Abyssals sends you to a planet covered in water after the devastation of Earth. But as you build a city, new horrors await you there
It”s been almost ten years since we left the traditional islands for the first time in Anno 2070 and ventured into completely new waters, namely the deep sea. The upcoming building game Abyssals not only wants to let us build production chains in the ocean like back then, but also entire cities. Even if the game is visually reminiscent of Anno 2070, it wants to set other priorities.
What awaits you in Abyssals when it is released in 2023 and why you should never switch off the light there, you can find out below – in the deep sea. To get you in the mood, here”s a trailer with a lot of build-up flair:
Survival on an Alien Planet
Like Anno 2070, Abyssals relies on a scenario in which humanity has found itself in a difficult position. In Abyssals, however, the Earth has been devastated so extensively that one is forced to move to a completely new planet.
The only habitable celestial body within reach is Abyss-62e, a planet completely covered with water. Here we now establish our colony, but under difficult circumstances. The toxic atmosphere forces us to settle in the darkness of the deep sea and search there for the planet”s scarce resources.
Exploration is to play a major role in this: On the unknown planet, we will probably first have to track down raw material deposits, but this also comes with dangers.
What lurks in the darkness?
As we expand our city, we must always make sure we have enough light sources and the necessary electricity. Because these keep away the unspecified creatures that inhabit Abyss. And they don”t really like us. What exactly happens when the lights go out, however, is not yet known. Probably unlit buildings will be destroyed by the deep-sea monsters.
The sci-fi scenario with the water planet including scary creatures is then again strongly reminiscent of the survival game (Subnautica).
What does our city need?
But back to the topic: As in every construction game, we probably have to build up production chains in Abbysals, too, with the products of which we supply our city and its inhabitants. What exactly we will collect and build in the deep sea is not yet known. However, official screenshots already reveal a few things. Have a look at them:
- Less surprisingly, I guess, we have to worry about power and oxygen . After all, we have to keep the deep-sea creatures away with lights and probably also supply buildings with electricity. To do this, we build tidal power stations and solar panels, for example. It goes without saying anyway that only breathing colonists are good colonists.
- As usual for building games, we need building materials to construct buildings. We need tools and something that looks like bricks. It is quite possible that there will be more advanced materials later on.
- For our industry we also seem to need workers who come from different population levels. We probably need to make sure we have enough houses of the levels we need.
- Research points two different categories also seem to exist. But how we generate them and what we spend them on is not yet clear.
- Later we can probably also build defence buildings to ward off the monsters. We may well also launch submarines for exploration or combat. We can already spot a smaller submarine on screenshots.
Editorial conclusion
At first glance Abyssals looks really interesting. The deep sea scenario with creepy elements reminds me in a pleasant way of the deep sea of Anno 2070, Subnautica or even Soma. As a building game, Abyssals probably won”t be really scary, but maybe the exploration of the deep sea will give you goosebumps.
While I like the game”s visuals and scenario very much, it is of course still hard to say whether a good building game with depth (haha) is waiting here. The studio responsible, called OverPoweredTeam, has so far only released two smaller titles that had nothing to do with the genre. Publisher Shiro Unlimited, however, also released the popular construction game Northgard.
I hope that especially the exploration of the deep sea and the interaction with its creatures will be exciting and creatively designed. Here, Abyssals could actually deliver something novel. I would also like to see a story campaign around the game”s dark lore. Of course, with all this, one must not forget that this is probably more of an indie title than a AAA game.
