I was pleasantly surprised by this BioShock-coded roguelike FPS, and its latest update adding a speargun has me yearning to dive back in
Roguelike FPS Abyssus was one of the more interesting games to embed itself in my Steam library last year. Generally, I am of the belief that first-person shooting and roguelike randomisation should never meet, as it generally results in mushy combat and poorly paced levels.
But Abyssus beat the odds, successfully infusing the power-curve of a roguelike into blasting goons with a gun. Its clever genre synthesis lets your diving suit-clad Brinehunter enter battle with chain-lightning revolvers and shotguns that pummel opponents with ghosts. But there was one thing missing from DoubleMoose Games' nautically-themed blaster—a harpoon gun.
There's nothing more entertaining in an FPS than a speargun done well, as games like Painkiller and FEAR will attest. In a game set underwater, meanwhile, a speargun is practically mandatory. Remarkably, the original BioShock omitted all harpoon-based action, one of several reasons why BioShock 2 is secretly the superior game.
Abyssus made the same mistake when it launched in August last year. But the recently released 1.2 update fixes this grievous error, folding in a harpoon gun as the primary feature of the patch.
As you might expect, the harpoon gun is a slow-firing, but heavy-hitting weapon designed to be effective at all ranges. Alongside damaging enemies, its primary fire increases your hunter's combo-point gauge, with the secondary fire spending all accrued points for a massively damaging attack.
It doesn't sound like the harpoon gun will impale enemies on surfaces, which seems like a missed opportunity. But Abyssus compensates for this with a newly added ability that accompanies the speargun: Smiting Spear lets you throw a spectral polearm that embeds in whatever it hits, dealing continuous damage in a small area around itself.
DoubleMoose says this can be used for zone denial and disrupting enemy crowds. But I imagine it will be particularly useful for dealing with larger foes, letting you deal passive damage against them while you mop up the smaller adversaries— a balancing act that I always found tricky in Abyssus' later levels.
The update also adds several new cosmetic items and, intriguingly, new attack patterns for three of its bosses. Personally, I did not think these bosses were short of patterns when I played it, but I did mostly play the game solo, which makes it considerably more challenging.
To coincide with the update, DoubleMoose has dropped the price of Abyssus by 30%, bringing it down to $17.50 (£15) until March 12. It's well worth that, in my opinion. While it isn't the best FPS that came out last year, an accolade that probably goes to either Doom: The Dark Ages or Battlefield 6, the simple fact that it blends the FPS and roguelike genres so successfully makes it worthy of respect.
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