End of Abyss Preview: A Twin-Stick, Tough-as-Nails Metroidvania That’s Creepy as Hell

I got to play End of Abyss astatine past year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days event, and I liked it conscionable fine. It was a moody, atmospheric, creepy, and precise good-looking twin-stick metroidvania played from an isometric perspective. It didn’t permission a lasting content connected me, though, if I’m being honest.

What a quality a twelvemonth tin make.

This year’s near-final physique of End of Abyss – it’s owed to vessel connected PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S connected October 1 – has been punched up successful astir each way. Visually, its Unreal Engine 5-powered look is crisper and creepier – to accidental thing of its skin-crawling carnal design. The information that members of the Section 9 Interactive improvement squad antecedently worked connected Little Nightmares is evident successful what I played. Gameplay-wise, its twin-stick controls felt acquainted and responsive; you tin easy determination with the near stick, purpose with the close stick, sprout with the close trigger, and dodge-roll with the near trigger. Its multi-level depths connection secrets, shortcuts, and places you’ll request to travel backmost to later. And the existent combat – thing the Little Nightmares games ne'er truly had – is perfectly nary joke, successful the champion of ways.

In End of Abyss, you play Cel arsenic you research a mysterious underground compound to observe what the hellhole is truly going connected down there. I didn’t spot immoderate communicative elements successful the 30-minute demo I played, truthful hopefully the crippled is delivered successful a meaningful mode arsenic you go, but for the purposes of my abbreviated hands-on session, I was much than enthralled by the gameplay. You’ve got a elemental pistol that has unlimited ammo, though clips inactive tally adust and you’ll request to hold for your adjacent rounds to recharge, truthful you can’t conscionable occurrence it endlessly. I lone got 1 different weapon, which was a shotgun whose shells were rather hard to travel by. The trade-off, of course, is that they packed a hellhole of a punch.

The existent combat – thing the Little Nightmares games ne'er truly had – is perfectly nary joke, successful the champion of ways.“

I mostly stuck to the pistol arsenic I snaked my mode done a mates antithetic floors of the subterranean facility, keeping my region and aiming cautiously with my close thumbstick successful bid to instrumentality down the low-level zombie-like grabbers from acold away. In fact, I often dodge-rolled close retired of the country and simply waited for my people to shamble into presumption from the adjacent surface over. It was a mostly effectual strategy.

I saved my constricted shells and precise constricted grenades for the brag combat astatine the extremity of my demo. I was locked successful a circular country with a elephantine centipede-like monstrosity that drained a ton of my wellness barroom if I lingered excessively adjacent wherever it could situation maine similar a coil and squeeze. I had to support moving and anticipation that erstwhile it made a walk and scurried by maine that it did truthful adjacent capable for maine to springiness it the afloat brunt of my shotgun blast, but acold capable distant that it didn’t wrapper maine up. I gave it a fewer tries and knocked astir fractional of its wellness barroom down earlier my clip ran retired and I had to enactment the controller down. The developer overseeing my demo told maine that hardly anybody other who played that time had done arsenic good arsenic I had; possibly helium was conscionable being nice, but it was reassuring.

Even with conscionable this tiny slice, I near my demo assured that End of Abyss is going to beryllium a precise challenging, no-holds-barred metroidvania acceptable successful a downright disturbing facility. It mightiness person a heck of a clip lasting retired from the crowd, fixed its merchandise date, but I deliberation that those who springiness it a accidental volition beryllium pleasantly amazed by what a affluent satellite and pugnacious task are waiting for them.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's enforcement exertion of previews and big of some IGN's play Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, arsenic good arsenic our semi-retired interrogation show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, truthful it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him connected Twitter astatine @DMC_Ryan.