Reconsidering BELOW: EXPLORE In 2020 | A Much Improved Action Adventure? 

I briefly played Below back when it launched in 2018 and I would say I was pretty 50/50 on it at that time but after returning to it now, I can say it is greatly improved and much more enjoyable now. I play almost every single ‘Souls-like’ ‘Rogue-like’ out there and am accustomed to a steep challenge but there is a very delicate balance to making that feel rewarding. Explore mode is definitely more “hard but fair” and I highly recommend starting there. -*Alex*

Wow, sounds like a legit game now. Just sounded like an exercise in patience before.

They need to add this to the switch

The Explore Mode fixed my biggest grievances with the base game. Those changes to the Bonfire alone are a GODSEND.

Good to hear progress is actually somewhat achievable now. I stuck with the game for the beautiful art direction & tone, but I was never able to get very far. Excited to jump back in & give it another shot.

Now I might consider playing this game. My patience diminishes with age...

I really feel like this game is still best in Survival. They did give you a way to stash items permanently, so I feel like the game already has concessions for its progress difficulty. They probably just should have had an "Easy Survival" mode with half rate consumption of food and water.

Heyho, just wanted to say a few words to you (I am german, so there might be some flaws regarding language): Thanks alot for all the effort you put into each of your videos. You introduced me to games like Momodora some years ago and since then I follow this channel. Most - if not all - of your recommedations are safe bets for me and I also give this game a chance. Keep it going and stay healthy in this time =)

Thanks for the video! This was exactly the kind of review I was looking for

Thank you! I needed to hear this cause I didn't want to miss out on and mess up the story.

Been looking forward to a release on console since this came out. Great review & clarification on what's changed. Appreciate it.

Very pleasant to watch review! Thank you for that (:

I already considered Below to be one of the best games I'd ever played before Explore mode was added. I'm glad they created a more accessible mode for players who found the experience too difficult to stick with, without making it an "easy" mode. The more people experience this game, the better.

Hahahaha I started below when it had no explore mod, and for the first time I was force to rely on my first approach to anything and couldn’t rely on second opportunities, and somehow I managed to adapt, I’ve never been so much in tension when playing a game so slow but when I pass throug complete zones in the first try is just awesome

Great video...I love this world but couldnt devote my energy to it. Now, I feel like i may have a chance...

Thanks for the review and explanation. Just may get ot on ps4 now. Shalom.

good video, always remember to make some mention of game length.

Great video thank you

Love the review and paying attention to the changes Explore mode brought with it. I LOVE the look of this game and was bummed it never released on PS4 when it launched on XBOX/PC. But i saw really average reviews mostly so i wasn't too bummed but still wished it was a hit cause i loved the visual style. A question, Can all the games trophies and even just the 'game' itself be completed in Explore mode? Or is Explore mode a seperate mode from the base game?

Such an incredibly gorgeous game.

It looks damn good!

I didn't know about this game before, but damn why did they make it so hard initially? Rogue-like with survival elements? D:

Picaresque & Mysterious!

The game looks beautiful! Oh, very hard. Nevermind.

So explore mode is just a bit easier? Like FTL on EASY instead of normal. I never beat that final fucking ship, and I am not really a noob gamer...

Even after these changes (which are awesome comparing to what it was) i think this game core mechanics are its main problem. Exploration, atmosphere, different weapons/armors- this is top notch. But losing lantern each death, grinding early levels for light crystals that you must have at dark levels and repeating from start after death is holding this game from being great. Why not make lantern part of your equipment that you cant lose and it lights all the time, and make crystals as money at shops (and you can lose them at death, but you dont lose weapons). Save progress and level up at bonfires and it would be freakin awesome game.

It's heartbreaking that I waited years for this to come out and right before release they're like "oh btw its the type of game nobody thought or wanted lol"

BELOW is absolutely the BEST game u played in 2019 on Xbox. I already got 100% all achievements on Xbox last year before explore mode. It's amazing, yes hard, but amazing!

AMAZING GAME, easy but so bad when died so it makes it so stressing, I wish there was option to zoom in game then I could play it on handled consoles

I'll pick this up when it dips below $20.

I dont know if they patched the death to blue fire thing in explore, but when i died I lit the first fire and it did not give me the option to teleport to the fire i had turned blue, so i was forced to try and slog back to my body and died a floor before it and just said F it. to me, losing the map and lamp along with everything else is to much. I love my hard games, and souls like and rouge like and lite games. but this one just takes it to far. losing literally everything when you die AND starting back at the first screen is just to punishing imo. forces you to play nearly flawlessly to enjoy the game, and i dont care for that.

👍

On sale for $13.74 on PS4 now 😉

I don't think "pacing" is a term that applies to load times or the actual pace-i.e. speed of movement-of the game. Pacing is an element of games usually tied to narrative and exposition, the rate at which missions or quests are given, the building availability of side content, appropriate opportunity to learn and grow before facing high-tier enemies, etc. One example of proper pacing is when a game reveals enough of the map/world, activities, lore, etc., to keep players invested and interested, feeling like there's usually something new to do, while also avoiding overwhelming dumps or too-long, boring periods of waiting. A well-paced game will give you time to learn the game's mechanics and controls before, for example, dropping you into a crushing boss arena. (There are some exceptions where breaking this rule is desirable and memorable, a la Dark Souls, where you're meant to actually run past the Asylum Demon (Stray Demon) on your first game, to return later once you're better and more appropriately equipped.

yeah, the difficulty is a turnoff. that the bonfire is a save game mechanism is not well communicated imho. I quit the game after I found myself on the beach again and went to bed. all rouge likes with such ambient should have a flaneur mode. just to broaden the audience. tbh. just like museums offer headphones as a guide. no reading list or coursework required.

Does this game have a proper story ?

There’s hard and there’s unfair, this game is flat out unfair. Cheap trap deaths, cheap tentacle deaths, meagre reward for exploration, sparse short cuts ,the list goes on. Having said that I’m a sucker for punishment and I can’t stop playing.

Man wish playstation had a proper handheld to play this on

Even with these changes, the game remains terribly frustrating on later levels. Something is wrong with the core mechanics; which is why in my opinion it shouldn't be a rogue like. Skill is almost useless, it's all about having luck in the generation of the levels. Mobile-game-mentality in the heads of developers, maybe. The only thing that works, in my opinion, is the artistic impact. Nothing else.

I wouldve prefered simple tweaks to hunger and thirst, not just eliminating them all together, makes it less of a survival game... more a hack n slash now.

Man i cant believe i made it through the whole game on survive mode for that ending. A disappointment.

It's hard to see what your doing.

I like the art style, I like the idea of what the game is... but the camera/perspective is terrible...

No hunger or thirst anymore? Jesus Christ this should be called easy/baby mode now. I like the new bonfire idea. But NO survival aspects, how is this a survival game anymore? Hunger and thirst are literally the only hard part of this game and they got rid of it?? Kinda walk. I got you cannot unlock achievements in this mode.......

What a complete waste of money this game was, Absolutely brutal difficulty.... Made it to floor 17-18 and it’s insanity!!! How in the hell are you supposed to bomb walls to get the better equipment when you have 5 million spiders trying to kill you plus a whole screen full of tentacles constantly jabbing at you, had 5-6 elixers and after I had used them all death was inevitable, there is no way in hell I am going to slog through it again grinding resources just to get back to the lantern to insta die again. Wtf were Capy thinking, releasing a separate explore mode just says it all really. I want my money back, Never played such a rage inducing game in all my life. Die-grind die-grind die-grind errr no thanks. One of the worst games I’ve played in a long time. And even beat call of jarez and that was terrible but at least you didn’t have to run through the same level 9 million times. The look and atmosphere of below was really breathtaking but the gameplay and mechanics just ruined the whole experience for me. Complete garbage