Coming from developer Howling Hamster Entertainment, Sub-Species is a 2.5D Arcade Action/Adventure that puts you in control of your own submarine, all in your lonesome within the ocean… if it wasn’t for alien invaders, mines, and other obstacles in your way!
The events of the game take place deep beneath Earth’s oceans in a distant future after a devastating alien outbreak. These invaders will be coming at you from all sides, further fuelling the tension from traversing the hostile sea depths.
Interested players can try their hand at controlling a submarine that is able to rotate 360° in order to fight back against the threats that can attack from any angle. The demo gives a small vertical slice of the game, allowing you to complete a short tutorial and a part of the very first mission. As such, there isn’t much to explore and you only get the very few first mechanics, but it gives an idea of what Sub-Species aspires to be.
Right off the bat, you find yourself deep in the sea, with the surroundings both beautiful and alien, yet instinctively familiar. The ambient noise helps the immersion, surrounding you with the groaning and creaking that helps to convey the sheer mass of water that surrounds your little submarine on all sides.
First things first, on a PC with a mouse + keyboard setup, it might take some time to get used to the controls. While you are in your main exploration mode, you rotate the submarine by moving the mouse around, while accelerating with W and getting another burst of speed from Shift.
However, there’s also a hover mode that switches you to a much slower WASD-controlled movement, but also allows you to interact with items scattered around the map and move wrecks around – in order to spectacularly blow them up later, of course.
There is always half a second of cognitive dissonance when you switch controls, although it is possible that it is something you will adapt to, given more time to play.
Sub-Species is not for the faint of heart and those suffering from thalassophobia, as the second you get somewhat used to the controls and the way inertia affects your submarine’s movements, the orders from above take you to an infested region. No longer do you just have to navigate around to your target, you also have to keep your submarine’s total health in mind as alien creatures come hurtling at you from all directions.
You have to think quickly, diving out of the way and blasting the monsters away with some quick fire. Some of them, smaller squid-like creatures, die relatively easily. Others, larger and more similar to turtles, take a while, screeching out a shiver-inducing death cry when they explode.
All the while, you also have to fulfill your mission – get to a certain passage, then get to a wreck through a system of underwater caves, grab it, and explode to clear a way for your submarine, which sounds much easier said than done.
If you love games like Subnautica or Ecco the Dolphin, Sub-Species will be right up your alley. It has the same unsettling feeling that comes with being out of your element, and there’s nothing quite as far from comfort as being so deep underwater that sunlight can no longer reach you.
But it is not at all dark, in fact, Sub-Species has beautiful level design, showing that even deep in the ocean and in the middle of an alien invasion, life still finds a way. You will see great schools of fish, giant underwater creatures, corals, and, yes, the wreckage of the human bases scattered around.
The full version of the game promises 12 levels in 4 environments that will have you searching for weapons and lost experimental technology, unveiling secrets and mysteries, and keeping your submarine safe.
Judging by the screenshots, there will also be much more to the alien invaders you encounter, including a much more detailed story of what happened in the world of Sub-Species.
“The deep ocean is the closest thing we have to an alien world on Earth,” said Creative Director Manus Burke. “We wanted players to feel that tension, the beauty that pulls you in, and the fear that reminds you you’re not supposed to be there.”
