Game Review

 

Reviewed by: Altamush Khan ‘Attish’

I love 6 degrees of freedom games, but there haven’t been many released in 2015. People are looking forward to the big titles like COD Black Ops III, Fallout 4, Rise of The Tomb Raider and Hitman. Once in a while, an awesome indie game like Sublevel Zero is released on Steam. And, believe me; this game really deserves more attention because it is absolutely brilliant!

Sublevel Zero - built up

For a game that costs less than $15, the built up is quite good, actually. I was surprised at how well designed the options menu is! The first thing that you will probably notice is the negative mouse acceleration and mouse smoothing that is apparently present in this game. Even if you turn mouse smoothing and mouse acceleration off, the negative mouse acceleration and smoothing still function.

You start the game by selecting a gunship. As with most 6 degrees of freedom games, the controls are not complex and the ‘Standard Gunship’ handles quite well. The movement is smooth and the HUD is very functional. The gunship had to be handled well in this game and the developers knew this! This is because navigating through each level would have been an absolute nightmare otherwise!

Sublevel Zero - story

This game has no story! Your objective is to go through each procedurally generated labyrinth, reach the end and destroy the ‘Core’ that is present at the end. This is what I love about this game! The developers didn’t force a story in, because it was not required at all.

I like video games where the objective is simple, quite clear and is a lot of fun to do. Because of this, the game has a very high replayability value. As you complete certain objectives, more gunships will be unlocked. This will make going through levels again feel different and more fun with better gunships.

Sublevel Zero - Gameplay

The good thing about the enemy AI in this game is the consistency. So beating the AI will not be extremely tough at any point. The only thing that might trouble you is how the AI makes use of the 6 degrees of freedom. They might appear behind you, below you, or above you. This makes defending yourself a challenge, especially when you are surrounded. There are many different enemy types, but none worth mentioning. A few that cause heavy damage do stand out. The ‘Cores’ that you encounter during early levels do not fire back, which makes destroying them easy.

The weapons have a personality! Whichever weapon you craft or obtain as a random drop will possess a certain behaviour. Weapon spread is present on almost all the weapons. You can upgrade existing weapons and make them more powerful if you do not get good weapon drops. More powerful weapons are fun to use, B are sometimes not good in certain situations! If you are surrounded by a lot of enemies, you may require a weapon with an extremely high rate of fire instead of a powerful weapon with a very slow fire rate.

Navigation is easy, thanks to the very unique map system. Just press ‘Tab’ on your keyboard and you will open up a complete neon styled 3D map - one of the best I have ever seen in a video game. You can view the map from any angle and that makes navigating through the labyrinth less confusing. Thanks to the map, you will never get lost or lose direction.

The crafting system is functional, but is not a world beater. It has all the basic elements required, but lacks depth. This is mainly due to the poor loot system, which  is  the main problem in the game. Although the weapons behave different, they aren’t different enough when it comes to special effects, custom projectiles or buffs. Most weapons that you will craft will just be glorified versions of the basic weapons. I hope they will include better weapons in patches and updates.

Boss battles are sometimes very difficult, especially when you look at the permanent death system. If you die, you die! You cannot continue or load from a saved state. You will have to start all over again. Boss battles lack depth, and by the time you reach a boss, which is almost always the ‘Core’ of the level, you are low on ammo or even repair kits.

Engine and hull drops are not frequently dropped, which isn’t a big problem but a problem nonetheless. You will not be able to upgrade to better hulls and engines due to this. It makes the game more challenging.

Sublevel Zero - graphics and performance

The game looks great and runs fairly well, mainly because as of now it is a PC only title. You don’t need a very powerful PC and the system requirements are incredibly low. I am happy that in 2015, I can still find games that very well optimized and are PC only. The graphics style, as most people call is, is called ‘Neon Glow’.

With the good options menu, you can adjust your FOV and avoid being motion sick. The neon styled map is very good looking as well. You can clearly feel that the developers were concentrating more on gameplay rather than graphics which is exactly what the game required.

Sublevel Zero - review summary

The game runs well, plays well, controls well, has a great replayability value and has very well defined objectives. This makes it a must buy at $15 for anybody who likes 6 degrees of freedom. I didn’t feel bored even once while playing this game. The only issue I had was with the loot system and lack of a deep crafting system. The developers can easily fix these issues via patches.

Sublevel Zero Review Score: 9/10

Altamush Khan ‘Attish’ is a professional video game critic, video game journalist and video game director. He runs a Facebook page and a YouTube Channel by the name of Ultimate Game Reviews.