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Beneath interview: Meet the blood brothers behind the subaquatic horror-shooter
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Francisco Dominguez
“We really love horror games and try to come up with innovative ways to scare the player and create scary stories,” says Ricardo. His office backs up his bonafides, cluttered with horror props that include Jason’s mask dangling from the door and Freddy Krueger’s razor-clawed gloves hanging on the wall behind. The upcoming horror-FPS Beneath puts players in the wetsuit of Noah Quinn, a diver on a routine mission that becomes not-so-routine when an ancient, monstrous, and tentacular being pulls him into an underwater Cthuluesque nightmare.
At first, the brothers were tempted by space, before realizing the allure of the ocean depths where their deep sea research station location lies. “The undersea is pretty much like space,” explains Bruno. “Even worse because of the water!” Space is just a vast expanse of nothing. But water presents a visible threat in Beneath’s industrial corridors.
There’s an added benefit, which is the serene beauty of underwater habitats and fish, whose rich colours and hypnotic ripples can often look more appealing than the comparative sparseness of outer space.
But the deep sea and deep space overlap when it comes to horror, sharing the same sense of peril and claustrophobia that comes from being trapped in an enclosed environment.
Beneath is the third horror title for the Cesteiro brothers and by far their most ambitious, following the psychological horrors of Those Who Remain and Syndrome. This time around they wanted to ramp up the action, so they looked to a fondly remembered horror-FPS classic: F.E.A.R., which terrified a generation with its blend of paranormal encounters and tense combat.
F.E.A.R. was renowned for its ability to unsettle players, whether through its sinister apparitions or its intimidating enemy squadrons, who specialized in reactive tactics and outflanking players. Ricardo has no doubt it still holds up today. “F.E.A.R. has some of the most intense combat that's ever been made. We’re really inspired by its combat and environment,” he says.
In some respects, Beneath recreates those same effective techniques. In other areas, the team needed to work harder to impress contemporary players who now expect more.
They found themselves calling on environmental music to produce a sense of slow-building dread, deploying a well-executed jump scare where needed, and dialling up the gore. “Everything is just on another level. It has to be, 15 years later—but it's different, it's more in your face!” says Bruno.
Call of the Carbine
Ricardo, a self-avowed Lovecraft fanatic, wrote Beneath’s storyline as a modern day reinterpretation of the famous short story Call of Cthulhu. This influence means, between bouts against crack teams of human soldiers, players will also need to contend with eldritch horrors that’ve long kept hidden in the depths of the ocean.
Mutants are essentially zombies, swarming Noah with sheer numbers. Other foes include swift, invisible enemies whose movements are betrayed only by their shadow, fat squirming larvae that strike from ceiling perches, and a reptilian mutant-dog that gives Resident Evil’s zombie canines a run for their money. (Resident Evil also strongly influenced Beneath with its secrets, lock and key structure, and labyrinthine design.)
Fortunately, players are given a variety of upgradeable weapons to combat enemies. Every weapon is customisable, both cosmetically and functionally, with weapon parts hidden around the map. Players are encouraged to conquer their fears to search every drawer for items and ammo. Otherwise, they may find themselves relying on their crowbar for melee combat more than they’d like, as they navigate Beneath’s many secrets.
As for the levels themselves, the team made sure they’re exciting places for a blistering shootout. Gunfights result in a hail of bullets and debris, with dust flying everywhere, steam erupting from punctured pipes, light fixtures swingly wildly, and shattered monitors and other environmental touches all coming into play. “We wanted to create intense-feeling firefights, and I think we got it!” says Ricardo.
Of course, you can’t play a game set underwater without the risk of getting your feet wet. Some areas will take players into even more claustrophobic spaces where they can’t shoot their way out. Deep sea dives will force players to fend off monsters with flares while contending with their dwindling oxygen reserves.
Blood brothers
Bruno and Ricardo’s obsession with gore and dread began in time-honored tradition: an opportunistic night spent watching age-inappropriate movies when their parents went out. John Carpenter’s paranoid classic The Thing left a lasting impression on the pair that night, ages 13 and 8 at the time. They were fascinated rather than repulsed by its sci-fi horror, and The Thing remains a formative influence many years later in Beneath. “It’s driving the creepiness, the horror, the music, the sound. Everything around it!”
This many years on, despite co-managing a studio—which would be sure to raise tensions for many—there’s no sign of sibling rivalry or clashing tastes between the two. Instead, having grown up together, absorbing the same influences at the same time, they find their tastes harmonize, enabling the two brothers to save any anguish for their games. “We've been working together for quite some time now, so we know how the other one thinks,” says Ricardo.
In addition to their love of games, they share Carpenter’s approach to horror, building tension by immersing players in their terrifying world under the sea. All the rest stems from that. As Ricardo puts it, “We like to create intense experiences with strong stories, not things that are drawn to the player’s attention like cheap jump scares. We like to build tension.”
Pre-purchase Beneath, coming soon to the Epic Games Store.