End of Abyss is a methodical single-player metroidvania set in a deep-nested bunker. Read our first impressions review to see what it did well, what it didn’t, and whether it’s worth trying.
Everything We Know About End of Abyss
End of Abyss Story
End of Abyss’s story follows Cel, a young combat technician who descends into a massive underground facility alongside a crew to investigate disturbances of unknown origin. After becoming separated from the rest of the team, Cel is left to navigate the abandoned complex, where the facility’s former inhabitants have been transformed into grotesque creatures by an unknown infection.
As Cel ventures deeper into the facility, she works to restore its systems while uncovering what happened to the people who once lived and worked there. The story gradually reveals the scale of the infection and the fate of Cel’s crew through environmental details, scattered records, and the remains of the facility, with Cel ultimately forced to confront whatever is waiting at the bottom of the Abyss.
End of Abyss Gameplay
End of Abyss combines twin-stick shooting mechanics with soulslike dodge rolls across an immersive, multi-level metroidvania adventure. It also features dedicated crafting and upgrade systems, as well as multiple boss fights spread across many areas to act as stopgaps for player progress.
Players progress linearly through multiple zones, encountering transformed enemies as they explore every nook and cranny to find a way to progress.
End of Abyss Release Date and Time
Released on October 1, 2026
End of Abyss released on October 1, 2026 for PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Pre‑orders are open on all digital storefronts, with a 10% discount offered to PlayStation Plus members until October 1, 2026.
End of Abyss Review [First Impressions]: Harshing Great Vibes With A Messy Start
Not the Best Start, But There’s Room to Impress
I have a love/hate relationship with Metroidvanias because among the droves of releases that come out yearly from both indie and AAA studios, the range of their quality swings from one end of the barometer to the other, and my appreciation for the genre swings with it. It’s either the most profound thing someone will ever play, or the most insulting experience ever put to code.
Rare among Metroidvanias are the forgettable ones; dull, barely recallable, 3-hour stints that you can’t even remember to hate. End of Abyss isn’t one of those, but only because I haven’t finished playing it yet. I am holding out for the chance that this game is a late bloomer because even a weak start can lead to something good if that was the experience the devs designed. Even Hollow Knight didn’t impress me in the beginning, but, as we all now know, it’s now considered among the genre’s best.
Weak shooting, unfun progression, and unclear storytelling all make up End of Abyss’ beginning. Let’s go through those one by one and collectively hope this isn’t the end of all it can offer.
Unquestionably Great Vibes
Let’s start with what the game does well, because for all of its pitfalls that we’ll dig into shortly, it does manage to get one thing absolutely right: vibes. Aesthetics, sound, atmosphere; all of these the game has in spades, and even the greenest Metroidvania player should be able to appreciate that fact from the game’s melancholic opening.
The facility the players find themselves in, such as it is, contributes to these vibes the most with its derelict, overgrown presentation. The environmental storytelling is so rich that the actual storytelling (that being narrative and dialogue) is purposefully overtaken. Not much is said, and much of what is done consists of walking and shooting, but all of these take place on a stage that is arguably a character in and of itself.
The gentle hum of dead air mixes well with the metallic clangs of the player’s hurried footfalls, the resonating strikes of their energy weapon whenever it connects, and the shallow breaths of their exertion as they make their way through. Together, this mass of sounds creates an audioscape that sells the game’s premise of abandonment, decay, and rampant corruption better than any outright exposition ever could’ve, and that much props up its presentation to even Little Nightmares III levels of horror and dread.
If vibes were the only criteria, this game deserves some sort of award. Maybe not the bigger ones, but someone somewhere has to give this game’s devs some sort of commendation for what they achieved here.
Alas, video games as a medium require more than just impeccable vibes to operate. Past this point, End of Abyss quality makes a sharp 180 as we go over its gameplay, progression, and overall appeal.
Repetitive Twin-stick Shooting with Equally Repetitive Bosses
End of Abyss, unlike other Metroidvanias, utilizes twin-stick shooter controls for its combat. This takes advantage of the game’s 3/4 3D POV by letting players run and jump across a fully 3D space rather than the usual 2D platforming movement its genre cousins rely on. While good on paper, this combination has a particularly damning flaw that makes it hard to enjoy: aim controls.
There’s a reason twin-stick shooters are usually top-down. The 3/4 view does a lot to mess with the player’s depth perception, such that aiming is usually a problem if not assisted by minor aim-assist. Unfortunately, End of Abyss doesn’t have that, equating to a usually unfun experience whenever players have to shoot an enemy…which is often.
More to the twin-stick shooter mechanics being flawed, they’re also quite repetitive and unforgiving. It’s repetitive because there’s not much players can do to customize their means to fight apart from giving it more stats in one aspect or another (more on how difficult that is to achieve later). Enter the Gungeon at least had randomized loot as part of its core identity, while others like it at least had more frequent upgrades to spice things up.
If gritty survival was the idea the devs wanted, there’s far too much space between each encounter for that to be the case. This puts End of Abyss at an uncomfortable double-whammy situation where there’s too little action for the game to carry momentum with its primary mechanic, but also too little variety within those fights for them to be memorable despite their rarity.
The game has boss fights to keep things interesting, but even those fights lack the variety to be distinct from basic encounters, much less each other. It’s just one bullet sponge with different basic enemies spawning around them, again and again, until one of you dies. Even if you can forgive the lack of variety, the payoff for beating a boss is just plain progression and some resources. This leads us to the game’s next pitfall.
Unforgiving Resource Management with Unsatisfying Progression
End of Abyss has a Resident Evil-style resource collection and crafting mechanic for the player’s weapons. While the primary weapon has infinite ammo, any new weapon on top of that is limited and must be crafted from materials. This much could’ve been a great mechanic to mount onto the survival themes of the game’s shooting mechanic, but unfortunately, one simple fact makes that impossible: crafting and upgrades share the same resources, and they’re hard to acquire.
Yeah, that’s right, basic ammo crafting and permanent weapon upgrades share the same resources. This means that if you end up dying to a boss (or god forbid, a normal encounter), and you used that ammunition, you just locked yourself out of progressing until you get more.
Enemies respawn, but do not guarantee drops. Drops are generous, but are quite rare and random to boot. Crafting recipes make sets of ammo per craft, but cost up to a fourth of the player’s average material count every time, and are lost when used.
It’s a vicious cycle propped up by unfair mechanics that basically leaves players to their primary weapons 80% of the time. The alternate weapons aren’t even that flashy and weapon upgrades aren’t that significant, so I question why the devs even bothered.
A Bigger Uphill Battle the Deeper You Go
There’s much more to go through for End of Abyss, and despite its name, this is just the beginning. Hopefully, what remains of the game ends up being worth it, but I won’t lie, it’s a bigger uphill battle the deeper I go. After hours of gameplay, I’ve gotten far, but achieved very little past that, and not for the lack of skill or progress.
There really just seems to be more wander than wonder in this game, and for a Metroidvania, that amounts to a bunch of shortcuts to nothing. I doubt the game can scrape together something memorable with its remaining playtime, but it can at least be passable if it plays its cards right.
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