End of Abyss Review (PS5) – Malmö-based studio Section 9 Interactive founded back in 2020, splintered off from Tarsier Studios; the creatives that gave us the wonderfully creepy Little Nightmares I and II, have created their own original horror IP with a somewhat shared aesthetic.
Tarsier Studios just earlier this year released a spiritual successor to Little Nightmares in Reanimal, which stayed quite true to the DNA and established a new IP. Elsewhere, Little Nightmares III from Supermassive Games also released around this time just last year, and somehow felt less like a sequel than the spiritual successor.
Step up to the plate Section 9 Interactive, who have their own evolution on their studio DNA with perhaps the boldest iteration yet in End of Abyss, and while appearances might be familiar, the game itself is anything but.
End of Abyss Review (PS5) – Distilled Survival Horror
Identity
I’m just going to come right out and say it; this game doesn’t play like Little Nightmares and thus Reanimal. Instead it has taken on an identity of its own, and in doing so immediately stands out. Section 9 took some of the evergreen Tim Burton-esque x body horror imagery they’ve been known for in the past, and applied it to a game that operates in multiple genres.
End of Abyss is a twin stick shooter, it is also very much a Metroidvania, but it is especially a survival horror game. In many ways, it boils survival horror down to its core parts, where you have to manage resources and carefully navigate enemies with crowd control tactics, and utilizing the proper weaponry for the appropriate enemy types, which is right up my street, so I instantly felt at home.
Playing as Cel, the technician, while navigating some tricky antagonists, you will partake in hunting down upgrades and keys to open up previously locked rooms and areas of the map, while also dabbling in some light puzzle solving. There’s even a surprising amount of flexibility in its sequence breaking in acquiring its upgrades and items, which Metroidvania fans will appreciate.
Opting for the twin-stick style approach to combat and control layout, allows them to essentially manipulate the camera angles where need be, which makes for a good stand-in for the old fixed cameras from the classic survival horrors of yesteryear, that feels simultaneously like a bit of a throwback, but also fresh.
There is an array of weaponry to be found throughout End of Abyss, but your trusty handgun will be your primary port of call. However, targeting enemies’ weaknesses, making use of all your weapons, particularly in the latter stages of the game, especially in lockdown rooms, where you’re confined with the horrors before you, will make for a much easier time.
With every ammo type, upgrade, and explosive requiring the same crafting material to build, it streamlines the process, once again distilling the components of a survival horror very effectively. It can run out quick if you’re not careful, and those resources are spent even on death, and there is no autosave. Even if it never gets too difficult, you need to keep your wits about you.
Taking on three genres is quite a bold approach, but it does it so well, and there’s no trace of an identity crisis to be found. End of Abyss combined three of my favourite genres and melded them into one game, and it just works, quite brilliantly.
Enter The Survival Horror
Section 9 Interactive really understand how to create a foreboding and oppressive atmosphere, which is much needed in the Metroidvania space and with shrewd use of a minimalist, muted, colour palette and superb lightning, they really delivered with the location in which End of Abyss is set – The Facility.
The Facility is maze-like in its approach, and somewhat reminiscent of INSIDE‘s aesthetic, and there’s very little handholding other than a general direction of where to go, so I found myself stumbling around in some pretty hazardous areas, but I loved every moment. I thoroughly enjoyed meticulously searching for items and context clues in regards to its environmental storytelling. For a game with such few spoken words, they have built such an interesting world.
The Facility is an interconnected map, similar to how the Spencer Estate is from Resident Evil, or the earlier Fromsoft games. While it’s perhaps not as visually memorable as those locations, the team still nails the aesthetic they’re going for. It’s very industrial, retro-futuristic, brutalist, and somewhat sterile at times.
If I had to most-liken it to something, it would probably be Dead Space‘s Ishimura, which can be similarly travelled to between trams, with your often laser mounted arsenal dancing over the inhabitants occupying the decrepit hallways, while you attempt to fix parts of The Facility, and that is a very welcomed comparison.
The Ventilation Ducts with the persistent buzzing of hornets, which can quickly overwhelm you were particularly nightmarish. None more daunting than the reactor area, however, where the closer you get to the epicenter, where the boss awaits, the more intense the radiation becomes, depleting your health, and whether you’re above or below it, you will know its there, and the way in which in remained geographically accurate was really cool.
My favourite section of The Facility comes much later in the game, and it’s truly classic survival horror, but I’ll refrain from spoiling it. Every area in End of Abyss offers different enemies, and items that you might need to approach it, such as radioactive protective gear. While some parts of The Facility drummed up the anxiety more than others, I really enjoyed exploring every inch of this beautifully, horrifying world that they have crafted, I only wish it was a little more diverse overall.
Evil Residents
More impressive than its atmospheric Facility, is those aforementioned inhabitants. The enemies in this game are so so creepy, in the best way. Taking inspiration from what the best of body horror has to offer, whether that be The Thing, Alien, The Last of Us, and Resident Evil, with a healthy dose of Lovecraft, combining their brand of Tim Burton-esque aesthetics, makes for an absolutely stellar design choice.
Some of my favourite enemy types were the small parasites that attached themselves to headless corpses, and the conjoined twins who would separate after enough damage and come at you as two separate enemies, but there are many memorable types beyond that.
This is in large part due to how they brilliantly use that minimalist palette and sound design, and clever use of shadows to lure your attention towards one thing, as the shadows shift, and something comes suddenly scurrying toward you from the pitch black, or abyss if you will.
This can occur both organically, and intentionally, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work every time, despite being able to see much of the area directly around me. Section 9 really nailed their encounters, by excellently utilizing light and shadow and misdirection.
Some of the bosses are really cool aesthetically, and while none proved be too much of a challenge, I always enjoyed waiting to see what they were going to hit me with next. The centipede boss was utterly nightmarish, and those brief moments before it dashed out of the darkness still makes my skin crawl.
I really enjoyed how they told the story, thematically befitting the minimalist approach they applied to much of End of Abyss in general. It was highly effective; letting the visual and environmental storytelling, with small readables to contexualise much of what’s occurred.
While End of Abyss on the surface might seem like another iteration of Little Nightmares due to the fracturing of the studio, it is much more than that. It nails the isolationist, oppressive, and backtracking nature of a Metroidvania, it is simultaneously an effective and satisfying twin stick shooter, combining both those things to create a distilled survival horror. I have to ask, did they make this game specifically for me?
Review Code Kindly Provided By Publisher
End of Abyss Is Available On October 1st, On PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.