Juegos como Below nos invitan a plantearnos qué tipo de vacío tuvo que revelar Dark Souls en el corazón de les jugadores para que se lanzara toda una escuela de roguelikes inspirada en su modelo. Below cumple, a nivel superficial, con todas las expectativas: exploración de tierras desconocidas y abandonadas, cercanía siempre amenazante de la muerte, y un mundo hostil e indiferente al que no nos ata nada que no sea el deseo de controlarlo y (spoilers para el final) acabar con él.

Below cumple con todas las marcas prototípicas del Soulslike, pero añade un par de elementos que lo diferencian radicalmente. El primero es que los controles y el combate son mucho más sencillos, mucho más cerca de un Zelda que de otra cosa. Con ese esquema, la sensación de peligro se ve menos acrecentada por los enemigos y más por las trampas del mundo, que se sienten verdaderamente crueles y malintencionadas de un modo que la premeditada y controlada indiferencia de los Souls nunca evoca. El segundo es que, cuando morimos, uno de nuestros compañeres/descendientes ocupa nuestro lugar de inmediato. En los niveles más complicados y severos, esto da a Below una capa de gestión cruel sobre mandar a tu gente a morir mientras recoges los fragmentos almacenas las armas más potentes. Ni siquiera Darkest Dungeon te invitaba a ver a tus avatares de una forma tan inhumana.

En resumen, diría que este juego es muy logrado, pero frustrante de un modo que no termina de conectar conmigo. Irónicamente, el elemento que más me desconectó fue la necesidad de grindear para la última sección de la mazmorra.

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Games like Below invite us to ask what kind of void did Dark Souls reveal to players so that many roguelikes would try to fill it in later years. It superficially meets all the expectations of the genre: exploration of unknown, desolated lands, the looming closeness of death, and a hostile and indifferent world that means nothing to us except how can we control it (spoilers for the end) finish it.

Below checks every proverbial Soulslike checkmark, but has a couple of elements radically set it apart. The first is that the controls and combat are much simpler, closer to Zelda than anything else really. With those mechanics the sense of danger is incentivized less by enemies and more by the traps, which feel truly cruel and malicious in a way that the Souls titles never attempt to evoke. The second is that when we die one of our companions/descendants will take our place. In the more difficult areas, this gives Below a layer of cruel management vibe about sending people to their death while you collect the shards and stash the better weapons. Not even Darkest Dungeon invited you to view your avatars so inhumanly.

To sum up, I would say that this game accomplished everything it set out to do, but frustrating in a way that didn't connect with me. Ironically, the element that turned me off the most was the need to grind for the last section of the dungeon.

It kind of feels like this game was designed by an alien that has only ever played one video game (and that video game was Dark Souls)
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I cant actually figure out who the audience for this game is supposed to be. Its not for the roguelike audience, cuz the randomized elements dont extend to the player character. Its not for the survival audience cuz this game is extremely punishing on the action side of things. Its not even for Souls fans cuz the game wrings your neck over resource management. The games way too long to be this austere yet demanding of an experience.

Some thoughts:

- I think the only purely positive thing I can say about Below (and I wouldnt be the first to say it), is the Art Direction and Atmosphere are on point. This includes the macro things, like the smooth crisp “Geometry-Norwegian” graphics style as well as micro things - like when youre in a cave full of scrambling weird dudes but some of the weird dudes dont scramble on the ground. They stand up, stay at a distance, regard you with some sort of cautious intelligence, respond with some kind of comtempt for you killing the scramblers. Its pretty convincing. Many things were probably inspired by Dark Souls here but the attention to detail with the setting might be the one they interpreted correctly.

- The balance however, is incomprehensible. If the design of the game was a text, it would be written in some ancient Babylonian language. Im gonna break this down into finer points to try and articulate this wicked weave of bullshit.
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>>> Areas are way too large for a game that sends you back to the beginning of the island every time you die. Even with shortcuts unlocked, it adds alot of tedious travel (and therefore increases the punishment) to the process.
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>>> The crafting process is essential to your ability to survive the game and the size of the inventory makes this incredibly unsustainable. You will have a hard time holding on to everything you need and you will have a hard time recouping the cost of spending items - especially if you still end up dying.
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>>> The game had the balls to have survival mechanics in a world where you die in 4 hits. Your hunger and thirst drain empty every 5 minutes and you cant cook (craft with food) just anywhere. Everyone hates this, everyone exclusively recommends doing Exploration Mode but this doesnt get rid of the temperature component either.
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>>> The UI is simplistic (pretty) but incredibly aggravating for a crafting system where you need to heal or eat often. “Trial and error” means submitting to the tedious process of dying, respawning and then recouping more than you otherwise actually need to.
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>>> On top of all these base systems, the game is just a shithead. Tons of traps to complicate your survival prospects, for some reason they put a suicide run segment where you have to finish a gauntlet before freezing to death only 1/5th of the way through the game, they will starve you of essential resources (not figuratively essential either) for entire floors. There is a segment that represents an entire 20% of the game where combat is a guaranteed way to get killed and sent back up to the top. Some people call games like Dark Souls unforgiving but this game actually desires to spite you.

- With all that being said about the design, the game also has the balls to necessitate players re-explore every area to truly acquire all the items needed to complete the game. This isnt some optional true ending type shit, you need to fumble through the game twice in order to beat it at all. Luckily, fortunately, blissfully, if you made it down to the bottom once you likely have created enough stability for yourself that going through it again isnt as big an ask - but Im just floored by the ego on this game.

- The juice isnt even worth the squeeze. There isnt any real sense of reward for persevering in Below. I get the feeling someone at Capy played Dark Souls and went “Ahh yes…. mysterious….” and then made a game that was nothing but Vague. But that vagueness spoils the game, making crucial systems cumbersome and diluting any sense of achievement (cuz your reward is more Vagueness). Dark Souls “delayed gratification”, it didnt “delete gratification” - and this sucks so much more because of how unrestrained Belows sense of punishment is. Youre hit twice as hard for half as much and that sucks.


Minor Thoughts:

- Why does this lil mfing guy wake up and get up so slow? You have to suffer his slow ass wake up animation twice every time you go to the Dream Room (once when you enter and once when you exit), why did they do this? Why do they hate Gamers? Why do they hate me?

- I think this game expects you to care about the world way sooner than you actually have incentive to (a big no-no). BUT. It does get cool eventually.

- Why are all the cutscenes so slow? Why is everything so mfing slow??

- Damn the ending sucks.

played it in exploration mode cause I remembered hearing the game was way too frustrating on survival mode and that was one hundred percent the right choice

kinda slogged at first but eventually feel into a good rhythm, and then eventually got way too hard even in exploration

honestly kinda wish the game didn't have any combat, buuuuut despite all that I just loved the atmosphere, as cliche as it is

Never seen a game sabotage itself so hard. For every good idea, there are three bad ones. Gave up on the 18th floor where everything is pitch black, and I was being stun locked by the increased enemy count. The lack of shortcuts from the 14th floor to the 18th was the tipping point for me.

The most frustrating thing is that there's an extremely well realized atmospheric adventure/exploration game here, but it's buried deep beneath a bunch of very (artificially) punishing mechanics that keep poping up at every floor.