Zero Below The Sun

Sigh… I had a lot of hope for this one, keeping a close eye for a good sale. I had played the demo, and while I knew it was very goofy looking (just look at the main character design), I thought it would either be 1) a solid retro style survival horror with fun mechanics or 2) a so-bad-it’s-good kitschy b-movie type game that would be good for a laugh. Unfortunately, it’s neither. Before I get into the myriad of frustrating bugs, the underlying gameplay loop is just awful. It’s technically a classic survival horror game, but boiled down so much until there’s nothing left. You are just running through a brightly lit monotonous lab setting, shooting goofy looking zombies with broken gunplay mechanics. The level design is completely linear, yet you are constantly asked to backtrack for fetch quests with zero shortcuts opening up. The only thing breaking this routine up are very occasional awfully designed puzzles. Nowhere in this routine is any charm, fun, challenge, etc.- just pure monotony, Now the bugs. On controller, you’re told the right shoulder button reloads, but in reality it’s the left shoulder. But wait, thats also the grenade button? Yep, they’re not mixed around, they’re the same. So grenades are useless unless you never want to reload again. The aiming is totally broken. Never does the gun actually shoot right in the center of your aim, it’s seemingly random. Either up high or below, depending on the time of day. Want to open the menu and check the objective? Be prepared to get caught trying to get back to the game. I counted 6 times where the inputs would just break and I spent 5 minutes button mashing to return to the game and out of the UI. The map is also very broken. For some reason, panning with the d-pad doesn’t go up/down/left/right, but instead NW/NE/SW/SE. You can’t rotate the 3d map, but things will be overlapping so you can’t really get a sense of the layout. I could go on, but what’s the point. This was by far the worst survival horror game I played this year, and there are many many incredible ones. Conscript, Among Ashes, Crow Country, Connection, SH2R, The Fear Business, Fear the Spotlight… the only reason I managed to get to the end of this was by accidentally leaving it on while walking the dog and ending up at the 2.1 hour mark. I wish there was something redeeming about it, but it really feels like the dev didn’t play their own game. I pray it’s just their first game, and an exercise in learning, but it feels insulting to charge $15 for this. And I am truly the most gracious player when it comes to jankiness. I could have gotten over all the mechanical issues if the game rewarded me with fun puzzles, exciting combat, interesting exploration, atmosphere - literally anything. But this is kinda just a black hole of a game.

A game made with more heart than skill. It's janky and buggy, but nonetheless fun and often surprising. It kept me playing till the credits rolled, so thumbs up!

There are too many issues, including saving, to justify the price so I would recommend it only at a heavy discount. Story doesn’t give you anything to chew on at the beginning. The whole setup is rather cliché because it takes place during a virus outbreak in an Antarctic bunker. You play the character of Axel, a security officer who is peacefully looking at a postcard when an alarm goes off. Axel loads his gun, puts on his sunglasses, and jumps into whatever awaits him. Controls are fairly standard and straightforward because you will not have to deal with complicated moves. Aside from walking and shooting, you have a roll to quickly get out of the way, inventory, and a menu where you may view the current objective and a map. The map can also be opened via a separate button. The map is good because it shows the full layout, but you must remember which rooms you have already explored and which doors are locked. In order to shoot, you have to press the aim button first. Of course, ammo is limited, so you need to make sure every bullet hits its target. If you absolutely have no other option, there is a knife that can help you get out of a tight spot. You can escape, but enemies will follow you around the level unless you use the elevator. Although there's a hard difficulty, I recommend sticking with normal. Enemies on hard are bullet sponges that require multiple clips to kill and suck the pleasure out of the game. Another thing I recommend is that you play with a mouse and keyboard. The gamepad is supported, however it does not seem comfortable. In addition, the reload and grenade buttons appear to be linked together, and you can't change buttons. On the other hand, the mouse and keyboard will allow you to turn faster and aim more accurately. This is vital since you can remove enemy’s body part. You can even render an enemy harmless by shooting its arms and easily kill it with a knife. Or blow their legs and make them crawl. Dead enemies sometimes drop ammo, but the mechanic is not useful because ammo often clips right through walls. This means it’s gone. There’s other bad news. The first is that you have a stamina bar, which stops you from constantly sprinting or swinging your knife. It replenishes quickly, yet you may not have it when you need it most. However, the lack of a lock-target is somewhat frustrating. It is especially difficult for knife because you have to constantly struggle with the camera and move the camera toward the enemy every time you dodge out of the way. This can be fixed by adding a laser to your handgun. You get this and a few additional mods as you continue through the game. Unfortunately, you can only equip one mod per weapon. The 9-story complex is a mix of corridors, elevators, and more or less intriguing rooms. Graphics are decent but not great. Although the game goes for an old-school style with grainy textures that may be turned off, they are still forced during conversations with characters and cutscenes. When you get close to an object or item that may be useful, you will get a prompt. While there are numerous additional things to interact with, such as cupboards and desks, they lack a prompt and contain nothing. Because the game starts quickly, you can learn more about the plot by reading notes and computer screens. There is no inventory management, so you can grab whatever you find without worrying about space. However, there is a limit to how many items of the same type you can carry. For example, you can only have 99 handgun ammo. Unfortunately, interaction points remain "active" even after you collect stuff. So, if you take a ration from a container, it will still have the "pick up" notification, which will confuse you if you return later. The last and most serious critique is that the game's save system is broken. There is only one save slot, and you can save in armory rooms by interacting with the console. However, saving can render your save slot unusable, preventing you from continuing. This occurred to me when I started the first generator. When I saved and returned to continue later, I discovered that the generator had returned to offline mode and I was unable to switch it on. Also, the character that gives you the mission acts as if you have done nothing and refuses to unlock the door forward.

When I saw this game on Twitter I was really looking forward to it, looked like it was gonna be something along the lines of Resident Evil and having that campy feeling. Well I was disappointed to say the least. Constant stutters and audio just cutting out randomly. The UI makes no sense. Game would've been better if the camera was fixed rather than the Third person-over the shoulder camera. The graphics were alright, albeit a bit bland. The monster designs are the only thing that I genuinely liked about this game (they look sick). Story is a mixed bag. The moment where I realized I wasn't having fun playing ZBTS was when I turned on the first overdrive and saw two mutants spawn right next to me, ignored them and then the next door said "this area is not safe". At that point I realized that this game was pretty bad. (If I did something wrong plz comment might change my review since I was stuck on that part for like 10 min) I think the developer had something cool here, the art style is cool (not my cup of tea but it's nice to see older visual styles in the modern day), gameplay is god awful and story is a whole lotta nothing burger. But I hope the developer does continue to make games cuz I can see a lot of potential. If you are looking for a campy-horror game that's similar to Resident Evil, maybe give it a try. Otherwise, skip it. 3/10

I enjoyed my experience with this game if you are a fan of old school survival horror games like Resident Evil you will enjoy it. I did encounter one issue while fighting a monster with the knife I ended up falling through the floor in one area but it only happened the one time and I avoided it the next time by just shooting the creature. I wished I could have finished the game but the connecting the wires puzzle proved impossible.

This game is such good stuff! Takes me back to the jagged edge polygon survival horrors of the 90s for sure. I do think it could've used some voice overs. Would bring the characters to life. Gameplay wise it plays like a modern 3rd person game but still has the survival horror flair. The gun play is definitely out of the original Resident Evil games playbook. It's solid. Will definitely come back to this one. Gameplay Impressions: https://youtu.be/MzjQZdQJDuM

懐かしきサバイバルホラーを体験できるゲーム。 主人公は南極の秘密地下施設の警備員。生き残るために異形となったクリーチャーを倒しながら原因を探る物語。 グラフィック、カメラアングル、操作性、すべてが初代バイオのような懐かしさ。開発者1人で作り上げており、アプデも随時行ってるそう。 日本語の導入がないのでアーカイブを読みたい場合は翻訳必須。 アイテム類はこの手のゲームを遊んだことがある人なら使い方はわかると思うので、ストーリーを進める分には翻訳はそこまで必要ないかと思う。

A sort of cross of Early and Mid-series Resident Evil with some splashes of The Thing is an interesting idea. Unfortunately it's hard to enjoy through the myriad of technical shortcomings. Many of these issues are not only visible, but very apparent in the first 15 minutes, which would imply to me that this game had practically no testing before release. Maybe after a few patches there's a good survival horror game hiding in here, but I'd wait until it's been patched in before buying.

Great survival horror game! It reminds me a lot of The Thing or Carrier. It was really fun. Sometimes the aiming was a bit difficult and sometimes there was a bit too much backtracking. I would play it again

Overall its very good! There are few things here and there that could be improved, but over all not bad for game made by 1 person. Do not play hard mode first though! Start out with normal.