I knew nothing about BELOW when i bought it. The screenshots and art gave a sense of an indie pixel style dungeon crawler - and that seemed like fun.

What I got was a beautiful mystery. Every step forward felt like a step into the unknown and often a real risk. You will have likely heard about the permadeath mechanic, and yes it does bite. But that's quickly offset by shortcuts and most importantly the hard won knowledge you've gained about what lies below.

The art style is fantastic and the developers achieve a great deal with the low poly pallet they've given themselves. Every area has a distinct sense of place that further offsets the initial uncertainty. The art style becomes a promise, you know the rules for areas that look like this, what might kill you and what might help.

It is an interesting time to play this game right now (Dec 2018), I went looking for a guide half way through and found very little. There's an active reddit forum and steam community. Both i ended up using and helped keep me playing when I was uncertain about what was next. But there are no in depth guides or an avalanche of let's play videos just yet. It feels like gaming from before the internet.

So when i came here I was deeply surprised to see such a swell of negative reviews. As i read more i suspect people came to this game with certain expectations. Some seem to dislike the permadeath mechanic. I'll admit it had me yelping at my screen a couple of times. But it also created real tension and let you feel that you'd earned progress against the odds. Some seem to dislike the lack of much explanation, many of the core mechanics are left to be discovered and the game very rarely stops to explain itself, for me that heightened the mystery. Part of the game is the anxiety this introduces. You are afraid to continue at points, if that’s not an appealing prospect then you’ll struggle here. But for me those moments were offset by getting to know areas better, slowing down and occasionally looking over the few resources I could find online.

If you enjoyed the art style of games like sword and sorcery, If the claim of testing but fair combat appeals to you and if you are in the market for a narrative of mystery and exploration - then I'd say stop reading here and give it a go.

I suspect the less you know about this game the more fun you will have!

I knew nothing about BELOW when i bought it. The screenshots and art gave a sense of an indie pixel style dungeon crawler - and that seemed like fun. What I got was a beautiful mystery. Every step forward felt like a step into the unknown and often a real risk. You will have likely heard about the permadeath mechanic, and yes it does bite. But that's quickly offset by shortcuts and most importantly the hard won knowledge you've gained about what lies below. The art style is fantastic and the developers achieve a great deal with the low poly pallet they've given themselves. Every area has a distinct sense of place that further offsets the initial uncertainty. The art style becomes a promise, you know the rules for areas that look like this, what might kill you and what might help. It is an interesting time to play this game right now (Dec 2018), I went looking for a guide half way through and found very little. There's an active reddit forum and steam community. Both i ended up using and helped keep me playing when I was uncertain about what was next. But there are no in depth guides or an avalanche of let's play videos just yet. It feels like gaming from before the internet. So when i came here I was deeply surprised to see such a swell of negative reviews. As i read more i suspect people came to this game with certain expectations. Some seem to dislike the permadeath mechanic. I'll admit it had me yelping at my screen a couple of times. But it also created real tension and let you feel that you'd earned progress against the odds. Some seem to dislike the lack of much explanation, many of the core mechanics are left to be discovered and the game very rarely stops to explain itself, for me that heightened the mystery. Part of the game is the anxiety this introduces. You are afraid to continue at points, if that’s not an appealing prospect then you’ll struggle here. But for me those moments were offset by getting to know areas better, slowing down and occasionally looking over the few resources I could find online. If you enjoyed the art style of games like sword and sorcery, If the claim of testing but fair combat appeals to you and if you are in the market for a narrative of mystery and exploration - then I'd say stop reading here and give it a go. I suspect the less you know about this game the more fun you will have!