BELOW

The first great and truly original thing Below does is set a very distant perspective on a detailed, naturalistic world. The way it makes you guess what exactly you're looking at is a very ingenious attempt at communicating how looking at surroundings in an 8-bit game might've felt like in the past. Especially when a very tactile sound design -- reminiscent more of survival horror than soulslikes -- makes such an effort at leaving an impression, be it the world itself or how you interact with it. Below's second great idea is to make you plan out your own death. Instead of cultivating perseverance and input memory, it encourages you to weaponize fail states. Just like you manage your inventory, you are also responsible for managing your next run when the current one has yet to end. Where you die matters. And survival elements like safe rooms, hunger, crafting, and very tight level design make this unconventional task three-dimentional. Sound design is not the only thing that Below borrows from survival horror. You'll find yourself trying to solve logistical and navigational problems not too far from Resident Evil or similar titles. Having to scramble for ways to prolong your current life, backtrack for resources, or finally bring a key to a door often felt more like being in a mansion than in a dungeon. I feel Below is from AND for someone who likes very particular aspects of these types of games, namely the immersive, methodical nature of how you progress through levels, punishment for rash decisions, and deliberately obscure presentation of game rules. This game is very slow, punishing and demands patience. All familiar and tired genre staples at this point. But Below is positively unique in what it uses its difficulty for. It was better when souls games didn't quite know what they were. It was better when nobody knew what they were either.

El juego no te pone un proposito, ni te explica nada, simplemente te pone ahí y ve que haces Todo es adivinar, incluso para conseguir el final del juego, que aunque te puedas "impactar", simplemente no empatizas o algo más con este Solo se siente que debes avanzar y ver si "adivinas" que hacer, porque luego, el juego es carente en lo que ofrece, o no tiene nada que ofrecer, como la historia No sirve de nada tener un alo de misterio, si no puedes contar algo con este, ni siquiera los juegos de "narrativa ambiental" anulan el contar o dar contexto de su mundo e historia, como lo hace este juego Simplemente ver gameplay te ahorrara dinero y tiempo, de un juego que no te cuenta nada, ni te hace sentir algo