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I kinda feel like Below could be the next 'Demon's Souls' and you guys should really try it.

Unclebenny

Unclebenny

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,766
I've only played a small part of this game but something that instantly turned me off is the complete lack of developer instruction.

There is a skill to guiding the player to learn the lessons they need to learn without just dumping the on the screen. What Below seems to do is decide that any help whatsoever is for idiots and you should work it all out from scratch.

Dark Souls, the progenitor for a lot of this style of game design in recent times does this better. It gives you some indication of where to go/what's going on/ what to do. I still have fairly major problems with it but it is done far better than what I've seen in Below.

Not giving you any information isn't good game design, in this case it seems to be part of pandering to particular hardcore crowd who use that kind of thing as a badge of honour. I've got no problem if that's your bag but it's not for me and I think the game suffers as a whole because it limits who can interact with it.
 
gabdeg

gabdeg

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,956
šŸ
Seeing the MC score for Below was a shock to me. I dug the hell out of it right from the intro and I can't wait to continue playing where I left off. It even made me purchase a separate copy even though I got it via Gamepass which marks the first time I did something like that.
The atmosphere is gripping, soundtrack is perfect and the controls are tight. I really don't see things like the roguelike nature and the survival mechanics as negatives. Can't explain it, but things that should piss me off, do not in this game.
Gamepass is probably a good way to check it out for people on the fence.
 
PeterVenkman

PeterVenkman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,770
Hard to be a rougelike when i only died once so far and seemingly activated two shortcuts / found my body. It's pretty forgiving. And the hunger/thirst mechanics are super easy to manage early on.
 
Arkeband

Arkeband

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
7,663
I think the comparisons to Zelda 1 are apt. Zelda 1 would be absolutely torn apart by today's standards. The difficulty is NES hard, which was a term bandied about for Dark Souls which simply wasn't braindead-easy.

I'm only at the end of level 7, but so far the game has been incredibly fair in how death is doled out and the meta-progress is useful. The things that carry over between lives are the things you were carrying (if you can make it back to your body), the things you purposefully leave for your future self, shortcuts and storage upgrades. All of these together make it extremely easy to progress.

People who are quitting by like floor 3 are, and I say this with love, giant diaper babies.
 
Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
thomasmahler said:
Honestly, I kinda feel like if this game had 2 game modes: Survival and Explorer, where Survival would be the current game as is and Explorer would relax the Survival elements and spawn you with your lamp when you died, a LOT more people here would get convinced to keep playing. There's incredibly interesting stuff hidden behind a layer of obscurity.

Also hope that Capy will add an option to zoom in a bit more so that people who play on their couch instead of on a monitor right in front of them could also see more of what's going on.

Below really evokes the same feelings I had when I played Zelda 1 for the first time as a kid and I didn't think that'd be possible anymore in todays day and age where people just look stuff up on the internet once they get stuck somewhere for 5 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I only played a bit to get a taste (need to finish Ashen first) but what I saw was wonderful. I don't mind the more punishing mechanics since we have other games like Tunic that are going for the "nothing explained or written, go wild" but without permadeath or survival requirements. Having those running timers for your characters seems a good balance against crawling through each and every screen.

A minor zoom option would be nice though. You have to figure it's coming if they're going to port the game to Switch... well, unless they have an accessory deal already locked in.

619773762.jpeg
 
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OnanieBomb

OnanieBomb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,478
This is at the top of my list of "I wish had an Xbox to play this game" along with Ori, cup head and Synset Overdrive.

My pc can't handle shit so that's not an option.
 
Villein

Villein

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,982
The game is fine so far loving the atmosphere and everything but it's missing a solid pull, like some sort of narrative crumbs to at least make wanna see whats ahead.
 
Orb

Orb

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,465
USA
The style, atmosphere, and music are all amazing. I just wish I enjoyed playing it.
 

Deleted member 15538

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,387
User Banned (Duration Pending): Personal Attack. Long history of infractions.
Please don't use DS to promote a rather poor fellow indie. 0ri isn't that great either, Never Alone shits all over it and that actually has SOUL.
 
PeterVenkman

PeterVenkman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,770
I suspect it just because this is hitting all my marks, but I really like having to carefully plot out where I think my resources can get me back. Like when I find a shortcut back to the top, that's huge. But I can see why other people would find it tedious
 
Oddhouse

Oddhouse

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,036
So I bought Below at launch, loved the art and music but found it too hard with the survival mechanics.

Just booked it up again and they have obviously balanced the survival part of the game and I'm loving it. Can't get enough of going deeper and deeper and each level having a different style and feel to it.

More people should play this game after the rebalance !
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,605
I've enjoyed the lumps that I've taken so far and it goes without saying that the music and atmosphere are done perfectly IMO, but it is pretty brutal.
 
Masseyfects

Masseyfects

Member
Nov 7, 2017
116
I finally beat this game yesterday. I went into it thinking it'd be too tedious to beat (I hate hunger mechanics with a passion, but gave the game a chance based on this thread), but quickly got sucked into the strange world and loot mechanics. I loved travelling deeper and deeper into the island and finding new enemies and areas. Beating this challenging game felt amazing--a true gaming triumph. This thread was the only reason I even played it, so thanks for that!
 
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