During day two of PAX West, I had the chance to stop by the Daedalic Entertainment booth to play the Early Access version of Hidden Deep, a physics-based platformer that is heavily inspired by 1970s and 80s science-fiction / horror films. It’s dark, frightening, and loads of fun. And for those who grew up watching films like Aliens and The Thing, they’ll feel right at home in this hair-raising platformer.
The goal of the game is to progress your way deeper into a network of company-owned mining caves to make contact with the missing team (sound familiar Aliens fans?). As those familiar with the genre might expect, all sorts of hellish beasts appear, genetic mutants and terrifying monsters that the player must blast their way through, spelunking through the cave system like their lives depend on it, in this side-scrolling adventure.
Cogwheel Software is a solo developer who created his own physics engine for the game. This plays a significant role in the gameplay experience as the weight, trajectory, impact, and force of objects all play a role in exploration. This is a platformer that requires players to think: the consequences of leaping from a ledge can be devastating, even when you’re attached to a climbing rope. I also noticed that the impact of various weapons felt different, something I appreciated. Killing enemies with the shotgun had a satisfyingly different feel than killing them with the pistol, despite playing on a mouse and keyboard rather than a console-based controller with haptic feedback.
I really enjoyed thinking my way through navigation in the cave system. Players have a grappling projectile that fires from a hand mounted launcher, which allows traversal up and down the expansive dark passages. Early on, I would leap from a ledge after securing my rope, only to slam into the cavern wall on the other side and die upon impact. There’s no suspension of belief in this game; if you’d die in real life doing this, you’d die in the game as well. That was a refreshing challenge to contemplate as I explored. So often platformers become speed runs or mindless action, but everything in this game felt meaningful, purposeful.
Later in the demo, I had to get drilling equipment down into a lower portion of the cave system. In order to make this happen, I was given control of two engineers (in addition to the main character Murphy). Hidden Deep allows players to switch between the various characters under the players control, allowing them to work together to accomplish sophisticated tasks and missions. In this case, I needed the two engineers, Hicks and Paxton (made this Aliens fan smile!), to open and close doors so that the crane could lower the drilling equipment down to Murphy. It’s worth noting that while the demo at PAX West was single-player, there is an experimental multiplayer option on Steam, where the game has been in Early Access for the past two years. Having to use the various characters under my control to accomplish the task made me think and was something I really enjoyed.
Currently the game is PC only, but after version 1.0 launches, the team at Daedalic Entertainment believe the game will get ported to consoles; they did note however that since the game has its own physics engine, that could be a roadblock to porting it over to some consoles. They do remain optimistic that it will get done.
You can check out the Hidden Deep on Steam by clicking here.
Tell us what you think! Will you be trying Hidden Deep via Early Access? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.
Featured Image: Cogwheel Software
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