End of Abyss review

Ever since I first booted up Little Nightmares, I've had an unexplainable addiction to 2.5D top-down, atmospheric, exploration based adventures where little to none of the story is explained to you. There’s just something about being thrust into a dark and foreboding world where everything is foreign to the player, and the protagonist is in way over their heads, rather than a cocky hero, that enthralls me. So of course, when I heard that Section 9 Interactive, which was founded by some of the developers of the Little Nightmares series, was creating a new IP mixing the creepy atmosphere of the series with twin-stick shooter-like mechanics and a Metroidvania style world to explore, I jumped at the opportunity to cover it.

Despite being created by some of the developers of Little Nightmares, comparing End of Abyss to that series isn’t really fair. End of Abyss is a much more fleshed-out experience, with a spiraling underground facility to explore, weapons to find and upgrade, ammo and items to craft, suit mods to find and equip, and bosses to defeat. While it retains the familiar 2.5D view and the player being thrust into what feels like the middle of a story, there is little else comparable. 

This quasi-metroidvania adventure has players embody Cel, a young combat technician, as she and her team explore a derelict underground facility in hopes of uncovering the reason for the building’s condition and the staff's transformation into gruesome monsters. Helping make exploration easier is Cel’s scanner, which can be used to identify obstacles and how to get past them, doors and what keys are needed to unlock them, and enemies and how they are best defeated. Utilizing the scanner is the key to making progress, as everything you scan is labeled on your map, allowing you to reference it as needed when you find a new key, ability, or if you get lost.

And believe me, you will get lost. Despite boasting a detailed and mostly intuitive map system, this underground labyrinth is often confusing to explore and is incredibly dark in parts, leading to easily missing levers and other important items if you’re not scanning continuously upon entering new areas. Most sections are densely layered, with multiple floors overlapping and tying into each other via ladders, anchor spots, elevators, destroyable walls, and extendable bridges. While in theory this complexity is a good thing, the lack of direction given by the game does lead to a few moments where you’ll aimlessly wander. Making matters more difficult is that a couple of areas contain elemental hazards, which can only be overcome via suit mods. The tricky part is that finding these suit mods typically requires the player to navigate these treacherous zones for quite a while before acquiring them. It definitely ups the game’s difficulty, but can be frustrating on a first playthrough. I imagine subsequent playthroughs of these particular areas are much less stressful.

Despite getting lost sporadically and missing a necessary lever to progress for an embarrassingly long time, I found the overall world design superb. Exploration is both tense and rewarding, with the player never knowing if you’re about to stumble upon a boss, a challenge room, or a secret upgrade. Well-designed bosses guard each section, encouraging the player to experiment with their arsenal, and despite your ever-increasing armory, End of Abyss never becomes too easy.

Cel is an able fighter, though she will quickly get overwhelmed if you’re not careful. She begins with a basic pulse gun with unlimited ammo and a knife, but will eventually unlock an assault rifle, grenades, explosives, a shotgun, and even a flamethrower. Each weapon is capable of being upgraded to deal more damage and to have alternate firing methods, such as a charged shot. Aside from the pulse gun, you will need to craft ammo for each weapon, meaning they are best saved for dire situations. Thankfully, you can equip two weapons at a time, allowing you to swap between your unlimited pulse gun and your secondary weapon of choice on a whim. Combat is simple, consisting mostly of dodging and shooting, though as you unlock new toys to play with, the game does encourage experimentation. 

As you defeat enemies, they will drop fragments. Fragments are the currency used to upgrade your weapons and to craft, though weapons also require complex alloys and other materials to upgrade. Fragments are plentiful, and enemies respawn when you save, allowing you to farm if necessary, though you really shouldn’t need to. I always had more than enough fragments for anything I needed to craft or upgrade. 

Throughout the facility are safe rooms which hold a restoration pod and a workbench. The restoration pod restores your health and refills your health boosters, and allows you to tweak your suit with different mods. The workbench allows you to upgrade your arsenal and craft ammo and other useful items. You begin with only one health booster, but more will be found while exploring, with each allowing you to heal Cel one additional time. Suit mods and suit power items are found during exploration as well, often in well hidden areas, and it is in your best interest to seek these out as they are essentially required for completing a few areas. Your suit’s power level determines how many mods you can attach at a time, with mods available which can boost your health, allow you to carry additional quantities of items, protect you against radiation and other area threats, and more. You will never have enough suit power to equip all your available mods, so tweaking your suit to match the area’s threats is necessary for survival. 

End of Abyss can be surprisingly difficult at times. Enemies are bullet sponges, especially in later areas, and bosses can take you down in two or so direct hits. Cel is not meant to be a superhero, and as such, your best bet is to stay mobile, dodge constantly, and attack only when safe to do so. Patience is a virtue, and getting greedy with your shots will only lead to an early death. There is no penalty for death, but any consumable items such as ammo or explosives you used before death will not replenish, meaning you must craft more before heading back into battle.

Helping pad the game’s already decent length are a slew of secret areas and upgrade items which can be found around nearly every corner. To 100% clear End of Abyss, players will need to be willing to backtrack and scour nearly every area again after unlocking Cel’s full arsenal. Unfortunately, there is no New Game+, but replaying with the knowledge of where to go and how to survive is still rewarding on its own. 

I went into End of Abyss naively expecting the next iteration of Little Nightmares, but came out thoroughly impressed with Section 9 Interactive’s difficult, atmospheric, and rewarding gameplay along with its brilliantly intricate and layered world to explore.