End of Abyss Review

It’s easy to look at End of Abyss and expect another game in the vein of Little Nightmares. After all, Section 9 was founded by former Tarsier Studios developers, and the company’s debut title has unsettling creatures and oppressive environments. But End of Abyss takes that foundation in a very different direction, putting a gun in its protagonist’s hands and building a sci-fi Metroidvania with interconnected levels, twin-stick shooting, upgrades, and lots of exploration. The result is an atmospheric adventure that is successfully compelling, even if it doesn’t quite deliver the horror experience that its presentation suggests.

Players find themselves occupying the jumpsuit of Cel, a combat technician sent to investigate a mysterious underground facility after communications are lost. What follows is a journey through a compound full of abandoned machinery, dimly lit corridors, and unwelcoming mutants. It’s an oft-visited trope, but combined with the environmental storytelling and deliberately scarce information, the world created by Section 9 is incredibly engaging to explore. And despite having plenty of reasons to, I didn’t want to put down my controller until I’d reached the end. Even then, I wished there were more.

It is very easy to get sidetracked in the game’s meandering hallways, tunnels, and walkways. After the initial areas, the Metroidvania opens up and welcomes poking into corners, scanning gunk-covered walls, and blowing up obstacles to uncover hidden goodies. As expected of the genre, there is a lot of backtracking and map scouring as new equipment and upgrades are unlocked, and there are plenty of optional rooms to peek into.

The Abyss Starts Breaking

Unfortunately, this is also where one of the biggest problems emerges. At least at the time of writing, End of Abyss does not feel release ready. It is the buggiest game I’ve played this year, and frankly, at times I felt like a surrogate QA tester. The issues become evident fairly quickly into the game. Scanning doors and other key elements would ideally cause the map to update, marking whether they’re locked, looted, or which key is required to open them. It’s also possible to add manual markers as little reminders.

However, the map often failed to update correctly or showed outdated information. A door that had been opened would retain its red “locked” icon, for example, or an explored room would remain grayed out. Some rooms simply never appeared on the map, or permanently inaccessible areas would be marked with a door icon as if they were. Though clearly designed to facilitate the backtracking inherent in a Metroidvania, the map was often part of the problem. Ultimately, a notepad proved to be a more reliable way to track areas worth a revisit.

The performance issues didn’t stop with the map, either. I encountered numerous bugs during my time with End of Abyss, from minor hiccups like placeholder button prompts to crashes to the PS5 dashboard. Some of the more exasperating included getting trapped in rooms and having to grenade myself to death to escape, bosses failing to reset, an invisible wall, becoming stuck on the environment, and falling through the world. Restarting the game and losing progress became a regular occurrence. Crashes were particularly frustrating because they could occur after major encounters, like right as I was celebrating downing a tough boss.

It’s Creepy, Just Not Scary

Image via Epic Games Publishing, Section 9

Another caveat is that End of Abyss is not a horror game. In fact, it’s not scary at all. Though it’s been described in the past as a survival horror, it’s best described as a dark sci-fi Metroidvania. Item and resource management are part of the experience but not central to it, and by the halfway point, Cel is overflowing with fragments, the game’s currency. Instead of the player feeling powerless, the game provides weapons, upgrades, and increasingly effective ways to fight back. Add to that the asymmetrical difficulty curve, and the horror rarely reaches the level of tension associated with Tarsier’s games. Those expecting Little Nightmares with combat may feel let down.

Shooting Through the Rough Spots

End of Abyss uses twin-stick controls, meaning Cel can move and aim independently. The pistol has unlimited ammunition, although it needs to recharge, while other weapons and consumables are limited. The problem is that aiming is awkward, particularly during more demanding encounters. The game requires a degree of precision, but even when fully upgraded, aiming with the pistol could sometimes feel like an enemy itself. It’s manageable against weaker enemies and when there’s room to strafe and kite, but it becomes much more frustrating when facing hordes of enemies or bosses.

Those boss fights presented another sour point in the experience. The difficulty curve felt like a lopsided U, with the toughest encounters at the beginning of the game, the easiest throughout the middle, and an unexpected jump at the end. The aiming issues also became harder to ignore when the player, under pressure, most needed to be precise. Granted, some of the initial struggle may have come from learning the controls and mechanics. But going from 10 attempts for the first boss and a handful for the second to one-shotting everything but the final boss presents a stark difficulty imbalance.

Progression is similarly uneven. There are upgrades to find throughout the facility, and improving Cel’s pistol can make previously tough encounters more manageable. Crafting consumables and ammo also provided another reason to explore optional areas and collect fragments. However, the limitations of the progression system eventually become apparent. There was no real need to upgrade any weapon other than the pistol and flamethrower because they offered no tangible improvement in survivability or damage output. And of the other consumables, only the grenades provided any advantage in combat. Generally, after the initial hump, many players may find combat in End of Abyss, including the boss fights, too easy.

Worth Getting Lost In?

Despite the game’s many shortcomings, both major and more negligible, End of Abyss kept drawing me back. The game has enough good ideas to make its many issues disappointing rather than disastrous, especially if Section 9 continues to patch after release. The creature designs are delightfully grotesque, the environments are dark and oppressive, and the abandoned facility is a joy to delve into. Its dark corridors – filled with hidden paths, upgrades, and abilities that gradually open up the world – gave the game a satisfying sense of discovery. I constantly wanted to see what was behind the next locked door or where an unexplored path would lead.

Ultimately, End of Abyss feels like a game with a strong foundation that does not always execute its ideas as well as it could. Its exploration is the highlight, while the combat, progression, and horror elements are considerably more inconsistent. The technical problems make those weaknesses hard to overlook. Nevertheless, for players who enjoy getting lost in an atmospheric world while searching for hidden secrets, the game has plenty to offer. Those looking for a frightening survival horror adventure or an exceptionally polished experience may find the shortcomings harder to forgive. There is a lot to like about Section 9’s debut project, but its uneven systems and technical problems keep it from reaching its full potential.