Over the past few years horror has been making great strides in the gaming community. With releases like Amnesia: The Dark Descent - which made a huge impression on the survival horror genre – it is no surprise that many others wish to make their own mark in the community. One of the more newly announced titles is Monstrum, a game by Team Junkfish and created in the Unity engine.

Monstrum sets you aboard an abandoned derelict ship filled with traps, environmental hazards, and another “passenger” who is not exactly friendly. From there you must find an escape route among the vast, dark, and claustrophobia-inducing confines of the ship’s procedurally generated corridors. Be sure not to meander too long because your fellow passenger is out to get you, and you have no way of fighting back. Run, hide, and use distractions and your wits in order to survive your pursuer’s relentless onslaught.

The ship generates a new layout each playthrough.

Monstrum incorporates permadeath, so if you unfortunately come to your untimely demise, you have to start over again with a brand new ship, new layout, and possibly a new hunter hot on your tail. With three unique monsters, each with their own behavior and hunting techniques, one method of escape or distraction may work on one hunter, but not on the others, forcing you to adapt your escape and survival strategy.

Does that not intrigue you enough? Perhaps the inclusion of Oculus Rift support would heighten your interest. Now you can experience the grit, claustrophobia, and terror first-hand as you attempt to flee your doom.

Monstrum is set to release in late Q3 2014 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you love horror games with a roguelike procedurally generated map, Monstrum is the title to look out for. With native Oculus Rift support planned, a unique map generated each playthrough, and three different hunters to chase you down, it seems like a no-brainer for any survival horror junkie.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

There are a range of classes, each with their own abilities. These are activated by pressing 4 keys, which along with the fast paced combat, makes Risk of Rain similar in ways to a MOBA game. You can win fights through a mix of clever positioning and quick reactions. As you learn your class’s strengths and weaknesses, the game becomes easier and combat feels smoother. As your character levels up, you’ll be able to cope with more difficult enemies. This is good, because the longer you play, the more difficult the game becomes.

Risk of Rain is different from a lot of games with randomly-generated worlds. The pace is much faster and the increasing difficulty means that you’re encouraged to go through the game as quickly as possible. There are times when I wanted to step away from the combat to explore the levels more – but the randomly-appearing enemies make it difficult to explore. Hopefully as the game develops there will be potential for more varied gameplay, and the pace will relent slightly.

Much of the atmosphere in Risk of Rain is created by its soundtrack, which is both eerie and forceful. My fellow Indie Mine reviewer Jennifer Roger has written an excellent article about Risk of Rain’s soundtrack, which you can find here.

Multiplayer co-op has recently been introduced to Risk of Rain. I haven’t had a chance to try it out – because I can’t find a server. As yet there isn’t a fully developed server browser, and the game requires you to connect directly to an IP address to play multiplayer. This will work fine if you know people who have the game, but you won’t be able to jump straight into a game with strangers. Hopefully in the future the game will also feature a full server browser.

Risk of Rain has a lot of potential. At times it feels too combat-heavy, but the randomly generated elements of the game mean that each playthrough offers something different. Risk of Rain is only going to become more varied and interesting, and I hope that the developers allow players to really explore all it has to offer. If you like the look of Risk of Rain, you can purchase a copy here.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.