Resident Evil Meets Little Nightmares in Terrifying New Horror Game

I am small and entirely adrift. For nearly a decade, that unsettling vulnerability has defined Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares franchise. Crafted originally by Tarsier Studios—the creative force behind the exceptional Reanimal—the series struck a chord in 2017 by capturing a deeply primal terror: the profound panic of a child separated from their caretaker in an overwhelming, unfamiliar space. Now, Section 9 Interactive, a studio established by veterans of those very games, takes that foundational dread to its ultimate conclusion in their debut title, End of Abyss. After all, what video game genre better replicates the sensation of being utterly lost than a well-crafted Metroidvania?

Blending the suffocating ambience of Little Nightmares with the paranoid, blue-tinted dread of classic 1990s sci-fi horror, End of Abyss delivers an unnerving descent into a sub-aquatic nightmare. While surface-level comparisons to James Cameron’s The Abyss are inevitable, the experience feels much closer to wandering alone through an abandoned mega-mall after closing time as a child. Your oversized, bobble-headed protagonist feels infinitesimal against the staggering scale of industrial steel and endless corridors. Though uneven pacing occasionally undermines its lofty ambitions, End of Abyss lingers in the mind as a genuinely harrowing atmospheric piece crawling with hidden threats.

The narrative follows Cel, a technician dispatched on an expedition deep inside a derelict subterranean complex. Describing Cel as merely pint-sized feels inadequate, largely because Section 9 Interactive masterfully manipulates perspective to minimize the player at every turn. Fellow crew members, clad in cumbersome protective suits reminiscent of space marines, completely dwarf your slight stature. The high-angle perspective reduces your character to a mere speck within cavernous, echoing chambers, while cold metallic bulkheads stretch infinitely into the gloom. A pervasive sense of dread settles over the experience long before you encounter your first hostile mutation.

Wisely, the developers resist the urge to over-explain their lore, preserving an enigmatic atmosphere. The true nature of the facility and the precise catastrophe that decimated its crew remain intentionally ambiguous. Sparse dialogue exchanges and weathered text logs offer just enough context to anchor the player while leaving the most horrific details shrouded in shadow.

Darkness plays a foundational role in the exploration loop of End of Abyss. The true protagonist is the subterranean labyrinth itself—a metallic tomb washed in azure shadows. The precise source of illumination remains perpetually unclear, with faint beams clinging desperately to reflective steel gratings and fractured cathedrals of machinery. Cel can ignite flares to pierce the gloom, but their violent hiss and harsh glow within the profound stillness tend to amplify the tension. Every time you strike a light, it feels as though you are broadcasting your position to whatever slumbers in the dark.

The game actively encourages players to become hopelessly disoriented, leaning heavily into the traditions of the Metroidvania genre. The enduring appeal of such design lies in dropping players into seemingly boundless layouts and daring them to comb every square inch for hidden pathways. It serves as an ideal framework for survival horror, tasking you with scouring the unknown for keycards and upgraded abilities to gradually untangle a vast puzzle box.

Its minimalist world feels simultaneously towering and claustrophobic—a contradictory pairing that demands immense craft to pull off successfully.

Given the development team’s pedigree, capturing this specific tone comes as little surprise, though translating it into a cohesive Metroidvania layout proves more challenging for a debut project. While Little Nightmares relied primarily on linear progression and surreal logic, End of Abyss requires intricate architectural design, utilizing interconnected hallways and ladders to build shortcuts. Unfortunately, navigating these spaces can occasionally grow frustrating due to visual uniformity that obscures your location, compounded by a two-dimensional map that struggles to convey verticality and overlapping routes.

Technical hiccups further detracted from the experience during my playthrough. Beyond visibility hurdles, I occasionally clipped through geometry or encountered non-responsive interactive objects. At one point, I suspect a bug allowed me to bypass the final exploration phase entirely, depositing me prematurely at the doorstep of the final boss. While these rough edges will undoubtedly be smoothed out via post-launch patches, they underscore a certain hurried feel in the world design.

Combat yields equally mixed results. The core mechanic functions as a twin-stick shooter, requiring you to pivot Cel toward decaying, zombie-like horrors and lay down fire. Conceptually, it honors classic Resident Evil gunplay, forcing you into high-stakes chicken matches against advancing terrors. You must plant your feet and gauge whether your rechargeable pistol energy will hold out before a lunging monstrosity closes the distance. This friction delivers genuine thrills during early encounters.

Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter

A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later.

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

Unfortunately, the combat mechanics lack the depth necessary to sustain a ten-hour campaign. Once you establish a rhythm, skirmishes devolve into rote chores rather than tactical engagements. The shock of an ambush loses its potency when enemies routinely respawn upon death, leaving you to exploit predictable positioning. Although alternate armaments like shotguns and explosives introduce fleeting moments of resource scarcity, the baseline pistol rarely feels insufficient. Whenever extra firepower is required, safe rooms are usually well-stocked enough to alleviate any genuine pressure.

Atmosphere alone can only carry a meandering Metroidvania so far, yet Section 9 Interactive still manages to evoke a deeply primal style of terror in its commendable first outing. Its minimalist setting feels simultaneously towering and claustrophobic—a contradictory pairing that demands immense craft to pull off successfully. Bereft of familiar markers for space or time, End of Abyss convincing creates the illusion of an inescapable trap. It feels akin to sinking beneath a sheet of ice, frantically searching for an air pocket, or perhaps more accurately, echoing the childhood panic of getting lost in a massive department store. Racks of clothing tower overhead like skyscrapers, stretching toward an endless horizon. For a child that small, escape is unimaginable; all that remains is to sit down and cry out in the hope that rescue is on the way.

End of Abyss launches on Oct. 1 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was evaluated on a PlayStation 5 Pro utilizing a pre-release review code supplied by Epic Games. Further details regarding Polygon’s editorial ethics policy are available here.

Possessor(s) gives players a little too much freedom

Source: Polygon