Project Abyss

Have played for about 2 hours. Through the tutorial and well into the beginning of the main game. The graphics, music and scenery are lovely. I like the retro feel, and the attention to detail. The peaceful exploration mechanic with a story and mystery to solve is my kind of thing. You are given tasks to complete and a clear direction to go, so it feels open but not vague. The upgrades and collecting aspects are also nice to make it feel like you get your money's worth. The 'computer' voice over is quirky and I like it. The constant hunt for fuel adds a bit of a frantic edge to your exploration which some players may or may not like. My main issue is the controls. (EDIT- the developer has released a Settings toggle for the controls, making the following paragraph irrelevant.) You can't simply use the arrow keys or WASD keys to go left,right,up,down. You have to rotate your jets and press the boost button to navigate opposite to the direction your jets are facing. This is nuts. Instead of paying attention to the game, and what is around me, I am constantly thinking about the controls and staring at my little jets to figure out which direction I will go if I press boost (hard to enjoy the scenery while staring at my jets). It is something that desperately needs to be a Settings toggle. But alas no. When you leave your sub and swim around, it's a palpable relief to be able to just navigate normally. Perhaps it adds to the 'submarine' feel... but.... *head shake* I'm continuing to play because I've been following this game for sometime, and there are so many positives and a great feel. But, Tall Story... if you have any possible way to add a Setting for normal controls, for the love of Indie Games... please patch this. (EDIT - Done! The developer rocks!) Overall a nice gem, and appropriately priced. Try it out.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] Project Abyss is developed and published by Tall Story Studios. They’ve had previous experience with Guardians of Victoria, which despite being critically panned, still offered a decent steampunk setting. I’m glad to say that they’ve learned from their past mistakes and continued to release their next Steam game, Project Abyss. It’s very important for indie devs to understand that second chances apply even for them. Far too many developers at the start of their careers, seem to stumble and stop after only one commercial failure. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] I really wish there were more submarine simulators on Steam. And not just combat-oriented like the Silent Hunter series, but relatively tranquil sims that focus more on exploration of the ocean floor and shipwrecks. Project Abyss is indeed such a game, even if fully 2D. The submarine game subgenre has a decently numerous following and I count myself as a fan too. Still, I admit that I might have been a bit wary at first once I booted the game and noticed the complex control scheme and hefty tutorial. Project Abyss does take some time getting used to, but it is by no means a time waster. Exploring the ocean depths has its own rewards, beside the loot crates that ultimately fund your expedition. Speaking of means of combustion, you have a fuel cell and monitor equipment which seemed a bit out of place considering that most exploration subs use an electrical motor (in fact all types of submarines use electrical engines when underwater). Perhaps it was just a weird interpretation of the word “fuel”. It’s a finite resource though and instead of a clock, your main enemy will be the fuel depletion which sadly can prematurely end you diving sessions if you’re not too careful and even conservative at times. I do appreciate the attempts at a realistic simulation of finite onboard assets such as harpoons, torpedoes and other equipment. It gives both a sense of urgency as well as resource management since you’ll have to prioritize a set objective or another. The mission structure is relatively open-ended, another aspect I found more than welcoming since linearity has been approached one too many times in video games. The exploration element is complex, since between you and your path towards loot crates, are all sorts of obstacles from hostile/peaceful sea life (Abyss has nice trivia segments detailing most of them) and even rock/soil/metal that has to be blown away or drilled by case. Your submarine comes fully equipped with all the necessary gear and from time to time, you may have to depart the sub and explore or loot by yourself, in diving equipment. As a diver, you’re more exposed to dangers and shall have to rely on even more prudence and patience since the oxygen level depletes faster than the fuel from the submarine. Luckly you have a trusty drone that can pick up various containers and chests. The gameplay is quite diverse as you can see and if peaceful resolution seemed boring to you, there are some fairly challenging combat sections that can damage your hull quite fast. Even the repair task is left to you, as departing the sub and manually repairing it, is far less time consuming than returning to the host ship. After each successful mission, you are given the option to upgrade various gameplay aspects which will invariably make the game easier. I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn the controls and play it safe. I found myself restarting an expedition far too many times since I risked going further ahead just for “one more crate” or “let’s see where this cave leads to”. Keep an eye on your stats and you should be fine. Can’t complain of the graphical details since color and sprite variety are right at home. As far as 2D graphics go, you can’t really ask for more. Sound variety though? Yes, Project Abyss is in dire need of more diversity in the audio department. At least the tutorial is partially voiced. Most of the cons I listed below, are related not to gameplay mechanics but to basic game design aspects which I found lacking. You can’t rebind any of the controls and the biggest flaw in my opinion, has to be the lack of Steam Overlay support. Just taking a look at how many screens I took in the past few months, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone when I say that I like visually documenting my game progress through constant screenshots. Sadly, Project Abyss is among the few Steam games which doesn’t let me “fuel my madness”. Such a pity, since I really like this title. [h1]Pros[/h1] + Interesting story and setting + Complex diving and looting mechanics + Elements of economic and resource management + Steam Achievements & Trading Cards [h1]Cons[/h1] - No Steam Overlay support - Inflexible control scheme - Repetitve sounds [h1]Result / Final thoughts[/h1] Project Abyss is fully worth its asking price and offers both types of Steam auxiliaries, as I like to call them. Achievements and Trading Cards, of course. Add to that, the intriguing exploration and combat mechanics and you have a perfect example of an indie game that fills a subgenre void, left by the relatively few submarine titles in recent years. [b]Rating 70/100[/b] [quote]This review was submitted for [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ImperialReviews]Imperial Reviews[/url], through the generous contribution of [url=http://steamcommunity.com/id/redhillcro]RedHill[/url].[/quote]

A clunky, delayed, awful control scheme. No way to switch or rebind controls - the game claims there's an "easy control scheme" but selecting the option, going back and forth between gamepad and keyboard, saving and loading, none of these actually do anything. Tutorial signs often describe completely wrong ways to accomplish actions, such as saying to use DPad up when it's actually Right trigger, saying to use left bumper when it's actually left trigger and faling to describe how to actually drone remote, which must be done in "melee range", with the diver facing the object, using a different button than the tutorial says to, and while pushing the joystick towards the object (and while getting the diver to face the same way, which is a hassle in tiself because the diver can only move up-down-left-right but can move and whose sprite can face independantly of each other, even of your aiming.) Neither keyboard controls nor gamepad controls alleviated these issues. The sub controls like a sub, which is, I suppose, realistic, but the game demands constant and neverending precision and movement to do anything besides move in open ocean. From playing front mounted and bottom mounted crane games to pick up objects (but you can only collect goods from the bottom, sometimes forcing you to awkwardly pick up from the front, carry out, drop, then re-pick up from the bottom to collect), to trying to chase tiny fish with drills, the amount of precision required from your tank like, constantly flipping 2d sprite of a sub is too much. A robotic, difficult to understand voiceover with no subtitles allowable. They automatically switched off when I went to the options screen, and no matter how many times I switched them back on, saving, loading, restarting the game, nothing worked. Suddenly the voiceover worked for one tutorial sign, and then as soon as I entered the settings to save the game, it turned back off, with no way to turn it back on again. I have no idea how much content, quips, or quest mentions I missed. Levelup screen steals money, reducing cash but not actually buying upgrades. All menus appear to be active simultaneously, layered over each other, meaning it's possible to buy random supplies while you're trying to use the menu you can actually see - the upgrade screen. The same happens when you're looking at sub selection and supplies, with the levelup screen. I lost 250 dollar slike this, which was pretty much all the money I' collected in the game so far from the tutorial area and my exploration of the first zone. Fuel system is needlessly punishing - moving uses fuel quickly, having lights on (I will remind you: This is a game about exploring the Mariana Trench. In the ocean. And with a day night cycle where day rarely matters becaue you're in the bottom of the ocean.) drains fuel faster, and wasting limited, hard to acquire cash on fuel means you waste fuel going to and from supply ships on the surface and back to the giant trench where you're actually playing the game. Limited fuel cells can be found underwater, but can easily be wasted if you happen to pick it up too early and uselessly overfill your fuel gauge. But if you bypas them, that means remembering where they are, and being able to get back to it when you actually need it. Then the second backtracking trip to where you were... wasting even more fuel. Explosive barrels are everywhere and destroy everything near them with the slightest bump, including the fuel cells and very very limited ammunition they are often placed by. "dying" and respawning places you back at the start of the level but keeps all objects consumed, which means now you need to try to get back to where you were, but with even less fuel cells underwater than before. It costs more money to restock on the weaponry than you get by actually killing wildlife, and restocking on limited quantity consumables again cuts into permanent sub upgrades. The game expects you to use the clunky, awkward sub controls to hunt down the likes of tiny seahorses, lionfish, and the like both 1: in a vast, gigantic ocean with no signs to follow, and 2: either by expending limited ammo harpoons, or by attempting to melee a tiny lionfish with a drill 3 times its bodily size, but wasting tons of fuel to do so. Your reward is 5 dollars. Don't even think about exiting the sub as a diver to do so: it takes 2 of your precious 10 harpoon gun ammo, and again, you only get 5 dollars. This doesnt count the time you spent chainingthe sub to arock so it doesn't float away, waiting for the long exiting sub sequence, aiming to fight the creature, swimming back, and waiting for the long "entering the sub" sequence. All the while, fuel is ticking down. And for some reason, the "Chain harpoon", the only unlimited resource at your disposal, flies through enemies as though they weren't even there. Database popups fly up and obscure the entire screen for seemingly no reason: I was lambasted by several when the creature in question wasn't even on the screen or in my remote area. They pause the game entirely and ruin the immersion and train of thought you had going. At one point it caused me to lose control of my sub, slam into an explosive barrel and immediately explode the fuel cell it was next to, when I had 25 feul left of 300, and died. Back to the surface. That was the end of my adventure in "Project Abyss". I'd had enough. Realism isn't an excuse to make your game a pain in the ass to play - and the numerous bugs simply don't help. It's a shame, because the aesthetic and the idea of the game are great. It's just not very fun or enjoyable. I felt like I was fighting the game the entire time.

Project Abyss is a submarine exploration game with light combat and RPG elements. Dive into the depths to discover loot, use the income from loot to buy upgrades. Once I got past what felt like a battle with the controls this game is actually a pretty fun and chill game. I loved exploring the environments, every landmark was detailed, unique and interesting. Big if however, the amount of problems I ran in were verging on ridiculous for such a short game, and I couldn’t find solutions on the Steam forum or search engines. I have documented some of the issues and workarounds I found in this review. I highly recommend not bothering with using a controller - the aiming is awful and the creatures move so fast it quite simply is unable to be used accurately. I also recommend switching to ‘easier controls’ in the settings even though the developer recommends using the original - doing so took away a massive amount of confusion and frustration. The game bugged out because I left my controller plugged in while using KB+M. Typically it became unresponsive to input when I changed between maps and randomly got stuck on nothing but I also found my submarine not ‘flipping’ direction (preventing me using the torpedo in one direction). Adding on to that, a restart was required after unplugging as the bugs actually persisted and the game defaulted back to controller after I had changed it to KB+M in settings preventing any input response. The game still isn’t clear on how some mechanics work, often leaving me wondering if I encountered yet another bug or if I had simply misunderstood. For example: When I was diving, I didn’t understand why a drone wasn’t picking up objects. Turns out, this was because the game wanted me to be literally on top of the object to mark it, nothing let me know this was the case and audio cues confused me. I didn’t realise I was purchasing upgrades from the skill tree, money went *poof* and I panicked. I soon discovered this wasn’t a problem as plenty of money to fully max out all three skill trees can be found just exploring alongside a huge amount of weaponry. In fact, the only weaponry I actually purchased was C4 to get past doors containing more loot. Unless I missed something, it genuinely seemed like there was no repercussions for reaching fail states, always just respawn with no loss of levels, money or items. I also don’t understand why the game insists you kill ‘peaceful animals’ as part of the objectives to complete areas; heck, even killing sharks seems mean and unnecessary. Boss fights can be cheesed by spamming attacks and tanking hits, upgrades (like the repair bot) only made this easier. I never once died in a boss fight. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for all the frustration I’d give this game a positive rating as I can see the genuine care put into the world and I honestly would love to see a sequel that was more user friendly. I spent just shy of four hours to complete Project Abyss, including time spent trying to fix bugs.

So far I have played through the tutorial section and the explored the 1st main area. Project Abyss is a lovely game that captures the essence of underwater exploration and the related dangers. The art style and representation of the ocean creatures is charming and it feels nice when you come across something out of the blue. At first, the controls seem overwhelming, but this because of the range of submarine and diver tools that are on offer. Moving the submarine itself is done by rotating the propeller to the angle of thrust needed, which gives a very unique and realistic feel to operation. A lot of care is required to finely position the submarine around underwater obstacles. The submarine tools include things like the drill, front claw, underbelly (?) claw, harpoon gun and chain harpoon. I particularly like the claw underneath the sub that moves up/down with the mouse wheel and can pull objects back up. You can also exit the submarine and explore as the diver, allowing for other weapons and tools at your disposal. It allows for an extra dynamic of gameplay, in terms of exploring inside shipwrecks or repairing the submarine itself from outside. It feels natural to secure your submarine to a rock with the chain harpoon, then explore more closely as the diver itself. There is definitely a survival aspect to the gameplay, as the fuel on the submarine is limited, along with ammo sometimes running dry. Also the sea itself can be a rather dangerous place. Save when you can and don't waste resources. From the look of the skill trees and the achievements, there appears to be a lot more content on offer for me to discover. If deep sea exploration is your thing, then I'd definitely give this a go.

I just played the tutorial and I already like this game. The artsyle and the climate is really cool. Apart from that I love the music. On the down side the controls are pretty weird, but maybe it'll be fixed. I like the game anyway. Even in its early state

一款深海探索游戏 游戏里可以操控一艘装载着多种装备/武器的潜艇 在海底探索着各种宝藏，搜寻着海底生物，并且还要面对威胁着人类生存的可怕生物 1. 强烈建议在esc菜单里开启easy controls功能，可以直接通过WSAD控制潜艇 而不是默认的依靠喷气大小和方向来间接控制操控 2.可以通过Q键使得潜水员离开潜艇，去探索一些潜艇无法钻入的区域：比如沉船 而潜水员也可以通过4技能呼叫无人机来收集一些宝箱回潜艇，但要注意氧气的数量 游戏过程里氧气问题基本不是大问题，但是需要关注在你离开潜艇后潜艇的燃料不要用完、以及潜艇不要撞到一些炸药上 3.驶入在海面上的基地船后，既可以花费金钱购买技能升级 总共3系，从下往上解锁（每层解锁一个后即可解锁上一层的技能） survival，主要增加燃料和氧气上限 attack，主要增加武器速度和伤害 defence，主要增加防御力 可以直接通过左上角的快捷方式到达（新手图只会传到起点）、或者自己浮到海面上寻找 当然船上还可以花钱修复钻头、修理舰艇、补充燃料、购买弹药 4.游戏里的海床上或者一些可挖掘的岩石层里存在着大量可拾取的物品：比如弹药、燃料、有钱的宝箱等等 中前期可以优先通过学习技能来解锁探索技能（按下3激活，在survival系的第三层），方便快速定位哪里的岩层需要钻开 毕竟无意义的钻洞会消耗钻头耐久，前期修复不但费钱、还浪费往返的时间 5.survival系比较推荐前期学习，除了前面说的探索技能外，还有第五层的3钻头，潜艇顶部和底部各增加一个钻头，方便开路 6.游戏除了新手区域外还有5个区域，1~4分别往右探索即可 区域5则在区域2~3连接处的下方（其实在游戏探索过程中就能明显发现那段地方有类似于高科技的墙壁封锁），里面有最终BOSS 每个区域需要完成右侧列出的主线任务后才能解锁下一个区域 任务主要包括：升级、击杀2种特定的生物一定数量、击杀区域BOSS、拾取所有的story（都在海底、以及BOSS击杀后掉落）、拾取一定数量的金钱 都不算太难完成，里面反而击杀生物可能稍微难找一些，主要这些生物并不都是生活在海底的，而是在上方某个深度的区域，所以需要多探索 7.整体难度不算高，基本上多花些时间把所有的掉落物全部拾取后，全部技能解锁的钱绰绰有余 即使最终BOSS，打你也不是太疼 鱼雷伤害看上去挺高，但射速真的不怎么样，即使全部技能满级后，仍然没有鱼叉好用（包括每个区域的BOSS战） 8.游戏会有一些影响游戏的bug（直接导致卡死的那种） 所以要时常记得保存游戏 包括但不限于： 快速驶向海底的商店时，可能因为购买界面弹出时没有计算碰撞体积的问题导致潜艇直接卡入墙壁中出不来 潜水员可能因为无人机的碰撞卡入墙壁中出不来 最终BOSS击杀后，视野范围会非常小，需要离开当前地图后才能恢复 场景4的鲨鱼击杀后，可能卡在死亡动画上（尸体不消失、不计算任务数） 最终BOSS击杀后掉落的story拾取后，需要按下左键来关闭界面（不能按esc），否则可能导致游戏卡死，只能强关再读档 虽然问题还是挺多的，但游戏玩法其实还是挺吸引人的，原本价格也不算太贵

So many bugs, there needs to be an update to make the fish not glitch out. Also, when you unlock the new subs, they won't turn around; they consistently face only one direction. Fix please, to many bugs for this game to be done.

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Nice game, but has some ugly bugs like messed up tech tree with abilities sometimes working sometimes not, broken achievements (completed game 2 times, some of them unlocked on 2nd run, while should be unlocked on 1st), no sound from time to time etc. It was fun to play and complete it, but there is no response from dev and this single final achievement, that I can't get while is real PITA