Below surfaces today
Sword & Sworcery follow-up out after half a decade
It's the RPS/Gamer Network annual day of chest-thumping/excessive consumption/enforced PowerPoint-watching, so we'll all be offline when Capy's much-anticipated rando-dungeon-runner Below launches this evening.
Hence, let's say this now: Below's out today! Somehow! After half a decade! Is that even a long time in games development any more? I don't know I've been here 11 years so it feels like Below only got announced like, last summer! Anyway! It's really happening! Happy days!
Below is a proc-gen, roguelikey dungeon exploring/battling sort of thing, with a big emphasis on good art, good sound and a whole lot of dark. It's to some extent the long-awaited follow-up to the immortal Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, though Below is made by just one of the two studios behind that.
If you're straddling fences on this one, perhaps Matthew's video below (ding, ding) will help you decide. Witness him struggle to keep his Ngamer-trained Zelda instincts in check by savagely attacking clumps of grass in search of non-existent Rupees.
Er... you may need to turn up the brightness on your monitor, however. Clearly it's not called 'Below' without good reason:
Below launches on Steam at 6pm UK time/7pm CET/1pm EST/10am PST. For now, it's only available via Steam - and there's no pre-order malarkey either. There's no price up on Steam, but the Xbox site lists the Xbone version for $25/£20/€25 - I imagine we can expect similar.
You can, however, pick up Jim Guthrie's Below soundtrack right now, either as Below 'DLC' on Steam or on his Bandcamp page. Sworcery's simultaneously celebratory and unsettling music was one of very few game soundtracks I've ever bought, and a quick listen to the Below one suggests I'm about to do that all over again.