Darkly brooding, deeply atmospheric, it might be surprising to learn that the isometric action adventure game End of Abyss started life as something much brighter and certainly less unnerving.

“In the beginning, it was more of an action game, and then it turned into more horror,” said Mattias Ottvall, Co-Creator of End of Abyss, Tech at Section 9 Interactive. “Marcus (Ottvall) and Gustaf (Heinerwall), the co-founders, are from the art team of Little Nightmares. As they became more involved, it became quite obvious that, OK, this is going to be a more atmospheric game. The character was more anime before it turned into a bit more of a real human being.”



The game originated from one of the prototypes created by brothers Mattias and Marcus.

“My brother Marcus and I are always creating prototypes, like since forever,” Mattias Ottvall said. “We just kept going between projects that we thought were fun at the moment, but then, when Gustaf came on, we chose one of those prototypes to work with.”

Gustaf’s take on the art style and slowing down the pace a bit to make the game more explorative naturally helped to push the game toward something more horrific.

“I think the atmosphere and the exploration add a lot to the pace and the fact that you need to search your way through the environments,” Ottvall said. “And then there’s that sense of, ‘OK, I’m going into a new room, going around this corner.’ You don’t really know what’s going to happen.”

Ottvall noted that the team decided to make an isometric single-player game because they loved classic NES titles like Metroid and Zelda.

“We like that simplistic way of storytelling and how you focus more on the gameplay and also the exploration,” he said. “You have these worlds filled with secrets and interesting characters.

“But anime is also a great source of inspiration, just for monster design and those huge complexes and cool characters.”

He points to anime like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, which happen to be where the studio’s name, Section 9, comes from.

The game’s first trailer, revealed during the Summer Game Fest, really establishes the creepy tone of the game. In it, long shots show a shadowy shift, cutting slowly to the silhouette of several figures walking from a room, lights barely penetrating the gray-blue darkness that surrounds them. 

An eerie otherworld voice speaks in a strange language as you see a small group of people walking across a distant bridge in what appears to be a cavernous room.  The voice says, “we are waiting for you,” as a series of shots from an isometric point of view shows the main character, Cel, exploring the area, gun in hand. In another shot, Cel uses a device that appears to project a series of lasers across the room in front of her, scanning for something.

It’s an unsettling video to watch, but an even more unsettling game to play.

Before I go hands-on with End of Abyss, Ottvall explains the backstory, or what there is of it.

“You play as a young combat engineer called Cel, and you’re part of a team that descends into this abandoned world’s underground facility,” he said. “You’re here on a mission because you found out messages or disturbances of unknown origin and you’re here to investigate what the truth is behind this place.”

While the player knows they are descending into this complex, they don’t know where it is.

“You know something has gone wrong,” he added. “You know that the facility is abandoned, and being a bit of a horror game, you know things will kind of spiral into something not very good. You also know that some sort of parasitic entity has taken over.” 

The game’s controls are fairly straightforward; you move around the darkened room and hallways of the game, gun in hand, trying to unravel the mystery of the facility. You can quickly swap between weapons and your scanner with the directional pad, and roll away from attacking creatures. 

The creatures you face become increasingly horrific as you make your way deeper into the darkened halls of the complex. They seem shaped by the ever-evolving horrors of movies like The Thing. Initially, they appear human-like, bipedal monstrosities with vaguely organic growths where their heads should be. Later, a skittering creature that resembles a cross between a fleshy spider and a human hand drops from the ceiling and rushes toward Cel.


The game’s design is influenced a bit by the Alien movies, Ottvall said. This is most obvious the first time I use the scanner, a neat little device that sweeps the room with multiple laser rays. The look is reminiscent of the opening scene of Aliens, where a drone is sent in to search the shuttlecraft where Ellen Ripley lies in stasis.

Tapping down on the direction pad swaps to the scanner, allowing me to check the rooms for clues. You can also use it on the creatures of the game to learn a bit more about them.

“We try to use the scanner quite a lot to allow players to gain information from the environment,” Ottvall said. “We wanted to have a light storytelling approach. With this tool, we have a way of describing stuff in the environment, rather than someone telling you you’re actively searching for information.”

The game also leans on some of the hooks of a Metroidvania, with players seeking secrets, unlocking new equipment to progress, and backtracking, all while enjoying a lot of open-ended gameplay. 

In my short time with the game, I explored darkened and empty offices and sleeping quarters, wandered through vents, and made my way into a sewer. I also died a few times. Each time, I came back to life in a nearby chamber that opened up to reveal a new me. While the monsters respawn with each death, your progress remains. For instance, the doors you’ve opened or the places you've discovered are all still accessible.

The demo, Ottvall said, is about ten percent into a single-player game that is still in active development. He currently doesn’t know how long the game will run, but said even after it’s completed, the play time will vary depending on how you approach it and how much you simply stick to the main path. My time wraps up with a run at a boss which involves a lot of dodge rolling, blasting away with my pulse pistol and shotgun, and dying.

While End of Abyss doesn’t yet have a release date, Ottvall said the team is working to finalize it next year. You can wishlist it now.