{"id":13667,"date":"2021-02-20T19:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/stirring-abyss-review\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T17:54:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T01:54:02","slug":"stirring-abyss-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/stirring-abyss-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirring Abyss Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Stirring<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stirring Abyss
Sleepy Sentry, K-Project \/ Slitherine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-running X-COM franchise has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide. It\u2019s emphasis on managing a small, rag-tag group of resistance fighters who always try to fend off massive alien invasions is the classic underdog story that we\u2019ll all seen in many alien invasion media such as blockbuster Hollywood films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the titles that many fans consider truly unique was X-COM: Terror from the Deep, since instead of fighting aliens on the ground, you has to take your resistance fighters to underwater environs in an attempt to thwart a sneakier, aquatic alien incursion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable strategy publisher Slitherine, as part of its K-Project initiative, have recently released a game that is reminiscent of Terror from the Deep. It\u2019s called Stirring Abyss and instead of being set in modern times, it takes place during the beginning of the Cold War era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stirring<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stirring Abyss\u2019s story beings with the sinking of the USS Salem, a submarine that was in the midst of an important mission. The expeditionary crew wind up inexplicably strewn across the ocean floor without any memory of the sinking. They do, however, locate the submarine\u2014flooded but still functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things that I immediately liked about Stirring Abyss is that it develops its sense of dread in a gradual way. Your crew members will see only what they can in a circle around them, everything else is shrouded in darkness. As you traverse the deep ocean realm in an effort to locate additional crew members, you\u2019ll fight off massive electrically-charged jellyfishes. But as you progress further into the depths, you\u2019ll soon run into more\u2026disturbing entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include scaled fishmen, bizarre humanoid Orca-liked creatures, and other unnatural denizens of the deep. Each of these monstrous foes has their own strengths and weaknesses you\u2019ll have to find out through trial and error\u2014but hey, that\u2019s half the fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stirring<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stirring Abyss is a 2D, turn-based game. However, unlike similar games like Age of Wonder \u2013 Planetfall or any of the X-COM titles, there isn\u2019t much in the way of tactical maneuvering. You can\u2019t sprint or dodge and there\u2019s no cover system, but that sort of makes sense since your crew members are wearing heavy diving suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, combat mainly consists of closing in on enemies and attacking them with the default knives or spearguns that all of your crew members carry, or unleashing some sort of unique ability such as the science officer\u2019s depth charges that can obscure entire areas of the map. Since this is an H.P. Lovecraft-themed game, your crew will eventually be able to tap into special eldritch abilities that are on par with the underwater horrors you are facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In-between missions, you\u2019ll return your crew members to the USS Salem and utilize resources that you\u2019ve obtained to pump water out of the submarine\u2019s various compartments. As you do this, you\u2019ll gain access to new features such as crafting areas and medical facilities. You can choose to rest your crew to gain back health and sanity but be aware that the more your rest, the more that evil corruption spreads throughout the depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stirring<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One issue I have with Stirring Abyss is its 2D isometric layout. Instead of most modern isometric games these days, in Stirring Abyss you can\u2019t rotate your view in 3D. And with all of the debris covering the ocean floor, it\u2019s sometimes hard to see enemies or other important things through all of the boulders, reeds, and other objects therein. There were quite a few times that I\u2019d make a tactical blunder simply because I couldn\u2019t see all of my options during various combat situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To its merit, Stirring Abyss does feature some excellent voice acting, a creepy score, and pretty decent graphics. So, if you\u2019re a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or X-COM, this game is a pretty good marriage of the two genres that has enough uniqueness to be enjoyable in its own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RATING: 8.1\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devour has some pretty good graphics so you’ll need a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. Therefore, you may just want to invest in a superior gaming rig:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spring<\/a>
SPRING SPECIAL II<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stirring AbyssSleepy Sentry, K-Project \/ Slitherine The long-running X-COM franchise has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide. It\u2019s emphasis on managing a small, rag-tag group of resistance fighters who always try to fend off massive alien invasions is the classic underdog story that we\u2019ll all seen in many alien invasion media such as blockbuster Hollywood… Read More »Stirring Abyss Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2520,741,2488,6729,1225,67,2651,2486],"class_list":["post-13667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews4k-gaming","tag-gaming-laptop","tag-gaming-pc","tag-horror-games","tag-ian-kane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17614,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13667\/revisions\/17614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}