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The satisfaction of the metroidvania genre comes from a sensation of mastery – taking a place I'm unfamiliar with and slowly unraveling its complexities until I command dominance over its spaces and the threats that perpetually lurk within. For its debut game, End of Abyss, developer Section 9 Interactive tries to apply that format to an atmospheric horror adventure with twin-stick controls and instills a striking sense of dread inside a gargantuan labyrinthian facility. Its atmosphere only carries it so far, though; End of Abyss's exploration and combat slowly descend into a slog, and it never fully recovers from feeling like a routine procedure.
End of Abyss is centered around a young combat technician named Cel, who isn't given much in the way of personality. Cel is a silent observer who's trained to interact with the world through the scope of a gun. They skulk around this massive, desolate complex with only a few other soldiers four times their size, slowly attempting to discern what happened here. The place is abandoned, seemingly run by a series of AI boxes known as Security Control Units, which are trying to keep the facility from falling into total disarray. A mysterious voice calls out to Cel through these boxes, hoping they will help free this place from the zombified station workers who turned into enemy Husks.
Without much else explained, Cel is thrust into the cold concrete corridors and expected to survive. As I walked through dimly lit hallways and parasitic flea-infested tunnels, it was clear Section 9 was built of former Little Nightmares developers. The clay-doll aesthetic and isometric perspective is immediately recognizable. Atmosphere is the most captivating thing End of Abyss has to offer.
The grotesque detritus of vacant bedrooms litters the Habitation Sector, crafting a harrowing and bone-chilling opening section. I walked through every doorway with my thumb trembling on the right stick. Even with Cel's pistol drawn to keep my guard up, I was still terrified of what could be on the other side. The way a light flickers above an exit or how an enemy body encased in parasitic fungus is positioned all constantly feed into the uneasiness you want from a horror experience. These tricks work for the first few hours, but as End of Abyss dragged on, I began to see the seams of it all, and it eventually became too familiar.
What were once terrifying jump scares became predictable.
What were once terrifying jump scares became predictable – corpses with important items conveniently placed in large open arenas consistently led to combat encounters I knew were coming. The supposedly dead enemies I used to fear waking up to chase me down always would, and thus it became routine to start shooting them before I even approached.
The mystery surrounding End of Abyss unsatisfyingly relied on the absence of information. Characters trade in vague uncertainties, often offering up little to no useful information about how or why we are in this facility. A few notes and documents are found scattered around its hallowed halls, but even slowly learning about what life was like here before our protagonist Cel touched down does little to actually paint a compelling picture. I pushed forward, turning on little AI boxes around this compound to activate an elevator, I searched for power cells to switch on a beacon, and I eventually descended into the dreaded lower levels to see what lurked below.
It wasn't until the back third of End of Abyss’ roughly 10-hour campaign that the plot started to gain momentum. The story suddenly took a front seat as characters began to explain the reason for our deadly trek through the compound. But because the buildup lacked tangible stakes, it was mystery for mystery's sake, and rarely did it feel of any consequence.
That's not to say that End of Abyss doesn't have its moments. Particularly in the last act when tiptoeing around the lower levels, I found note after note that brought me closer into the horrors of this world. Rooms filled with strange new oddities and remnants of experimentations piqued my curiosity and illustrated an underlying terror.
Atmospheric Pressure
A few new weapons to add to my parasite killing arsenal also kept me invested in the search-action. Your options range from the Pulse Gun, a trusty and reliable pistol with unlimited ammo, to a flamethrower that lights up entire rooms in a wall of fire. The twin-stick shooter part of End of Abyss is no joke, either. Combat encounters can swing drastically if you roll the wrong way or get caught in a corner. I always felt in control of the situation even as I dipped and dodged through large hordes of enemies. So when I would slip up and lose that control, it became a struggle to regain my footing. That's where the combat thrives: walking on the razor's edge between confidence and hubris with a little uncertainty.
Enemy variety pushed me to do some experimentation in the action. Grenades were a staple in large group encounters, learning to manipulate aggressive enemy behavior to my advantage became a small game on its own, and grouping up mobs to maximize a red barrel explosion was a key tactic. More challenging enemies, like the long-necked Husk Latcher, made keeping a safe distance difficult; it perpetually charged forward and swung its long-reaching, claw-like head in my direction.
While I found the moment-to-moment combat mostly strong, the boss fights feel rote by comparison. Circular arenas with large creatures played out largely the same – roll away from the boss, pop a few shots into them, rinse and repeat. Some bosses, like the Centipede Husk, mixed things up a bit by leaving the arena and popping out of different corners to try and catch me off guard. Other fights are more focused on dumping large amounts of ammunition into the boss, and that's disappointing for a game with flashes of brilliance.
With the exception of the pistol, you'll need to manage your ammo and craft more at workbenches found around the different save points throughout the facility. Early on, managing my Riot Breaker shotgun ammo and choosing to save my limited supply for the moments that mattered felt reminiscent of other survival horror games like Resident Evil. However, after only a couple of hours, I rarely thought about my ammo counts, since the materials required to craft more bullets at a workbench felt like drops in a bucket. This trend continued as I acquired the Security Rifle – an armor-piercing long-range gun – and that minimized a potentially interesting dynamic.
Fragments are found around every corner, and they're a plentiful currency throughout. I found them on dead enemies, stashed away in lockers and treasure chests, and just laying in optional rooms. It was so abundant that I eventually felt nothing every time I saw that blue glow in the distance.
Dazed & Confused
This resource problem began to seep into the cracks of the foundation and expose a larger problem: exploration is not truly rewarding. The interconnected hallways and twisting systems that make understanding how all of the locations fit together are part of the puzzle in a metroidvania. But here, the further I dove into the depths of it all, the more frustrating navigating this dilapidated station became. The lack of visual variety and identity across different areas made everything look the same, and it was difficult to pinpoint points of interest in an area to help anchor myself. End of Abyss became more about looking at the map every few seconds to ensure I wasn't going the wrong way than soaking in the foreboding atmosphere that surrounded me.
Unlocking shortcuts with keycards or opening a door from the opposite side didn't bring revelation or satisfaction. It often brought confusion about how or why these rooms were tied together and what use this shortcut would have. When every zone is the same gray-and-blue hue, it becomes a tired cycle to open up another cold steel door for the sake of it, or for a handful of Fragments I didn't really need. For every new weapon or piece of equipment I found, there were five rooms full of just Fragments.
And then there was the Containment Sector. This section of the map leaks radiation and would slowly tick away at my health if I stayed in the area. I quickly shifted gears and locked in, moving with surgical precision as I couldn't waste any time getting lost. Every few minutes my health would tick to zero, I would die, and I would respawn at a nearby checkpoint. It felt obvious that there was something I was missing, some sort of protection from the radiation, since the further into the sector I went, the stronger the radiation became.
To its credit, the tone-setting audio design is some of the best I've heard recently.
Eventually I discovered a radiation suit mod that protected me from the constant damage. Instead of elation, all I felt was relief that I was done having to poke and prod random corners of this world for something that may or may not have existed. This entire scavenger hunt felt so detached from the Containment Sector and what I was trying to accomplish there, and it's a disconnect that even metroidvanias of yore didn't have.
Backtracking in End of Abyss is rough, even with a transit system that can take you to most zones. Cel does not move very quickly while sprinting, and the constant aimless roaming really pads out the overall runtime. These problems are exacerbated by multiple bugs that prevented me from progressing – random invisible walls that would stop me dead in my tracks on a ladder or prevent me from doubling back to a section I was just in. This caused me to have to restart at a previous checkpoint, losing 10-15 minutes of progress each time.
Despite the frustrations with exploration, the tone-setting audio design from Section 9 is some of the best I've heard recently. Pulsating reverberations of loud clangs and distorted gurgles rang through my headphones, sending shivers down my spine. The wet squelching of enemies as they scurried toward me made me want to crawl out of my skin. The audio gives End of Abyss a sense of scope that outsized its dark and tight corridors, making it feel like this facility goes far beyond the bounds of the screen.
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