Abyssus on PS5 is a brinepunk, cooperative roguelite first-person shooter (and breathe), which is finally making its console debut after swimming about for nearly a year on the PC platform. Now I’m going to level with you, I didn’t really have a Scooby-Doo what ‘brinepunk’ meant when I started playing Abyssus and after consulting the various codexes on the internet (Wikipedia, Reddit *cough*) it turns out that brinepunk is a setting that I’ve actually loved for a while and not known.
Abyssus PS5 Review
With its evocative ocean caverns, half-destroyed ship husks, sunken masts, ancient Cthulian style temples and so much more besides, Abyssus arguably does a commendable job of leveraging its brinepunk setting. As to the narrative itself, there isn’t much to say, Abyssus centers around the notion that ‘brine’ is a rare and precious substance that can only be found at the bottom of the deepest oceans. Problem is, the ragtag group of Brinehunters that are sent down there to retrieve the stuff (that would be you and your buddies), encounter the corrupted remnants of an ancient civilization who aren’t especially jazzed to see you down there on the rob and thus the stage is set, so to speak.
Let’s get straight down to the fundamentals – taken on its merits as purely just a first-person shooter, Abyssus nails down the essentials pretty well. Each of the nine different firearms you can use all feel, look and sound good to use (though the shotgun could do with a bit more oomph), but there is something of a design oddity present whereupon any weapons you find in a given run, cannot be used immediately and can only be selected in the succeeding runs. A bit baffling, but hey-ho.
The fast-paced movement on the other hand resembles id Software’s recently resurrected takes on DOOM, with players able to dart around the various brinepunk locales of Abyssus at speed, while a handy dash (tied to a cooldown) allows you to cover a chunk of distance in a split-second. If I had one reservation about the combat in Abyssus it would be that the arena style chambers that you get locked into for each encounter don’t really have much in the way of traps or environment hazards, giving the impression that while easy on the eyes, these rooms lack imagination on a functional level that should otherwise feed into Abyssus‘ moment to moment gameplay loop.
Speaking of level layouts, it’s worth noting that while all of Abyssus‘ levels are actually hand crafted affairs, rather than some sort of Frankenstein’s monster of jumbled up level bits, they’re also procedurally ordered too, meaning that the order in which you’ll encounter each room will change with each consecutive run. It’s hardly a big thing in the grand scheme of things, but it does help to make each run feel a little bit more fresh than it perhaps otherwise would.
Abyssus also runs at a decent clip too, with a decent enough Unreal Engine 5 powered visuals that tear along at a rock solid 60 frames per second, though the enemies, which run the gamut of odd-looking machines and subterranean creatures hardly engage the imagination. So taking all of those observations, I’d say that, yeah, Abyssus accounts for itself pretty well on its shooter bonafides alone. There is, however, much more to Abyssus than just its first-person shooter sensibilities.
As I might I have mentioned at the beginning of this review (*checks* – oh yep, I did) Abyssus is also a roguelite, which means that there are a lot of mechanics in the game which dovetail into that very particular subgenre. Like any roguelite worth its salt then (or ‘brine’ I guess, in this case) Abyssus separates its roguelite mechanics into in-run progression and permanent progression structures.
Starting with the former, within each run you’ll come across sums of gold (either in pots, treasure chests or looted from fallen elite enemies) which will allow you to purchase health top ups and/or a variety of charms that can buff various aspects of your offensive and defensive throughput. Beyond these shiny coins, you’ll also stumble across various shrines which allow you to profess allegiance to one or more elemental forces and then stack the effects or branch out to other elements as you discover each shrine. This means that, for example, you could add a frost attack to your primary attack which slows down enemies in one shrine, and then add a fire attack to your secondary attack which gives a percentage chance for enemies to catch on fire and immolate their nearby mates.
To make things a touch more spicy, Abyssus also presents players with a mahoosive number of in-game challenges to complete. Completing these challenges (which include everything from beating hard as nail bosses to smashing a requisite number of pots) unlocks all manner of shiny new toys too which can be used in subsequent runs, while timed challenges provide a loot-stuffed treasure chest at the end – if you’re fast enough. There are also parts of each realm that are locked by special keys which, if collected and unlocked, provide yet further secrets and bounties in turn. Put simply, there’s a surprising amount of stuff to do during each run.
Looking at the macro-progression side of things, Abyssus acquits itself suitably well on this side of the fence too. Firstly, Abyssus allows players to collect Soul Fragments which can be earned from completing certain feats such as killing particular bosses or elite enemies, and also from other activities such as smashing open golden treasure chests scattered throughout each realm. Once collected these remain in your inventory until the end of your run, at which point, in Abyssus‘ hub area, you can invest these Soul Fragments into permanent skill-tree style upgrades which persist from one run to the next.
Another area in which Abyssus succeeds in keeping you coming back for more is the weapon mod system. Though each of the nine weapons in the game have primary and secondary fire modes, they also have a number of slots into which special weapon mods can be inserted, substantially altering the offensive parameters of that weapon in the process. When taken in tandem with the persistent challenge system and the permanent skill tree upgrades, it soon becomes clear that Abyssus has a lot to offer, both in terms of progression and loadout customisation, to bring players back to its alluring briny depths.
I also need to be clear about something – while you can quite happily tackle the various brine-bound horrors of Abyssus on your lonesome, you really will only get so far, such is the punishing nature of the later stages and the hugely challenging boss fights which cap each realm. This is absolutely a game in which bringing friends not only makes the game much more enjoyable and fun, but so too does it actually make Abyssus actually approachable too (unless you happen to be a very particular kind of masochist that wants to go at it alone).
All told, Abyssus doesn’t really do anything terribly new with its cooperative roguelite, FPS formula and is certainly let down by a lack of imagination in regards to its various locales. That said, the technical presentation is solid, the brinepunk setting still feels fresh, combat is fast-paced and enjoyable, the progression systems are finely tuned to the point that you always want to go back to improve your Brinehunter more and the whole affair becomes much more fun with friends. Throw in its relative budget price point (£19.99/$24.99) and Abyssus quickly presents itself as a compelling way to see through this summer and beyond.
Abyssus is out now on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.