Exanima: In the Dark, Something Stirs

I like dungeons, but this one might be too much for me. Whatever happened to the plan to find a way to the surface?

As a general rule, I don't think that it's necessarily fair to review a game before it is completed, there's too many variables to account for, including the development of the systems/gameplay/story. However, I feel fully confident that Exanima is at a point where I can give my opinion on its measure as a game. It's something of an oddity, for while it is indeed "A game unlike any other" (from its description on Steam), Exanima is also baffling because at the end of the day it's merely a tech demo/prequel to Bare Mettle's upcoming Sui Generis. I know that raises some eyebrows, but even in its unfinished state there's still plenty that Exanima excels at or is otherwise noteworthy both as an actual game and a teaser for what's to come.

I never thought I'd be so unhappy to see non-undead in the dark reaches. Fantastic, what else is lurking in the dark down here?

There's two modes of play in Exanima, with the first being 'Story' (which I'll be covering here), and the second being 'Arena'. 'Story' has what you'd expect, with the plot of the game being conveyed (discovered is a better word for it), and 'Arena' is a sandbox for practicing combat. Depending on how you look at it, Exanima's story could either be mysterious and compelling, or utterly nonexistent. It's supposed to be a prequel to Sui Generis, but I'm not sure where it fits into the story as a whole, considering that it feels if anything like a horror story. You start the game by making and naming your character, and afterwards you're dropped into a dark room within a larger dungeon filled with nothing but a torch to light your way. Your only clue as to what your goal is a vague note that promises that there is 'another way out'. There's no monologue or introduction to guide you, so everything is a mystery. There aren't many conversations to let you in on the story (besides reactions to events from your companion), it's all delivered through the environment and books/notes. In a brief nutshell: a necromancer is being shifty, people in this underground fort are turning/turned undead, and somehow this is connected to a necropolis/ruined underground civilization inhabited by older undead and demons. Also there's a necromancer who's leaving notes around, but I'm not sure if he's the same one that's causing all the zombies, there seem to be two (at least). So far there's no indication as to where you enter in this equation, at least in the 'Unknown' start condition, and to tell the truth, it helps the atmosphere greatly. It won't be long until you encounter the undead, but these are incredibly unusual (especially in any media I've seen) in the sense that these zombies are not hostile (mostly). If anything they're like people in that they react to your actions and are thus easily startled/scared into combat. It's also in the first level where you'll meet the only other living soul you'll find, a farm boy who provides commentary, conversation, and emotional support (by just being another person with you). By running into encounters/locations/killing specific enemies you'll unlock different starts that give alternate equipment at the start of the game. The story mode as a whole has yet to be completed, and each update (except the most recent) has added a single level, so as of now I'm not sure how long it's going to be, but I'd say that if you make it to the last couple areas you're looking at about two or three hours per run, and as the number of areas increases this is probably going to go up. I only wish that there was some sort of area select (or hell, a chapter select) because to be honest I've played through levels 1-3 so much that I hold off on new playthroughs for pretty much that reason alone.

With golems you just have to be aggressive or run away, discretion being the better part of valor in this case.

The Arena mode acts as the closest thing to a tutorial mode in Exanima, and it's split into practice (itself split into novice and expert) and career mode. Practice mode essentially gives you a selection of preselected gear to use before sending you though a gauntlet of pregenerated opponents that increase in difficulty (due to better armor, weapons, and presumably skill) before a final special boss opponent. After you beat novice, you unlock expert, which is essentially the same thing except with tougher opponents and better starting gear (by the way, you can take the items off of the opponents you kill). Career mode is comparable to a separate game where you have a single starting character go though fights, earning money that you can then use to buy armor, weapons, characters, or recruit NPCs. It's a good deal of fun, but it could be improved through money being easier to come by, leveling occurring faster, and by your main character dying not ending the campaign (all those fights, all that money gone from a slash of a three silver dagger to the face...). Practice mode could also be improved if it utilized random opponent generation like in career mode, because it would be pretty good for learning the ins and outs of the combat system for beginners. A sandbox mode where you could put together scenarios, or at least determine combatants/equipment/setting, would also be very useful for new/veteran players, especially to understand and practice combat and enemies in the later levels without having to chop your way there. I've never fought an ogre or Sir before, and I'm still unsure of how to deal with golems, so this would be of great help.

Arena has an interesting progression system in that starting out weapons and armor are very limited. Inept fights look closer to something out of West Side Story than King Arthur. It's all fun and games in a poles and rods battle until some jackass packing a meat cleaver starts hacking away.

Exanima, as a tech demo, is all about showing off the core systems that will be in Sui Generis, and show off it does. I can't say I've ever played a game like it before. There aren't a multitude of tools for you to use like in other games, but the few that you are given (namely melee combat, magic, and object manipulation) have a lot of potential and put the onus on you to figure out approaches and solutions. You can make yourself a tank though putting buckets and crates over yourself (though this effectively removes your ability to fight and move effectively, you can trap enemies under debris, and you can even make workarounds to traps and puzzles. In the first level there's a lever you have to pull that closes these trapdoors, and I didn't know it at the time, but you can make a bridge of planks over the gap or even jam the lever open, and I wish that there were more of these instances throughout the game since it makes for some fantastic "gotcha" moments.

Now that Derrin and I are in a safe place, we do some inventory and equipment management. Notice his exposed face? He'll nearly die from a skeleton's axe to his face within five minutes, all from full health too.

Combat is much more dynamic here than in most other games. Normally you would click your mouse and the attack would be performed, but here on top of clicking left mouse, you also have to move your mouse in the desired movement to execute the swing. Double-clicking the mouse, holding the alternate attack key for a stab, crouching, or moving with/against the swing modifies the attack, either adding new functionality or dealing more damage/force to your opponent. Different types of weapons/armor have different qualities (like spears/daggers having scary stab damage), and to Exanima's credit it's all done to remove numbers from the equation, no min-maxing or over-thinking here. Shields are very realistic in that they confer an immense advantage to the user, for what they trade in reach they gain a wall of various size that will obstruct swings from enemy weapons. Truthfully, they're annoying to face off against, but that makes the reward of being the shield-user all the more satisfying. It has a definite learning curve, and Exanima is often described as a 'Drunk in the Dungeon' simulator (on top of the fact that group fights quickly resemble barroom brawls due to friendly fire), but the drunk feeling comes from you not engaging with the systems properly, as this is really a game that requires you to approach it on its terms, at least with combat. Blocking is automatic, and the armor system is pretty cool due to how it operates based off of coverage. Even if you're wearing a plate cuirass and helm, a hit to your exposed knees is really going to hurt, and the same goes for your enemies. In this regard Exanima is a pretty damn scary game, as healing in the form of jars of glowing blue ointment is few and far between (with a handful scattered in each level). Fortunately, if you play your cards right and armor up (or avoid being hit), then the hits you do take will be "yellow", and will heal with time. "Red" damage is the kind that you need healing items for, and you'll generally get it through combat, though if you're knocked out (get reduced to zero hit points but still have "yellow" damage) you take a chunk of red damage. Enemies are mostly humanoids using weapons (like you), but in the later levels (Brass city, Sewers, market, and academy) demons and golems start to show up, and these guys are truly frightening due to the fact that they are unlike any opponents you've fought before. Demons have no armor, but they rush you and have strong attacks, and they frequently will combo you unless you stun them or keep them at a distance by utilizing your weapons' reach. Golems are sort of the opposite, being massive, heavily armored, with huge weapons.

With skillful swordplay (and a mace to his foe's head) did the hero keep the fateful death day at bay..

There's no ranged weapons in the game yet, but in the most recent update Bare Mettle unveiled their magic system, and it's pretty cool (like being able to cast raise dead for more "friends"...uh oh). Learning spells is pretty simple, pretty much the same (but as a separate system) as leveling up, but in order to learn better modifiers or more complex spells you have to learn mental techniques to "picture them" (because this is mind magic we're talking about here). Spells are mostly utility-based, such as seeing npc moods, but these can get pretty powerful, like the friendship spell that turns an enemy that trusts you into a loyal companion who will follow you around and the aforementioned animate dead. I personally haven't used it much, but that's mostly because I'm not big into casting spells and especially not these borderline unethical ones (but then again, these are zombies, so does it matter?). I mean I'd love to have a fireball or lightning bolt to fry some demon, but obviously this would detract from the intended physics-based melee combat of the game despite the coolness factor.

Spells can really help both in and out of combat. By enchanting a zombie we found in a shoe store, Derrin and I were able to turn this dicey 2v3 into an easily manageable 3v3.

Though physics-based gameplay is the real star of the show in Exanima, it also has incredible environments, sound design, and atmosphere. There's a great degree of personalization on the player's part in this game, and you can essentially play as any body type (with freakish results) you want on top of determining your height, which actually changes how combat works. Have you ever wondered in a game or film about where everyone sleeps? Exanima goes out of its way to show just that, and outside of the crossroads (spooky cemetery) every single room or area has a clear and functional use. You rarely see bathrooms in video games, but here there's an unsettling amount in comparison. These spaces, even as removed from reality as they are (I mean it's a human civilization living underground), feel real as if actual people lived there, though this raises the unsettling thought of what might have happened here. For the purposes of the player they aren't useful outside of chests for equipment, but for the dead they were, and I approve the effort even if by consequence the floors feel like huge mazes. The art direction at first seems a bit generic (the first levels seem to be generic dungeon environments), but in later levels the environments, weapons, and style takes a turn for the exotic and alien. The sewers and market are pretty dang spooky with their organic growths jutting out  of the cracks in the floor with matching(?) demons charging out of the darkness. On top of this, almost (I haven't checked) every object is intractable and movable, and it's not unusual after every major combat for a smaller room to look utterly ransacked, which I found to be quite satisfying on top of adding another layer of strategy to gameplay. It's not perfect, smaller objects don't break and shatter from the impact of weapons, but on the whole the number of items and objects is fantastic. The sound design of Exanima is also really good, with gloomy music (the ghostly ooo's, terrifying creature sounds, and other elements The music got a bit repetitive for me, but then again I have played more than a hundred hours in this puppy, so take that with a grain of salt. The sounds that the various enemies make are pretty damn scary, especially as you move from the undead to demons, and they sound like something you'd definitely run from if you caught a glimpse of in real life. There's also a great use of echoes, and those can be useful/unnerving combined with the otherwise quiet underground environments. All these elements (including gorgeous lighting effects) come together to create an atmosphere that, in a word, is unnerving to the extreme.

The Brass City (as I call it) is probably the most unnerving location in the game. Danger seems to loom around every corner in the massive hallways that echo with inhuman roars.

Even though that at the moment it's pretty early to say how Exanima will be received at the end of the day (or if it and Sui Generis will ever come out), I believe that despite its current state it is well-worth the fifteen dollar price tag. It's really the full package of craftsmanship and passion, and outside of a handful of bugs and crashes you're essentially getting a finished quality game without it being completed, which is a once-in-a-blue-moon event even outside of the unique things that this game does well. The combat is something that I absolutely love, and the subtle atmosphere of dread and tension that did not rely at all on cheap scares is very impressive. I do however, wish that updates and new content was more frequent though. At the moment the gaps between each update is quite long (before the April first update the most recent update was July 13, 2019), and it always feels like Christmas came early just as I start to give up hope. If you want to see a game that's truly different with unique and well-executed ideas, then Exanima is definitely worth buying, or at least paying attention to. I for one cannot wait for Sui Generis, and I hope it's just as good (if not better) than its tech demo.

Next up is a game I finished during Spring Break, but forgot to note in my queue, Betrayer. Cheerful, I  know.