One thing I can honestly respect, when a game takes a small bit of truth and completely creates a world based around it. Using the history of the Phobos 1 space launch from 1988 to be the catalyst and foundation of the game, in my opinion, is just one of many reasons why I feel Phobos: Subhuman is a game that has a very promising chance of prospering.
I first want to say thank you to the developer Underdog Virtual (UV) for creating a demo that shows just how far along this game is in development. The graphics are crisp and give great detail in the environment. Making the moon of Phobos look like a desolate world of poverty and crime, was very well received. Rundown buildings, people lying dead, hungry or hurt all over the streets, gangs and more was beautifully articulated in this demo. One of my pet peeves though, was the opening cinematic. All of the constant ripple effects made me nauseous. It was hard to watch and pay attention to the amazingly voice acted story. I felt the ripple effects for the memories was just over done and unnecessary. Once it was over and done with though, I could really enjoy the overall cosmetic look of the game, and it was pleasing. UV put in a good amount of work on the demo, and it gave a good sense of what to expect from this title upon its release. That's great! I loved the particle effects of the fire, and just everything about the look and feel of this title.
The soundtrack of the game was lackluster. It was average really. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it either. Straight down the middle. It's the kind of soundtrack you expect from a sci-fi mystery thriller. Nothing really popped out to me. This was a very "safe" choice. Granted, in a game like this, "safe" isn't actually bad. The reason being, if they tried something new, it very well could ruin the feeling of this game. This does mean that they would need to focus on other audio queues. Something like this usually entails that the developers are focusing more on environmental sounds to pull the player deep into the world of Phobos, and that's exactly what they did. Sound of walking on grass to hard ground was well done. Sounds of fire from burning cans. I did feel that the voices from some of the enemies were over embellished at first, but then realizing that they were cannibals made sense. The voice acting was amazing and well done. The leading character nailed it. The interrogator from the cut scene nailed his performance as well. So even though the soundtrack didn't captivate me, everything did, and that makes up for it.
The gameplay was what I expected. Though I wish the controller was a tad bit less sensitive, the keyboard and mouse played a lot better. I do feel that the enemy's range on attacking you was kind of nuts. Like, there was one point where I shot someone down the street, only to have a guy from a completely different street and FAR down run up on me out of nowhere to shoot me dead. Maybe tweaking the detection mechanic, a little bit, would help with this. The GUI is basic. Having a health meter that is replenished with food is typical, but I wasn't sure what the other two bars are for. Maybe I didn't get far enough into the story to figure it out, or it is unreleased, but I enjoyed the minimalistic GUI. The screen definitely didn't feel cluttered, which is good. There was one point where a flying robot ball came out and shot me dead, wish I could have attacked it, but I feel those things are meant to be avoided, and unkillable. But damn I wish I could kill it.
All in all, UV seems to be on the right track with this title. Single player games can only be driven by a strong story, and this game seems like it has one. Making challenging environments, bad guys and puzzles is the blueprint of games in this genre, and so far, it looks like Phobos: Subhuman is doing a good job meeting those requirements. Games like Resident Evil, which can be considered pioneers in this topic are testament of how far games like this can go. Even though this doesn't focus on the horror aspects like the latter, the mystery of if your father is alive, and what happened on that probe 20 years ago is enough to make me want to play more. Underdog definitely needs to make sure they keep up this pace and keep working hard on this title as it has promise in my opinion. Fans of the genre have something to look forward to in this title. You can play this demo on steam and clicking the link here to let the developers know how you feel. Make sure you sign up on G.Round to get all the benefits as well as able to play this title and more titles every week.
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