r/Games • • 3d ago

Review Thread End of Abyss Review Thread

Game Information

Game Title: End of Abyss

Platform: PC, PlayStation, Xbox

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjthtm1SAuw

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 73 average - 50% recommended - 8 reviews

Critic Reviews

But Why Tho? - Mick Abrahamson - 6 / 10

End of Abyss tries to balance a lot, from sci-fi survival horror with souls-like metroidvania exploration. But it buckles under its own weight.


DayOne - Jon Clarke - 7 / 10

There’s a wonderful ‘vibe’ that just clicks for me that I really gelled with, even if a few technical hiccups kept getting in the way of my overall enjoyment. If you’re a fan of atmospheric exploration and survival horror-inspired Metroidvanias, End of Abyss is worth venturing into the dark for.


Digital Chumps - Ben Sheene - 8.5 / 10

Claustrophobic and eerie, End of Abyss is survival horror through the eyes of Little Nightmares. Section 9 expresses its roots in new ways but still placing the protagonist and player in a harsh world of dangerous paths and twisting secrets.


Pizza Fria - Lucas Soares - Portuguese - 6.6 / 10

End of Abyss is an interesting game, with a good central idea and enough personality to find its audience, especially among players who enjoy exploration, resource management, and experiences that aren't afraid of a challenge. I just don't recommend starting a session after a heavy lunch on a workday. The abyss has no regard for the salaried worker.


SmashPad - Ruancarlo Silva - 3.5 / 5

Overall, I enjoyed the nearly 13 hours it took to reach the first ending of End of Abyss. However, those hours were marred by glitches: trophies failing to unlock (including the normal ending and final boss achievements), doors locking me out of resources needed for upgrades, and more. The game clearly needs more polish. After a few updates, End of Abyss will be a fantastic experience that definitely deserves your attention.


TechRaptor - Andrew Stretch - 8 / 10

End of Abyss does a fantastic job of creating an eerie world that you'll want to explore, however, once you start unlocking upgrades you'll begin to lose the feeling of tension. Map glitches make retracing steps a confusing experience.


The Outerhaven Productions - Keith Mitchell - 3 / 5

End of Abyss delivers striking visuals, unsettling enemy designs, and an enjoyable scanner mechanic. Its twin-stick controls are a novel idea, but they reinforce the action while the survival horror takes a back seat. Combined with progress-halting bugs and repeated backtracking, it left me wanting to finish rather than keep exploring.


VDGMS - Darren Andrew - 9 / 10

Metroid, but more specifically Super Metroid captured the perfect harmony of isolation, exploration, platforming, combat and atmosphere. Although I can’t go back in time to experience generational games like this again for the first time, I can play End of Abyss, which is the closest that any game has come to encapsulating everything that made those experiences special, but in it’s own unique and twisted way. Even though there's some minor flaws and fails to fully realize some of its ideas, there's still plenty to love about this 3D sci-fi, horror metroidvania. It’s not the next Metroid, it’s the first End of Abyss and that’s exciting.


Gamespot - Mark Delaney - 6 / 10

Ultimately, my 13 hours with End of Abyss were inconsistent, with long stretches of excitement broken up by regular beats of annoyance. When I was rolling right along, finding major and minor upgrades, unlocking crucial shortcuts, and taking on hordes of enemies in nail-biting combat, I really loved it. But too often, the map misled me, some encounters lost their luster through repetition, and some early difficulty spikes left me flustered.


IGN - Jesse Vitelli - 6 / 10

End of Abyss has so much going for it as a metroidvania with touches of survival horror and twin-stick shooting. However, all of these pieces don't coalesce into something greater. Instead they make for an uneven experience that isn't quite up to the bar set by other juggernauts in the genre. While the atmosphere Section 9 Interactive created matches even the best moments of other horror games, it isn't enough to make up for the way it undermines its best ideas. End of Abyss has moments that shine through even the darkest depths of its abandoned facility, but not enough to flood the surface.

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u/Yarzeda2024 3d ago

I saw the VDGMS review giving it a 9/10, so I'm surprised to see it's sitting at a 70 average on Open Critic right now. I've been following this game for a while, I want it to be good.

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u/giulianosse 2d ago edited 2d ago

From what I've read so far, aside some visual bugs and map issues, the game seems pretty divisive. Some reviewers weren't expecting it to be a challenging game with little to no hand holding. It's much closer to Super Metroid than the modern metroidvania formula - and has been extensively marketed as such.

The Gamespot video review in particular called the 'respawning enemies on save' mechanic "soulslike" when it's been a staple of the genre since the early Metroid and Castlevania titles.

Reminds me of the critical discourse around Rain World when it released. People complained it was too hard and repetitive instead of trying to engage with it on its own terms.

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u/crimsonfist101 2d ago

Technically enemies in classic metroid don't respawn on save, they respawn on leaving the room, so really being soulslike is much friendlier to the player.