[h1]Sum-Up[/h1]
[h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3]
If you’re looking for some screenshots [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/tho545454/screenshots/?appid=2601640&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=grid]click here[/url] to view all the ones I took for this game.
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[th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th]
[th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th]
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• Very good horror atmosphere that ensures solid immersion. Damp, pitch-black lab corridors, unholy sounds echo all over.
• Tense gameplay: enemies could pop up from or be hidden anywhere, while you’ll be starving and wounded. No guidance at all—you’re on your own.
• The side-lore is interesting enough, and decently written.
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• Low variety of total content, especially for a roguelike, which should have replay value as one of its strong suits.
• Relatively tame challenge level even on the hardest difficulty, due to somewhat abundant supplies and modest enemy numbers.
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[th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Issues[/b][/th]
[th]🔧 [b]Specs[/b][/th]
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• Object dragging can sometimes not work very well, depending on the grab point.
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• i9 13980HX
• 64GB RAM DDR5
• RTX 4090
• NvME SSD
• 3840x2160
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[quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url], to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote]
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[td][b]Content & Replay Value:[/b][/td]
[td]It took me about one hour to complete a run of Sporeborn Dark on Hard difficulty, taking extra time to explore all the areas I could find and read lore files when possible. Despite being a roguelike, there isn’t a lot of replay value due to the extremely limited total content variety offered—a few more runs at best.[/td]
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[td][b]Do I recommend it?[/b][/td]
[td]Yes, but not for full price. Even if the game is already cheap, I feel like it simply doesn’t offer enough content and replayability to be worth getting without discounts. If you’re a fan of top-down horror such as Darkwood, or old-school survival horror, this is a decent pick.[/td]
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[td][h3]Conclusion:[/h3]
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[td]A small but decent-enough roguelike. It nails the atmosphere and gameplay basics, but is held back by its lack of variety and quite mild challenge level for this type of game.[/td]
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[h1]In-Depth[/h1]
[h3]Writing & Worldbuilding[/h3]
Woken up in a dimly-lit prison cell, you have no idea of what’s going on. Your only realization is that something is very wrong, and you need to get out of whatever place that is. This is Sporeborn Dark’s short but effective incipit to your adventure through the dark tunnels and gore-stained rooms of an underground facility, where something clearly didn’t go as it was supposed to.
The only form of storytelling is found in the sparse notes and documents scattered around the facility. These feed you lore fragments about the research conducted there and the misadventures of other people that, just like you, got caught in the fallout of what happened. Written in a local made-up language, some of them may give you hints about what you’ll need to do in order to reach salvation, but most will be diaries and logs of what happened before. They’re decently written, and do a fair job in providing sparse lore caches that help keep the exploration interesting by giving it a sense of story.
The artistic side is Sporeborn Dark’s strongest suit in both visual and audio departments. You’ll go through a living nightmare stained with gore and unknown growths, scattered furniture and corpses all over. This way of building the world conveys very well the fact that something unimaginable, violent and devastating happened; the general state of locales you’ll traverse only further emphasize it, while terrible sounds constantly have you on edge — whatever made that mess might be coming for you next.
[h3]Exploration & Secrets[/h3]
You’ll explore on foot, no map or other landmark will be present to make orienteering around the facility any easier. You’ll have to remember the layout of rooms, place spare items around, or move furniture in specific ways to have a reference as to where you’ve been. Doors kept open help, too, but that could also mean more openings for enemies to attack you from. Most rooms and corridors are filled with numerous furniture pieces you can’t search or destroy, but only move around to either make way or as improvised barriers against chasing enemies. It’s entirely possible to shove an enemy in a corner using indestructible furniture, but then again they will push it out of the way soon after you stop grabbing it; this mechanic is clearly inspired by Darkwood, but doesn’t have a practical function in the gameplay system in this case.
Most locales have a couple usable items, weapons or food—because yes, you’ll starve rather fast and your body needs sustenance—maximum stamina, used to sprint and melee attack, drains the more emaciated you become. Your limited inventory, just a couple of slots, needs to house ammo, medical items, food, consumables and even key machine components to progress towards your escape—it’s inevitable that you’ll need to leave stuff behind, in a survival horror-esque tight inventory system. Items don’t have descriptions, and some may be even harmful to you—the only way to know is to try. You’ll also be able to only carry one weapon, melee or ranged, at a time—swapping an old gun for a new one, if you have the ammo, will be a regular occurrence. There are no real secret or hidden areas to mention. At most, you’ll find lore pieces and more uncommon items along the way, but in my experience, there is no unique zone to speak of anywhere in the map.
[h3]Combat System & Bosses[/h3]
You’ll either use melee weapons, such as iron pipes, or if you’re lucky and have the ammo, guns such as shotguns or pistols. The arsenal variety isn’t that great, with only three ranged and two melee weapons in total. The same goes for enemies, featuring a small ranged variant, an average melee one, and a “boss” of sorts which is very tough and large in size. Killing enemies doesn’t award anything, they’re just there to hunt you down: the best course of action is to either evade them or lock them inside rooms with furniture and doors, since they can’t open those. Combat-wise, a basic system of melee swings and ranged aiming is in place, but with no further mechanical complexity than bashing or shooting your foes to death, with aiming becoming more accurate the longer you look down the sights. With so few weapons and foes, the replay value becomes slight even only after a few runs, because everything will feel like “already seen” despite the layout being randomized every time. Your foes aren’t particularly strong either, with the average “medium” enemy taking several hits to kill you and being rather easy to kite around unless you’re severely malnourished.
