Indie games often serve as a testing ground for various experiments, trying unusual mechanics and stories rarely seen in AAA titles. Endoparasitic, a top-down survival horror, is no exception: at the start it promises horror, vulnerability and adrenaline, but remains a mixture of great ambitions and frustrating compromises.
The game begins horribly: your character's limbs have been torn off, you're left with only one functioning arm, and you're infected with a parasite that's slowly making its way to your brain. The only hope of successfully suppressing it is through injections, which you must administer as you move around the laboratory on a remote asteroid. The evacuation is underway, but Cynte, the main scientist and character we play with, coolly decides to continue on. The experiment must be completed, at any cost.
The game is focused on that feeling of powerlessness: moving, shooting and reloading weapons are all manually controlled. We move by crawling, pressing ZR and pointing the analog in the given direction, which simulates the feeling of crawling very well. If you take the gun, you can no longer move. You have to load it, one shell at a time, and throw out the spent shells after firing.
The character's health is visually represented as a parasite slowly creeping its way to the brain. The game forces you to make quick decisions and a constant sense of impending doom. Add to that the fact that the parasite is constantly advancing towards your brain and you have to regularly administer injections to slow it down, and you have the perfect atmosphere of chronic anxiety.
During the game you will quickly encounter creatures that will chase you and try to tear apart what little body you have left. They don't move fast, but compared to your crawling, the tension is constant, especially since you have to quickly run to a safe distance, open your inventory, grab a gun and shoot them.
The narrative of the game is told through short dialogues and text logs that you will find on the tour of the laboratory. Cynte is a straight-laced and cold-blooded guy, with no empathy for others, highly focused solely on the success of his mission.
Black and white aesthetics, with red blood and minimal color accents and silhouettes enhance the horror and give the impression of isolation. The atmosphere is eerie, empty and sterile. The laboratory looks as if everything has already passed, and you are the last witness. The sounds, music and ambience are minimalistic. Good enough to support the horror tone, but not memorable.
A sad, najbitnije pitanje. Jel' to zabavno? Iskreno, meni baš i ne. Mehanike su originalne, osjećaj napetosti je tu, but vrlo brzo sam počeo osjećati zamor. Punjenis and pražnjenje piwhatlja postalo je gnjavaža, menadžment resursa became is onporan, i odustao sam. Možda je problem u meni. Možda nisam stvoren za ovakvu the game. Motivacija glavnog lika da prolazi through sve to samo s jednom rukom jest zavidna, but ja bih davno digao ruke (ruku, youhnički), what i jesam.
A copy of the Switch version of the game was provided by publisher Pineapple Works for review purposes
