End of Abyss Reviews
End of Abyss draws you in with its uniquely dark sci-fi atmosphere, but gameplay frustrations and lack of cohesion bring it down.
A striking atmosphere isn't enough to carry End of Abyss to greater heights; a twin-stick shooter style of horror game in a metroidvania format sounds like a winning combo, but combat and exploration lose steam quickly.
Ultimately, my 13 hours with End of Abyss were inconsistent, with long stretches of excitement broken up by regular beats of annoyance.
End of Abyss is more than worth the investment.
End of Abyss is a strong debut title from Section 9. It’s a tight and well-paced adventure that makes great use of its creepy setting, with great exploration elements and serviceable combat. It doesn’t overstay its welcome; it left me wanting more from this universe.
Section 9's End of Abyss delivers a compelling sci-fi adventure that combines tense combat and exploration with some frustrating shortcomings.
End of Abyss is the surprise hit of year, with its forebodingly atmospheric Facility, unsettling enemy design, and well executed minimalist philosophy, it brilliantly combines its multiple genres to create a distilled and engaging survival horror experience.
End of Abyss is a moody and cinematic metroidvania with a tantalisingly dark sci-fi world, tactile twin-sticks combat, and a scintillating brain-teaser of a map. It's brutally hands-off at times, but it makes the moments when you figure it all out all the more satisfying. Some bugs do taint the experience a little, but End of Abyss is a gorgeous horror-tinged must for metroidvania fans.
With End of Abyss, Section 9 Interactive takes what they learnt from Little Nightmares and creates a new beast that blends their trademark unsettling atmosphere with Metroidvania exploration.
End of Abyss does a fantastic job of creating an eerie world that you'll want to explore, however, once you start unlocking upgrades you'll begin to lose the feeling of tension. Map glitches make retracing steps a confusing experience.
Claustrophobic and eerie, End of Abyss is survival horror through the eyes of Little Nightmares. Section 9 expresses its roots in new ways but still placing the protagonist and player in a harsh world of dangerous paths and twisting secrets.
End of Abyss delivers striking visuals, unsettling enemy designs, and an enjoyable scanner mechanic. Its twin-stick controls are a novel idea, but they reinforce the action while the survival horror takes a back seat. Combined with progress-halting bugs and repeated backtracking, it left me wanting to finish rather than keep exploring.
In End of Abyss, you get a convincing sci-fi horror world, a substantial exploration structure, useful upgrades, optional areas, and combat that becomes more manageable as Cel grows stronger. You also get unreliable map data, repeated enemy encounters, uneven boss difficulty, and technical issues that can disrupt progression.
End of Abyss tries to balance a lot, from sci-fi survival horror with souls-like metroidvania exploration. But it buckles under its own weight.
There’s a wonderful ‘vibe’ that just clicks for me that I really gelled with, even if a few technical hiccups kept getting in the way of my overall enjoyment. If you’re a fan of atmospheric exploration and survival horror-inspired Metroidvanias, End of Abyss is worth venturing into the dark for.
Overall, I enjoyed the nearly 13 hours it took to reach the first ending of End of Abyss. However, those hours were marred by glitches: trophies failing to unlock (including the normal ending and final boss achievements), doors locking me out of resources needed for upgrades, and more. The game clearly needs more polish. After a few updates, End of Abyss will be a fantastic experience that definitely deserves your attention.
Metroid, but more specifically Super Metroid captured the perfect harmony of isolation, exploration, platforming, combat and atmosphere. Although I can’t go back in time to experience generational games like this again for the first time, I can play End of Abyss, which is the closest that any game has come to encapsulating everything that made those experiences special, but in it’s own unique and twisted way. Even though there's some minor flaws and fails to fully realize some of its ideas, there's still plenty to love about this 3D sci-fi, horror metroidvania. It’s not the next Metroid, it’s the first End of Abyss and that’s exciting.
End of Abyss is an interesting game, with a good central idea and enough personality to find its audience, especially among players who enjoy exploration, resource management, and experiences that aren't afraid of a challenge. I just don't recommend starting a session after a heavy lunch on a workday. The abyss has no regard for the salaried worker.
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