When we look at various kinds of video games being released all around us, it suffices to say that we are living in an era where survival horror games are doing great. But, such was not the case a few years ago when some of the big IPs were deep in cold ice, making entire fanbases give up on them.
That’s when the mindset about horror games never making a comeback was more prevalent than ever. But even during this transition period, independent game developers never gave up on the genre, and indie survival horror has now been thriving for over a decade.
Hell of Fear: Mind Breach is another such bright example, or shall I say macabre example, which I got the opportunity to check out. This is the first game by indie developers at Abyss Assembly, and from the hours I have put into playing it, I can confirm that they have knocked it out of the park.
An Homage To Retro Survival Horror Games
The developers have explained in the game’s Steam description that ‘Dead Space‘ was a major inspiration while working on this game. But I have seen more to it; references spanning across several other iconic franchises, from Half-Life to System Shock.
This is not to say that what I am seeing in this game is a blatant rip-off of games that came before. But application of inspirations from other media in the genre, and that’s a compliment from my side. To learn more about this title, I have to talk about what’s going on in the story.
Players get to experience the game through Major Alex Vex’s first-person perspective. He is a soldier of Extraterrestrial Incident Response and has been assigned an investigative mission to go and check out a distress call from Cengona base.
If you are even remotely into sci-fi and horror media, then you have seen this kind of premise played out several times. Protagonists embarking on a dangerous mission in an abandoned base or ship to discover horrors beyond human comprehension.
Emulating The Survival Horror Atmosphere
The developers do not waste our time with too much exposition when starting the game. We get a quick glimpse at our protagonist as we are given details about the mission and the basic premise.
The game quickly switches to first-person mode and leaves us to fend for ourselves in a dark storage facility. As a fan of horror, the atmosphere made me immediately lock in. This was the perfect way to kick things off.
About what is going on in the Cengona base: every minute detail is explained through various collectable logs and audio logs scattered throughout the game. Opinions may vary, but I have always felt that this is the most effective way for storytelling.
It leaves room to infinitely expand upon world-building, leaving things to the player’s imagination from just a mere textbook description. Visual ambiguity will always be more impactful, and it is also economical for a team independently developing a game.
Old School Jank Gameplay That Feels Good
Now that we are past the point of how the story works, it’s time to talk about the crux of the game, i.e., the gameplay. I was sceptical at first, but am glad to report that I was not disappointed with how the game handles the systems.
There’s a clear understanding of what makes the survival horror genre great. Most games in the genre that lean towards being a shooter end up overpowering the players with good movement and firepower.
Hell of Fear: Mind Breach feels sluggish and wobbly to move around in. While we understand that a lot of people may find it incredibly off-putting, the disadvantage is part of how the genre works.
When cornered by fast-moving enemies, it’s not easy to just walk back and shoot; players will actually need to rely on situational decision-making in this game. This is also expanded upon in the UI, which, might I add, is very retro immersive-sim inspired, almost clearly inspired by System Shock.
Critique On Aspects Of The Game UI
Hell of Fear: Mind Breach is designed by an indie team of a handful of developers, so there is quite a bit of intermingling between pad-controls and PC controls. I was taken by surprise when I found that the mouse scroll wheel is assigned for jumping by default instead of weapon switching.
If players want to switch weapons on the fly, then they will have to hold down the middle mouse button and select it from a weapon wheel. While regular numbers on the keyboard are also assigned to weapon slots, this is actually detrimental to the gameplay experience, leading to minute annoyance on PC.
But even though this may ring out as a dated system, the sluggish way to switch weapons adds to the survival horror aspect. Another aspect which I found to be of minor annoyance is using items on the fly, which is not smooth sailing at all.
Like any good survival horror game, players have access to a grid-based item storage system and solving that can get very fun. What is not fun is binding an item for usage on the fly.
Players will have to assign the item to the ‘Q’ key and then hold it while the inventory menu opens up, and they can click on it to use it. The idea of binding an item is so that it can be quickly used, and this may solve things for console pad-controls, but seems less intuitive for mouse and keyboard.
Then again, on the flip side of the coin, these very minor nitpicks add to the tension of decision-making in the heat of combat. The fact that I was not allowed access to any sort of quick saving on the pause menu is a bonus.
A Pinch Of RPG Systems Added To The Mix
A lot of the games that try to ride the survival horror nostalgia forget this crucial fact. Saves are only possible in certain parts of the game when I am allowed access to terminals.
These same terminals also allow for various kinds of upgrades and levelling up, bringing RPG elements to the fray. Players get to choose from a plethora of options, ranging from health boost the armour upgrades, incentivising progress into further depths of this hellscape.
I was also delighted to find a significant amount of freedom to interact with objects in the game’s world. This is obviously another major take away this game implements from the immersive sim genre.
Being able to move around objects or use a spare flashlight to assist myself in puzzle solving went a long way in elevating the experience. It also allowed me to approach certain sections of the game in a different manner on multiple occasions.
Enemies In The Game Can Overwhelm At Times
There is nothing to critique about the game’s atmosphere; the devs have knocked it out of the park in creating a sense of tension. Walking into dark metallic rooms that rely on man-made energy resources to power themselves feels unnerving, because enemies might be lurking in the dark corner to jump at me any moment.
Just clearing a room does not ensure that the coast is clear. The developers designed air vents, which are respawn points for certain types of enemies and can jumpscare players by suddenly appearing at any time. Fortunately, these vents can be boarded up using objects available in the game.
Some rooms may have multiple humanoid enemies ready to rush down on the players. The game does not leave enough room to wiggle out of this situation, either by dodging or using melee attacks.
Ammo is also scarce in resources, and players will have to prioritise saving up rather than directly engaging. This may be a positive, as this is a horror game and the situation ramps up the difficulty.
Partially, I felt the enemy encounters may need a bit of rebalancing. At least to allow players to figure out newer ways to fend for themselves when cornered.
The Developers Have Done Their Homework
Surprisingly, it wasn’t until way further into my gameplay that I started exploring more of the game’s menus, which led me to figure out there’s more than one way to play this game.
The developers surely know their audience well enough, of how much people love to mod their games to increase replayability.
So they put a whole menu section of mods when you start a new game. Some of these allow for stuff like an unlimited flashlight beam or even locking down vents, which are common enemy respawn points.
Other than this, fans of retro games can rejoice as they will have visual options to tinker around with, making the game look like it’s on a CRT screen. It’s clear that this was crafted with love for people who love the survival horror genre.
Samey Levels, But Insanely Rewarding Time Spent
The level designs did feel very similar in terms of the structure for most of the game, which may be a downside for some. The game will have you go back and forth through various sections of the game on a monorail that you control using a terminal.
We can give it the benefit of the doubt that, since it was just made by a few people, they didn’t have plans for a proper level layout. That is totally fine because most of the demerits that I found are pretty much minor nitpicks that are easily outweighed by everything else that the game offers.
Not to mention the incredible performance and almost zero bugs on release, which is hard to come by in video games these days. Most AAA releases are riddled with annoying glitches and bugs nowadays, but with Hell of Fear: Mind Breach, I hardly found any; everything looks polished.
Having pretty much covered all the nice things I wanted to share about the game, I am still trying to come up with something to critique. Amazingly, there is nothing to say on that part from the top of my head.
I went into Hell of Fear: Mind Breach expecting just another one of many survival horror indie experiences that are swarming modern platforms. But I came through by the end of it as someone with a genuine smile to have experienced one of the most indie horror releases this year.
