BELOW PC review: An atmospheric world can't save a shallow experience

Back during Microsoft's E3 conference in 2022, developer Capybara Games announced BELOW — a dungeon crawler meant to harken back to titles like the beginning Legend of Zelda, merely with procedurally generated areas and permanent death mechanics that give it a roguelike flare. Things got complicated, though, and the game was in a lengthy development process up until December fourteen, when Beneath was released to both PC and Xbox One platforms. The game is finally here.

Unfortunately, Beneath isn't nearly as enjoyable as I was hoping. The game'due south presentation factor is absolutely stellar, with graphics and a score that dropped my jaw to the floor, only when information technology came to the actual gameplay I found myself gritting my teeth in frustration and colorlessness. Excruciatingly slow pacing and an overly-simplistic combat organization taint what could have been a fantastic indie championship to shut 2022 with.

So cute, and then flawed

BELOW

A gustatory modality of what could have been

BELOW'south graphics and music are nothing short of spectacular, but the incredibly disappointing gameplay feel leaves a lot to exist desired.

Almost this review

This review was conducted on a Windows 10 PC equipped with an Intel i7-8700K processor, an NVIDIA GeForce 1050Ti graphics card, and 16GB of RAM, using a review copy of the game provided to Windows Central.

What you'll beloved about Below

Without a doubt, the best matter Below has going for it is its presentation. Beneath is a game nearly exploring an intimidating, mysterious, and vast network of caves establish underneath an island surface, and both the visuals and music compliment this perfectly. BELOW is a dark, moody game that lets you see but plenty of the expanse around your graphic symbol so that you feel like you can see your grapheme and their immediate surroundings, merely information technology hides areas that are farther abroad from you in pitch blackness, which keeps yous on edge as yous approach them. Crafting torches or lighting a campfire will give you a means to rectify this, and in these moments, Beneath's excellent use of color really shines. The bright orange and yellow of your flames sharply contrast against the damp blues and mossy greens of the cave interiors, which makes you lot feel like you're truly lighting your way.

Below's score is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

In terms of the music, BELOW'south tracks are unsettling, intense, and hopeful all at once. 1 minute, you'll be listening to a cacaphony of deep oboes and horns that gives off vibes of uneasiness; the next, a hopeful melody of acoustic guitars will audio equally you calorie-free your side by side bivouac. This soundtrack seems to have a mind of its ain, knowing exactly when and how to nudge the actor's mood towards feeling fearful, relieved, or alert. Information technology is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Some other great attribute of Below is the procedurally generated areas. Despite the rest of the gameplay's numerous bug (we'll get to that presently) the ane thing well-nigh BELOW that I genuinely loved was how each room felt unique and dissimilar in shape. Aside from some specific fixed locations, every expanse you discover in Beneath is generated randomly, and that means that the layouts very rarely get repetitive. This helps create a sense of discovery for the player.

What you'll honey less about Beneath

Below's biggest weakness is its gameplay. Bated from the well done procedural generation of levels, the combat systems experience way also bones and lack a lot of the depth that I was hoping for. Your character is equipped with a bow, a sword, and a shield; The majority of the fourth dimension, you'll be using the sword and shield every bit enemies are typically establish in groups. Admittedly, there are a few tricks you tin can pull off — property your shield push before attacking lets you poke with your sword from backside your defenses, for instance — but at that place'due south not many of them. For the almost part, all yous can really do is run, block, or swing. You can probably imagine why being limited to such a basic moveset feels so bland.

This wouldn't exist a big trouble if the game had a practiced corporeality of non-combat elements, but information technology doesn't. There's a crafting system, but you lot'll never use it to do anything other then cook some basic food for survival or make torches to see with. The sheer amount of fighting in the game is rarely commencement by puzzles to solve either, and the puzzles that are there are woefully simplistic and easy to consummate. A game that relies on its combat this much needs mechanics that are engaging and exciting, and overall, BELOW's are neither.

The pacing of Below is as well excruciatingly slow, to the point where I had to resist the urge to simply stop playing for the purpose of this review. The game does thankfully option upward after a few hours of play, simply the route to that betoken is a rocky ane.

The pacing of Beneath is excruciatingly slow.

This issue gets even worse if you die and have to start over at the get-go of the isle in true roguelike fashion. While there are shortcuts and hidden passages you can find this time effectually that make your 2d route through the caves easier, it all the same takes a decent amount of time to accomplish the corpse of your previous grapheme and go your stuff back. Overall, the experience just starts off monotonous and is never really able to milkshake that monotony off fully.

Lastly, there's an annoying lack of basic control features hither that I don't understand. You can't remap any of your keys, which is a must in any PC title. In addition, in that location'southward no way to choose which control schemes the in-game prompts display. Even though I didn't play BELOW with an Xbox One controller, the game causeless that I was using one and showed me Xbox buttons when doing things like standing next to objects I could interact with. This forced me to open the menu and look at the keybindings constantly as I learned the controls, which wasted my time. This is likely a bug, but all the same, it ground my gears.

Should you buy BELOW?

Despite my dearest for the art direction and music of Beneath, the gameplay's flaws accept led me to ultimately dislike the game overall. Information technology's non completely bad, simply a lot of it feels shallow and banal compared to other roguelikes.

Pros:

• Gorgeous visual artful.
• Superb musical score.
• Groovy procedurally generated levels.

Cons:

• Excruciatingly slow pacing.
• Shallow combat mechanics.
• Lack of command customization features.

If yous enjoy very slow gameplay pacing and don't heed simplistic gainsay mechanics, and then I'd say BELOW is worth a shot. Otherwise, I recommend passing on this, or waiting for a auction.

And so cute, so flawed

Beneath

A gustatory modality of what could have been

BELOW'due south graphics and music are zippo short of spectacular, just the incredibly disappointing gameplay experience leaves a lot to exist desired.

Beneath is available at present on PC and Xbox Ane for $25. It'due south also available with Xbox Game Laissez passer.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/below-review-deep-world-shallow-experence

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