PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Space trucker Jacob Lee is minding his own business ferrying cargo around the solar system when an intruder suddenly causes mayhem on board the ship which crash lands onto Callisto, Jupiter’s so-called “dead moon”. Rescued by members of the Black Iron security team, Jacob and his assailant are taken to the nearby prison where Jacob is processed as an inmate for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, and a device is implanted into his neck before he’s dumped into a cold, dark cell. Waking up to find the entire prison in chaos, it’s over to you to find out why Jacob was locked up, who the mysterious ship raider is, and what exactly is going on inside the prison.
Your first glance at Black Iron Prison’s interior, with alarms blaring, spotlights scanning the facility, bodies strewn about the place, things on fire, people running around in panic, and a group of convicts attacking someone in the distance, gives a tantalising glimpse at what lies ahead. It’s an excellent setup that builds a hefty amount of intrigue pretty much immediately but, unfortunately, and despite some genuinely excellent moments, the game struggles to fully live up to the potential of those opening moments.
Jacob spends the majority of the game’s eight carefully-directed linear chapters, which take around ten hours in total to complete, walking from point A to point B, fighting handfuls of mutated nasties along the way. There are no puzzles to contend with, and very little in the way of collectibles or rewards for exploring off the main path (apart from resources that are necessary to upgrade your gear), with the game instead choosing to ramp up the tension with a slow walking pace and limited resources that mean you really have to pay close attention to your stocks of supplies. The prison is an enjoyably gruesome – yet handsome, if maybe also slightly frustrating (so many vents, ladders and tight spaces to squeeze through!) – place to explore, and the oppressive atmosphere and top tier sound design (wear headphones if you can!) certainly keep you on your toes, but it does feel a little empty and would benefit from a few more things to interact with.
The game’s combat is strongly focused on melee attacks, with a side helping of gunplay and gravity-based weaponry. The idea is that Jacob dodges enemy attacks using the left thumbstick, tilting it one way and then the other to evade his foes before swinging his baton at them to unleash a flurry of hits which then allows players to fire a few shots at an exposed weak point. Dodging being tied to Jacob’s movement feels a bit strange at first, but it clicks into place quickly enough and works really well against individual foes, with Jacob’s hefty blows giving a satisfying crunch as limbs are lopped off, heads explode and blood spurts all over the place – but it isn’t quite as effective when faced with more than one enemy at a time. You’ll often be trying to move away from an enemy while another approaches and takes a swing at you, causing Jacob to automatically dodge and taking your focus away from whatever you were previously concentrating on. The game’s tendency to spawn enemies behind you, along with the lack of any sort of indicator, mean that you’ll often be caught out by something that you didn’t realise was even there, making larger fights more cumbersome than they really ought to be. Using your GRP power to pull enemies towards you and throw them across the room helps to create some separation, and things do improve after upgrading your baton a little bit (some of the late-game combat encounters can be truly exhilarating), but there’s definitely room for things to be tightened up in the melee department.
Elsewhere, some frustrating checkpoints can mean that you might find yourself having to restart some fights with a less than desirable amount of health and/or ammo, and the lack of a map or objective marker makes it difficult to know whether you’re exploring an optional area or heading along the critical path. Hitting a checkpoint can sometimes lock you out of returning to an area, making you miss out on vital resources through no fault of your own.
Very much a mixed bag in terms of enjoyment versus frustration, this slow-burn survival horror looks and sounds fantastic, the atmosphere is tremendous, and there are definite flashes of greatness within its unwieldy combat system. There are some very solid foundations, but things don’t quite manage to come together as well as one might have hoped. The intrigue that was built up during the first hour unfortunately doesn’t really lead to anything that genre fans haven’t seen before, the game’s scope might not quite be as wide as expected, and a few too many questionable design choices and oversights bring the overall experience down a couple of notches. Those with a higher tolerance for the more unrefined aspects will still find this to be a fun sci-fi romp full of jump scares, grisly cutscenes and entertaining over the top death animations, but it’s a tricky one to recommend to anyone looking for a stress-free ride.
