14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Sigtrap Games and publisher Mastertronic announce Sublevel Zero, a first-person 3D roguelike shooter.
The game offers a six-degree of freedom environment and looks a bit like some games the likes of which we haven’t seen in a while, namely Descent and Forsaken.
Sublevel Zero takes place in a universe falling apart, where you have to take control of a gunship and delve into the depths of an underground facility, fighting your way through procedurally generated levels.
You battle various enemies in a zero-gravity environment, gathering power-ups and upgrades, and ultimately finding your inevitable doom.
The setting is simple and the story straightforward, as Sublevel Zero concerns itself more with gameplay mechanics than with world building.
The game features a varied series of backdrops, from industrial zones to mining caverns, and also boasts a crafting system that enables you to customize your gunship in order to fit your preferred playing style.
As you progress through the game, you unlock more items and blueprints that can help you during subsequent playthroughs.
An interesting mix of concepts
Furthermore, Sublevel Zero is also VR-enabled, which means that you’ll be able to twist and turn in all directions while using the Oculus Rift, and lock onto enemies using head tracking tech.
The game blends both retro and modern elements and features a certain low-fi aesthetic, the one that seems to be all the rage nowadays.
The whole project started out as a prototype created for Ludum Dare 29, a popular video game creation jam where indie developers converge and create small-scale playable prototypes based on various themes.
Its makers reveal that its origins lie in their passion for old-school games such as Descent and Forsaken, but that modern shooters like Teleglitch also played an important role in the shaping of Sublevel Zero.
Sublevel Zero is expected to drop sometime this summer on Steam.
