Beneath Review on XBOX

Beneath is a Lovecraft-inspired survival first-person shooter.

The premise is you play as a seasoned diver, Noah Quinn, who’s routine expedition plunges him into chaos, trapping him in the depths of the ocean, where an ancient evil lurks.

The game boasts scarce ammo, monsters and Soldiers that hunt you, and an experience built for both veteran gamers and those seeking a challenging old school game.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there are limited options available and very basic tweaks. The subtitle option is just on or off, controller mapping doesn’t exist, but there is a camera smoothing, object always visible and head bob options. So should you have hearing, motor or visual issues, this may not be the game for you.

Gameplay

This is a game that has been on my watchlist since I first played the demo a couple of years ago at WASD. I even did a top 10 games to watch out for with this being high on the list. So to finally be able to play this, I was intrigued on how far this game had come since.

Developed by a micro studio founded by two brothers, with a lifelong passion in horror and shooters, the game is out to bring back horror and a gaming challenge similar to that of 2005 F.E.A.R. Have they been able to pull it off or is this just pure Lovecraftian fantasy? Let’s find out….

From the beginning, things start of slow, giving you time to understand the characters, Noah, a specialist diver, his daughter Amy and team communicating from above as he searches for a missing sub at the bottom of the ocean.

However, in the middle of this doing so, something happens above and things quickly spiral out of control. After a quite dramatic tutorial piece, you find yourself in a underground water base where you find out that your daughter is infected with something.

Like all good fathers you try to look for a cure and search the base. Its here you will meet a number of characters who will give you side missions in order to help you find said cure. From the beginning, its all about finding solutions to puzzles, searching for ammo, building your arsenal and surviving monsters or even worse, soldiers.

The games intent is this is going to be hard, and whilst there is difficulty options, it still wont be a breeze to get through. Soldiers AI isn’t totally stupid, with it spotting you from a distance and happy to keep back and fire or in a number of cases, rush you to outflank and take you out. A few decent shots from any enemy and you will soon find yourself dead, with each enemy trained on taking you out asap.

It encourages you to take a strong defensive stance, and not rushing in and will punish you harshly if you try to go all gun-ho. Don’t get me wrong, you can still wait back and let them herd through a door to take them out with little issues, but in rooms where no doors exist, taking cover behind anything is key! Another factor is the scarcity of ammo, and the amount it takes to kill enemies. This forces you to be on point with your shots, as bodies don’t always give up ammo, making each encounter a potential bullet drain.

Combined with this, is the horror mechanic, as your mind starts to play tricks on you with a variety of visions and jump scares, keeping you on your toes as you carefully make your way around this unnerving base. Bodies litter the hallways, zombies hide in the corners and globs of stuff cover the walls. 

This may make you want to just keep on the path set out for you, but in doing so the games progress is going to be tougher if you don’t explore. You see within these vast areas, are hidden ammo, very rare health injections and even more limited, upgrade stations. Scavenging every location will reward you with parts, which in turn will allow you to upgrade your weapons, which its vital you do.

These then allow you to increase damage, have special ammo, change their colour and provide some buffs like better recoil. There isn’t a huge amount to upgrade per weapon, but with the very limited resources you will, find, choosing which gun and what to upgrade will take some careful planning.

Graphics

Visually the games has gone for a dark dystopian aesthetics that knows where its strengths lie and how to ensure the player doesn’t feel safe regardless of the location. Survival is careful exploration and tactics based on the room locations and enemies within them. Locations vary from underwater bases, biotech labs, Cthulhu temples, underground caves and the open seabed, that all promote a sense of dread when in them.

Like the ammo, the games arsenal of weapons is also limited, but enough to ensure that you never feel too helpless. Be it with a pistol, submachine gun, shotgun, you can defend yourself pretty well. And we can’t forget the trusty crowbar, which uses stamina-based attacks for breaking crates and batting away some easier enemies. 

Gun fire from the hip is ok, but often is a ammo waste due to spread, so you quickly learn to use the sights more often than not, and because of this you hyper focus on the enemies in front, never around. This can lead you to many jump scares as enemies pop out of doorways or circle round you when attacking. 

Enemy variation is a bit limited with a number of different soldiers, zombie soldiers, tentacle monstrosities and Cthulhu squid like beings. Each look great in their own way, and have different tactics, but all are deadly if you are too close.

Lighting is 50/50 with some areas looking gorgeous in its moody lighting and flickering bulbs. Then your come across lighting that is being split due to grates or mesh, that make it look like you are walking through a textured fog. Occasionally I came across textures that occasionally popped in and out, and there are moments of clipping where I could see the level design through walls. Another time there was an icon for interactable items that was visible through a bathroom wall, inadvertently giving away its location and undermining the intended suspense.

With regards to the frame rate and smoothness of the game, I saw little in terms of crashing, but there was some odd pop-ins and screen tearing and character clipping, and as mentioned lighting issues with low lite lighting.

Sound

When it comes to the music, the game favours using this sparsely with it only really appearing during cutscenes to ensure that the scene is conveyed properly. A blend of orchestral and piano scores frame these scenes well letting the story be the centre piece.

The game does have voice work with in-game chat being told by either notes or characters providing you with their back stories. Each character including the games protagonist do a superb job in each of their respective characters and do sell this unnerving situation you find yourself in. 

But by far the games majority of sound it based on your surroundings of pipes hisses, alarms going off, creaks and groans of the external world around you. This is combined with enemies moans or soldiers barking commands, provides a superb and truly intense uneasiness of exploring this underwater base. That not to mention the crazy visions and numerous jump scares, designed to push the players nerves at every corner.

Battles and weaponry sounds are also equally superb, with gunfire being impactful and deep, but also echoey when in larger rooms. Just like the how the music is used with cutscenes to convey a deeper tense atmosphere, the weapons provide a enjoyable melody when in the middle of a fire fight.   

My recommendation here would be a good quality soundbar to really enjoy the uneasiness of this dark and disturbing world. 

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Beneath is a ‘’ Great Purchase’’.

This is a game is out to produce a real dark and atmospheric survival shooter, and even with its issues, it does do just that. You do check every corner for enemies, you do dread when you find them, and you do worry about running out of ammo. Is it perfect, no, but what is there, hits the spots on many levels.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £16.74 or approx. $20 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 10+hours to complete the story. With regards to replay ability there really isn’t much for you to do for a second playthrough besides choosing different upgrades for the weapons.

This Lovecraft-inspired survival FPS is very enjoyable, but does need some patches to fix the more annoying things, which the development team is already doing. Overall, this does provide a challenge and horror style that those fans of the genre would enjoy.