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Good fun, floaty first person scrapping

Beautiful demo, but aging data.

This free app is an essential install straight after you get your first VR setup. The opening sequences are beautifully staged, the first moments of freedom where you zoom around make you feel like a superhero - and i still get a thrill out of standing on the top of all the skyscrapers around my city and seeing the view.

Did I mention it's free?
... however a couple months in I wish it wasn't!

The data is already out of sync with google maps on the web, it must have pre-loaded versions in there. So you can expect this map data to further rot as the world changes around it. 3D mapping really brings major cities to life, however at their boundaries you're back in flatland. It's sad to find that many of these flat areas have really high quality 3d models available on the web version.

There's also controller issues. It's unaware that the valve index controllers exist, so you get a jarring setup of seeing another make of controllers in your hands, with buttons in different places.

The streetview setup is also a little weird, and only stays on screen if you keep jamming the controller in your face.

This is all whining for an another great (did i mention, free!?) app.

However as is, it's just a tech demo to wow new users and your friends. If they brought it into line with google earth, allowed you to import KML files, author tours around the world, perhaps import from steam workshop and vitally kept the mapping data in sync with web maps... it could be a lot more useful and interesting!

Great for an initial play through, Fun and varied, but it's real value is the weeks of dipping in 'for one run' and uncovering the mountains of hidden depth,

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!