End of Abyss Reviews
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.
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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