedly deep, powerful experience wasted by rogue-like mechanics and boring combat, plus boring level design.

Solid roguelike. Reminds me a bit of Necropolis in style. Includes a lot of knowledge-based systems, cool shortcuts and route unlocks. Very strong atmosphere, and gameplay strikes a really nice balance between rewarding accumulated wisdom / skill, and punishing you with emergent threats that you must learn and conquer. There's very little by way of tutorial but that's part of the game's appeal for me. 9/10

Wow what a game. Below is the most flawed masterpiece I've ever seen. I've never seen a game so committed to it's own core values (some may say to its detriment) and unique vision. Below is a very bizarre cross between Knowledge-based games and Survival Horror weirdly enough. The game might seem difficult and unfair at first but once you understand the game mechanics underneath everything, it flows so well. Although at a certain point, preparing for a run takes around 30 minutes, which really raise the stakes and gives you lots of adrenaline, but it does kill the pacing of the game. Yes the game is brutal, at time tedious and can be obtuse. but the things that it does well it does it so insanely well that I am just in awe of the game design, art, insane soundtrack, sound design (omg the sound design is just top notch), and storytelling. Most of the most difficult and frustrating parts of my playthrough were because I was not understanding a core mechanic of the game and once it clicked, it just feels so good. My main criticism is actually how to finish the game. I do think that the way you are suppose to finish the game is telegraphed poorly and it feels unnecessarily obtuse especially after already proving that you can surmount all of the game's challenges. I had to use a guide to actually finish the game, although to be fair I was almost there, but without it I would've been wondering around for hours. So yeah, if you are not turned off by this game in the first hour or two, absolutely give this a fair shake because this has become one of my favorite games.

I really wanted to like this. The atmosphere is immaculate. But my god, the game feels like a chore. It feels like this game is very close to being a good game, but just barely misses the mark.