Below (2018)

 PC
User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 67 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 67
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 67
  3. Negative: 24 out of 67

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  1. iseeall
    Dec 29, 2021
    7
    7/10
    An atmospheric roguelike, with an isometric view, real-time melee combat, some crafting and a semi-permadeath mechanic.
    Good: - excellent audio which gives at all a great, atmospheric "experience" feel - excellent graphics - though they are mostly just low-poly models, without even any textures. Still, the game has great looks due to real-time shadows, lighting, fog and the    7/10
    An atmospheric roguelike, with an isometric view, real-time melee combat, some crafting and a semi-permadeath mechanic.

    Good:
    - excellent audio which gives at all a great, atmospheric "experience" feel
    - excellent graphics - though they are mostly just low-poly models, without even any textures. Still, the game has great looks due to real-time shadows, lighting, fog and the haunting darkness
    - it's kinda permadeath but not really permadeath. There are no saves, but as you reach a cooking fire somewhere, you can make it a checkpoint by spending 25 gems (which you loot from killed mobs), and then, after you die, you can teleport to that cooking fire instantly. Then you need to reach your dead body and loot your stuff from it

    So-so:
    - inventory is small, but you don't know any recipes in advance, meaning that you generally have to hoard items and find out on your way what 3 items can be crafted into what. Quite early in the game you will find yourself dropping items to free up space, only to later return to the rooms you've been to already and loot the dropped items again etc. Although limited inventory could have been thought of as a mechanic to make the game harder, I think it just introduces hassle and isn't fun. Instead, they should have allowed all items to stack to any amount (also arrows! Currently fire arrows stack 8 max, and bomb arrows 4 max which is way too low) and make inventory scrollable, with no limit on space.
    - on a related note, most stuff you craft is useless. E.g. boiled soup, stew and broth aren't that much more efficient than raw food. And arrows are downright useless, especially those hardest to craft. A fire arrow flies in an arc and will land either too far or too close, miss the enemy you clicked and just burn out after a while. Caltrops will catch 1 enemy - that's not worth crating it from 4 shards and a few more items.
    - I kinda expected a tutorial but instead the game chooses to just let you find out its rules through exploration or randomly. For example, I wouldn't have learnt about the whole crating mechanic or the existence of the inventory, had I not checked "Controls" page in the game's Settings screen. But well, I'm a super-hardcore gamer so I always check game settings before I even start playing the game for the first time. It's probably not what most players would do. Some instructions at start would definitely make this game friendlier to starters
    - fog looks nice but gets dissolved too slowly, and you kinda have to stop at times to just let it dissolve - it annoys a bit

    Bad:
    - WASD movement feels clunky at times, especially with the winding paths and corridors the rooms typically are. Often the character will just get stuck if the direction in which you want it to move doesn't fully correspond to the wall's or edge's rotation. E.g. if there is an edge that's going from SE to NW and you hold the A key to move left, the character will be stuck in place. I'd expect it to just slide NW.
    - due to clumsy movement, most of my deaths were in spear traps - although I saw these traps! I'm not sure but maybe just the good old Diablo 1's control system with "click-to-move" and "click to attack" would be friendlier, and click-to-move means walking around traps(?)

    As with most art-centric games, Below excels in its aesthetics but isn't great in its mechanics. Also, there is zero narrative: you don't know why you're venturing into these depths, the game kinda sets up the "story" with a long atmospheric cutscene at start and that's it. I'd still recommend this game just for its sheer aesthetics, especially if you get it at a discount. Just don't expect it to hold your attention for too long after you've understood its mechanics and found out that there isn't actually much meat in it. The semi-permadeath thing will pad your playtime maybe 2x or 3x but there is a limit to how many similar winding rooms you'll be willing to clear.    … Expand
  2. madarasi012
    Dec 30, 2018
    6
    Below is a fine game. From Canadian indie studio Capybara, Below is a game that’s been long in development. Announced in 2013 and intended for release in 2016, the game was infinitely delayed so that Capybara could take the time to polish the game. The completed product was released on December 14th, 2018 and, believe me when I say, it is well-polished.
    Below does not hold your hand when    Below is a fine game. From Canadian indie studio Capybara, Below is a game that’s been long in development. Announced in 2013 and intended for release in 2016, the game was infinitely delayed so that Capybara could take the time to polish the game. The completed product was released on December 14th, 2018 and, believe me when I say, it is well-polished.
    Below does not hold your hand when it comes to explaining things, nor does it give you a ‘tutorial section’ to figure things out. That is something that I both enjoyed and didn’t—I enjoyed seeing what items I could put together in my inventory to craft something entirely new, and then watch that new item in action, but, at the same time, I did not enjoy the fact that it explains nothing—it took me two hours into the game to realise that I could switch my weapon by pressing X.
    Designed to be ‘difficult, but fair’, is only one of those two things. The combat is engaging, with the levels slowly introducing newer and more difficult monsters, but the random presence of spike traps and death pits that kill you—out of nowhere—and force you to start over from scratch will grate on your nerves as you wonder why you picked up the game to begin with. Furthermore, the fast-travel system in the game is obtuse: You need to collect 25 bits to be able to turn a fireplace blue, which allows you to travel from that point to the previous fireplace… for 25 bits. If you die, you are permitted to use the fireplace once, probably, for 25 bits, that will then allow you to pick up where you left off. Die again, and you’re forced to start from scratch.
    Too much focus is placed on the survival and rougelike elements, creating a game that is frantic and fast-paced; yet, going too fast punishes the player. The game is imbalanced and difficult in ways that seem needless. Some people will enjoy this game; the sense of achievement that you get from clearing an area, or finding a way deeper down is a feeling quite like any other, but the pace of Below is contradicted by its desire to have you explore—a quick pace and exploration do not go hand-in-hand.
    All in all, I would recommend this game for people who like a challenge like no other, because Below is a game quite unlike any other. That’s not a commendation, but it is by no means an insult.    … Expand
  3. robomartion
    Dec 15, 2018
    7
    Beautiful, boring, mysterious.

    There's a sense of wonder and exploration in Below you don't get anywhere else. It's mysterious, foreboding, and it really is a world of its own. It's beautiful, the music is gorgeous and it creates a real atmosphere, especially when you're out in the rain, exploring the island for the first time. This atmosphere extends into the depths as you go down, and    Beautiful, boring, mysterious.

    There's a sense of wonder and exploration in Below you don't get anywhere else. It's mysterious, foreboding, and it really is a world of its own. It's beautiful, the music is gorgeous and it creates a real atmosphere, especially when you're out in the rain, exploring the island for the first time. This atmosphere extends into the depths as you go down, and then fills you with wonder when you find a short-cut connecting you to a previously visited area, or a secret-passage that opens to a beach, where tens of ship-wrecks lie still in the water. You will feel clever when you catch a fish with your spear, feel conflicted when you kill a harmless fox for your own survival. You will, however, feel an unrelenting and unavoidable sense of boredom dawn upon you as you pick up every stick, rock and piece of string, make your sixty-eighth band-aid, your fiftieth torch, find your coveted lantern, only to step on a trap immediately after, teleport backwards and forwards and up-and-down between each campfire, walk down the same set of steps for the sixteenth time, swing your sword, or fire your unwieldy bow at the same enemy, in the same room over and over, picking up the remains of every single one, as you descend again and again. You will be compelled however to continue, for your curiosity cannot be quenched, and the allure of revelation - the telling of just another secret is too rich a prize, and however hard the slog, however seemingly distant and intangible the reward; however down-right tedious the trek, you will be drawn back down Below.    … Expand
  4. babak_relic
    Dec 18, 2018
    5
    just good music i think , confusing map , no information , when you die you must start at the first that show there is no story and just a survival video game .
  5. LesPaul
    Dec 27, 2019
    6
    I thought that this game would fill the niche for a light, easily-accessible time-filler. The graphics looked simple but appealing, but discovered thru gameplay that objects are a bit too small to enjoy: the great majority of my screen was often black. The game mechanics and sound were as I had hoped, but I eventually lost interest nonetheless.

Awards & Rankings

99
#99 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 4, 2019
    20
    Deep under the ground an atmospheric game was born, which was ruined by incomprehensible mistakes. The game frustrates with malicious difficulty, poor controls and during the bird-view you can´t distinguish good from evil. [Issue#293]
  2. Worth Playing
    Apr 4, 2019
    65
    Below is divisive. Few will argue about the bleak beauty of the game, but everything else sets it up as a title you'll either love or hate, with few reservations. From the lack of instructions to the slow pace and the combat and survival mechanics, there are things that seem to conflict with one another but work fine at the same time. It is a game that asks you to stick with it for a while, and you'll be rewarded with an atmosphere that allows you to interpret things your way. Given some of the game's shortcomings, not everyone will have the commitment to playing until they encounter that "Eureka!" moment. As such, Below gets a cautious recommendation if you weren't already sold on the idea.
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  3. The Overpowered Noobs
    Feb 4, 2019
    60
    For a majority of what BELOW sets out to accomplish, it does well. However, there are aspects which might deter: the potential monotony and a lack of a clear incentive to proceed further and see this story through.
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