In the last few years, we have seen a truly large number of quality horror games on the market, especially those from indie production. From one such small studio comes the new survival horror action adventure Beneath.
The game was developed by a small team called Camel101, and this is their third horror game so far, which may differ the most from the others. You play as Noah Quinn, an experienced diver searching for treasure in the wrecks at the bottom of the sea. The demo we had the opportunity to play is set somewhere around a quarter of the way into the game. The game begins with your exploration of the seabed somewhere in Portugal, where you are searching for a Nazi submarine in hopes of getting rich easily. What surprised me greatly was the amount of dialogue and narrative elements in the story – which is actually very well written. In the first few minutes, I listened to a conversation between our protagonist and his daughter Amber, and I can say that I already felt a solid connection with the characters, aided by quite decent voice acting.
The plot thickens when, during the exploration of the submarine, your ship is attacked by an unknown monster, and you are greeted by the sight of dead colleagues and friends, with the only survivor being your daughter Amber, who is badly injured. A huge monster destroys your ship, and after wandering the ocean, you happen upon a station where you seek refuge, but find monsters and various nightmares that want to take your life. The atmosphere in Beneath is quite scary, and for me, there has always been something slightly eerie about the endless ocean, so I think this kind of setting is excellent for a horror game. Visually, I can't say that Beneath impressed me too much. Some parts, especially those underwater, look quite decent, as do some light effects, particularly those coming from your flashlight, but on the other hand, the textures have very low resolution, and the character models and their animations look very unimpressive. Of course, it is important to note that the developers mention that a lot of what is here (specifically animations, acting, and dialogues) is placeholder, so some things shouldn't be judged until the game's release.
The gameplay boils down to exploration, hiding, and fighting various humanoid monsters lurking around the station. The least interesting part for me was definitely the exploration, as the game lacks a minimap or compass, and the level design is often confusing. This is not helped by the movement, which is not particularly fast, nor the protagonist who is likely a smoker and can only run for a very short time before his stamina runs out. The combat in Beneath reminds me of the good old F.E.A.R. series and represents the highest quality part of this game. In this demo, there are 4 weapons available – a crowbar, a pistol, a shotgun, and an assault rifle. This may sound like a small number of weapons, but they are expectedly very different from each other, and you certainly don't have much room for experimentation since you need to conserve ammunition well if you don't want to be at the mercy of the monsters that haunt you.
In short, Beneath is a solid and promising horror game that fans of the genre should definitely keep an eye on. You can already download the free demo on Steam, and the full version of the game is expected to be available by the end of this year.
