Hidden Deep - sci-fi horror platformer inspired by Aliens & The Thing - now on Early Access

[Wirdschowerdn]

https://www.hiddendeepgame.com

Spoiler

This is going to get a demo next week:

Hidden Deep is a 2D Action & Exploration Sci-Fi thriller which action takes more than mile under the ocean floor. A group of researchers detected there some strange anomalies of unknown nature and organized an expedition to examine this mysterious phenomenon. After 681 days contact with the researchers suddenly breaks off. At this point you are entering as the leader of the second team who must check what happened there.

Hidden Deep is an old-school game inspired by classic Sci-Fi games and movies of the 80's and 90's (mainly Aliens, The Thing, Half-Life (1)) an addictive bit of dark plot. Very much emphasis was placed on richness and quality of character animations and general realism (as for 2D game). The game is running on its own engine with physics simulation and destructive terrain.

Game Features
•Immersive dark sci-fi story which pays tribute to many 80's and 90's classic movies and games
(mainly Aliens, The Thing, the first Half-Life)
•Uniquely (among 2d games) rich and realistic characters movement
(motion capture based but still pure 2d) including rag-doll
•Physics simulation and destructible terrain (your men are equipped with heavy machinery like tunnel-boring machines, bridge builders and many more)

Gameplay Highlights
•Command your team. Often you will have to do many tasks simultaneusly.
You can control your team members directly or by giving orders.
•Face lethal danger Deal with sneaky and deadly alien lifeforms and environmetal traps
•Operate specialized equipment including grappling-hook, scanners, drones, heavy machinery and more
•Unfold a deep and dark mystery
•Expect many action twists and surprises...

Release date
Planned release date is 2021.

Hidden Deep will be available for PC and later for Mac, Linux also ports to Switch and Xbox are very likely.

Another World meets The Thing.

 

[kangaxx]

Might be worth watching, thanks. You're right, definite shades of Another World.

 

[Ash]

Actually looks kind of cool. Not bad for Morgoth.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

They shamelessly ripped off the resusitation scene from The Thing. Those bastards. Game developers are unimaginative hacks.

 

[Matalarata]

I had noticed this on youtube, a few days ago:

 

[Herzog]

It looks and plays like a flash game. At least the premise seems interesting.

 

[Alienman]

Tried the demo and it's fun. Environments is a bit drab I guess, but the climbing, exploration and shooting is fun. And everything is deadly as hell, one misstep and you will fall to a crunchy death. I managed to pick up a second character, but what surprised me was there was no way to make him follow. I could give him simple orders, but not have him follow so I had to switch back and forth. Bit odd. Also read on the forums that co-op is coming. I think same screen co-op for this could be great fun.

 

[Infinitron]

Hidden Deep is a 2D Action & Exploration Sci-Fi thriller set more than mile under the ocean floor. A group of researchers detected there some strange anomalies of unknown nature and organized an expedition to examine this mysterious phenomenon. After 681 days contact with the researchers suddenly breaks off. At this point you are entering as the leader of the second team who must check what happened there.

Hidden Deep is an old-school game inspired by classic Sci-Fi games and movies of the 80's and 90's (mainly Aliens, The Thing, Half-Life) and an addictive bit of dark plot. A lot of emphasis was placed on richness and quality of character animations and general realism (as for 2D game). The game is running on its own engine with physics simulation and destructive terrain.

 

[Viata]

Looks cool.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/976890/view/5911532378051188494

Join our Beta!
The Hidden Deep official Beta is live!

Heyho everyone ! We have big News for you!

As many of you are waiting for updates on the release date of the game, we have to tell you, that we postponed the release to early 2022.

As the recent year(s) have shown, it's never a good idea to push for specific dates, just for the sake of the dates, so we are giving our one-man-army "Wookie" a bit more time to finetune the features of his beloved game...

... But that doesnt mean, that you have to be the ones suffering from that decision. To give you something to fill the gap between the old Demo and the release, ....

.... we are glad to be finally able to invite you to our official Beta!

You can sign up via the button on the Steam Store Page - we will accept open requests in waves.
Additionally we have not yet set an end for this beta - we will keep you informed about any updates.

Spoiler

In some cases, in-game hints won’t work properly or only once (fix WIP) so here are some useful bits of knowledge (that later will also be properly explained in-game):

• Sometimes fuses must be found (small grey boxes on the ground) and inserted into the corresponding holders (reddish-brown inlets mounted on the wall) by standing in the right distance to the holder, easily manageable by trial and error while repositioning a bit.
  
• Info like Door codes and Mission objectives are saved in the map overlay [M].
  
• You can’t reload while dangling from a rope.
  
• Swimming is a little clunky compared to running, I’d propose to make yourself familiar with it while being close to the surface before going too deep.
  
• Wall mounted log panels have to be navigated by [WASD], [Enter] & [ESC].
  
• Keypads can be used either by [mouse] or [numpad].
  
• Medkits are very new to the game and can be consumed via [9] after taking some damage - no UI yet. Also in this version they aren’t really needed.
  
• The big crane cage in level 4 (the one for hauling the truck) can be magnetically attached to the metal ledgers at the respective tunnel entrances via [spacebar] - helpful to not crash into the pit. The active magnet is signalled by a red dot on top of the cage.
  
• Same crane gets operated by bringing an engineer close and holding [R]
  
• The rope ability of the scouts is currently not working (and not needed in this showcase).
  
• Using the plasma torch by holding down [O]
  
• Repeated tabbing out of the game can lead to Access Violation crashes.
  
• If you have multiple characters available, you can choose them via [numpad]
  
• If the ‘back’ button is missing in the main menu, use [ESC]
  
• Small bugs and glitches may appear due to the WIP state of the game.

 

[Infinitron]

From last month:



https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/976890/view/5837226157967899710

Release Date Announcement
Hidden Deep is coming very soon!

Dear Rescue Team,

We are excited to finally announce the official release date for our blood-freezing horror experience: Hidden Deep is releasing into Early Access on January 24th!

In Hidden Deep, players explore a vast suboceanic research and mining facility, inhabited by alien creatures brought to life in a 2D game world full of action, mystery, and danger. They must command their team members and find out what happened in the abandoned corridors and caves, unravelling a dark sci-fi horror mystery inspired by classic movies from the ‘80s and ’90s.

See you then!

Cogwheel Software and Daedalic Entertainment

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Releases in 2 days. Some Twitch streamers got early access and are playing now:
https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Hidden Deep

Looks promising to me. Like a slow-burn horror game that does a good job maintaining tension without overusing monster attacks, jump scares, etc. Definitely getting it.

 

[udm]

Love ABG's intro

 

[Visperas]

Looks great!

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

It looks great, but I have a feeling it will play annoyingly.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

This actually look p. cool tbh fam. Will look into in once it comes out.

The game gives me very strong Barotrauma vibes, though obviously this is only the "crew" part of the game, without manning the submarine. Coop could be sick, but as usual in these type of games will most likely end up by and large unplayable with randos - so unless you get some decent people on Discord, it will be effectively SP only.

I am really curious how playable is this going to be in SP, having to switch between the team members (apparently there are supposed to be up to four, each a separate class I guess) seems like something that wouldnt really work very well if you were supposed to do things under preasure - and I suspect the AI will suck.

Anyway, it looks interesting enough to warrant future research...

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Available now. Just downloaded.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/976890/view/3122684555910102916

Hidden Deep Early Access Release!
We are live!

Listen closely Rescue Team, we have a special mission ahead!

The big Early Access Release Day is here - we, that is the publisher Daedalic Entertainment, and our one-dev-army consisting of "Wookie" from Cogwheel Software - are extremely excited to lure you into the deep caves and give you finally an opportunity to find what is lurking down below - or to get found by it.

As you maybe can tell, having only a single developer for a game is relatively uncommon, so that after a lot of positive experience with Early Access, we decided for Hidden Deep as well to become one of our portfolio's (hopefully similarly successful) Early Access titles.

This means one important thing: We are here to stay - both ourselves from Daedalic covering as many bases for Wookie, so he can focus on the development of the game. We have big plans for Hidden Deep, some of those you can find in the roadmap on our steam store page. Below, you can find a list of the Early Access Release content that you can expect right now at launch.

• 10 levels story mode
• 4 challenge modes, with optional coop for two of them(Levels can be randomized with seeds - influencing the placement of Monsters and items, but not (yet) the layout):
  - find the data disk
  - clear the area
  - maintain the reactor
  - leave the sector
  
• Local Multiplayer via Splitscreen as stated above
  
• Online Multiplayer via Steam Remote Play Together (Check out the forum for more explanation)

After the Early Access release is done and all small issues are ironed out, a full fledged native multiplayer is one of our next big steps forward - for now the Steam Remote Play feature is an alternative to play online.
Some of the things we want to tackle in the future of Hidden Deeps lifecycle, in addition to more story levels and challenge modes, are a way to implement user generated content with a level editor, more multiplayer modes, including, maybe, one day... PvP - yes, you read that right, backstabbing your friends in dark caves with monsters lurking around - don't worry too much about it for now though, it makes even more sense once you encounter the lore a bit more.

Speaking of lore - if you fall in love with Hidden Deep, or already did, you have the opportunity to dive even deeper - pun absolutely intended: Our Supporter Pack includes this time a 18 pages long graphic novel about Hidden Deep!

We hope you enjoy the release as much as we do, keep the feedback coming, and don't let the cave-bugs bite you!

Best Regards,
Daedalic Entertainment & Cogwheel software

 

[kangaxx]

Any good?

 

[toro]

Any good?

Elajjaz is streaming the game right now.

I don't think the game is for everyone.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Any good?

Kinda iffy so far.

• It didn't save my progress. I was going to continue my game now, and it forced me to restart.
• It didn't let me rebind all keys. Running is hard-coded to SHIFT, and alternative fire is hardcoded to ALT. So you're forced to use a basic "left hand on WASD" setup, which I haven't used in ages. Should be able to rebind all keys in current year...
• It seems like the kind of game that mechanically enjoyable but lacking in everything else.

Very early impressions though. I'll give it another shot tomorrow, maybe I'll learn to like it.

 

[Alienman]

Early Access... damn, I thought it was going to be a final release.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Any good?

Kinda iffy so far.

• It didn't save my progress. I was going to continue my game now, and it forced me to restart.
• It didn't let me rebind all keys. Running is hard-coded to SHIFT, and alternative fire is hardcoded to ALT. So you're forced to use a basic "left hand on WASD" setup, which I haven't used in ages. Should be able to rebind all keys in current year...
• It seems like the kind of game that mechanically enjoyable but lacking in everything else.

Very early impressions though. I'll give it another shot tomorrow, maybe I'll learn to like it.

Disregard the first point. I think the game is only meant to save upon completion of a level. Seems like a fair decision, prevents savescumming and makes the game more intense.
Seems like a pretty hardcore GIT GUD game, very easy to die and have to restart (then play the same part over and over, like before bosses in Dark Souls). Not necessarily a bad thing though!

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Alright, I played for a few hours, here are my findings so far:


- Controls are not bad, but require some getting used to (as well as giting gud), expect to die a lot to falls that will be frustrating and dumb at the start, expect to die in dumb and frustrating ways even after you get used to them (kinda like Barotrauma, but falling to your death is much bigger problem here due to game´s setting)

- This game is not “casual” or “relaxing” in any way, not something you should play while listening to something etc, unless you focus on what you are doing, you are very likely to fall to your death very often

- I can easily imagine this game working even without any enemies at all as some kind of sci-fi mine rescue team simulation, traversing the environment is pretty challenging (and satisfying when you manage to pull it off), even on the highest difficulty you will die much more often to the environment than to the enemies, from time to time you get to operate various machines (even vehicles and cranes, though again nothing as deep as Barotrauma) and there are fairly cool gadgets (drones you can send ahead to map the area, scanners that can detect hidden caverns, explosive that will let you breach weaker walls, and especially the grappling hook)

- There of course are enemies, this being a survival horror and all, some of them fairly straightforward The Thing type monsters, some more brutal ones (“wall tentacles” that can one shot you if they catch you by surprise), combat works just like you would expect in a game like this (again, just like Barotrauma), its OK

- The grappling hook is the signature gadget of the game, it has cool physics (ie you can swing around and such, you can also kill yourself in all kinds of ways) and is fairly fun to play around with

- There is no AI, in missions where you have multiple team members (basic roles are scout who does most of the work and engineer who can operate various devices and vehicles), you have to switch between them, its not as bad as I feared, I guess that SP is viable

- There is no saving during missions, instead you have limited number of team members (ie respawns), if you run out of them, its game over (number depends on difficulty, 20 on medium, 7 on hard)

- I played on the highest difficulty and game is very hard, as I said you die all the time from falling, sometimes from combat as well, missions can be fairly long, so people that have problems with dealing with frustration will suffer here


So yeah, I like Barotrauma and this feels like sort of simplified spinoff that focusses on in person exploration and combat. This is fine, the game is still fairly complex and very hard, as I mentioned it could work completely without combat as well and I hope that modding will pick up.


Online MP should be a thing later on, which in itself will be a very important aspect (though SP here seems much more viable unlike in Barotrauma, which is nice).


Personally I am OK with the price and I hope the devs will keep flashing the game out (it is in EA after all), it will need MP and lots of content along with editor/modding tools to really come to its own. It is a very niche product though, even by Codex standards, so I advice caution before buying. As far as I am concerned, this is a cool game and the devs deserve to get some €s for having the balls to do stuff like this in the current year.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]