Narcosis Review

Being alone is scary. No matter what anyone says, solitude will always be one of the most terrifying enemies of the human race. The main danger of this lies mostly within ourselves. I mean, when you’re stuck at the bottom of the ocean completely alone, surrounded by death and destruction… Your mind starts to run a little wild, showing things that may stress or disturb even the strongest-willed person. With Narcosis, you will be subjected to quite a few troubling experiences as you attempt to get out of the mess you find yourself in. Being based at the bottom of the ocean means that even the simplest things, like running away, are now a much bigger problem. So what actually happened and why are you where you are?

Since a bit of this title deals with surreal occurrences that seem to be triggered by isolation and distress, let’s talk about what we know for sure. Our protagonist worked with a small group of people mining deep under the ocean. One day, some serious tremors hit and essentially destroyed everything. This catastrophic event easily ripped apart structures and disturbed tons of other things in the process. Once the initial danger has passed, our protagonist is left in desperate need of an escape plan as there’s only so long that they can survive in the large, heavy suit that’s necessary to work in such a place. Luckily, this suit is durable enough to stay intact during the tremors, but what knows what kind of dangers it will have to protect against now.

With everything falling apart around you, the goal is quite simple: get out. This is obviously easier said than done as all the usual procedures are impossible and leave you with little option but to try and figure out your way through a nearly alien area. When you’re that deep in the ocean, things start to seem as if they don’t even belong on Earth anymore. Narcosis uses this to make most areas feel abstract or simply a little off, just enough to make you feel uneasy. This is all to the game’s credit, as I found the areas I ended up in to be interesting and nearly awe inspiring at times. Unfortunately almost all of this work is undone when you begin to feel just how linear the title is. Always pushing the player forward, towards the plot. Even while left in a more open area, you can’t look around much because the very mechanics the game is built on require you to be constantly moving.

The main thing that will push you forward has to be trying to keep up with the oxygen your suit has available. This supply is constantly being drained and can empty even faster if you find yourself in particularly stressful situations. It does seem like there’s plenty of O2 tanks spread across the game to keep the player safe for the most part. I did run into a few times when I was getting worried, but there was always more O2 right around the corner. You’re supposed to have to be mindful of how many flares you have, but I almost never had less than six on me at a time. Beyond shooting these flares to distract something or light up an area, the only other things you can really expect to do is use your knife to ineffectively defend yourself against smaller creatures and use your thrusters to navigate the often treacherous terrain. While most of this works well enough, but the whole game simply loses any sense of tension when oxygen and flares feel so plentiful. This isn’t to say the game is a complete failure; in fact I feel like Narcosis has some really good redeeming qualities that make it really hard for me to be too critical.

First of all, the environment is very well done and there are plenty of moments that are set up for greatness in VR or for gamers that haven’t become too accustomed to how survival games handle stressful situations. I actually feel I’ve played so many similar games that Narcosis simply didn’t have the intended impact on me. Knowing that the game can be played in VR, I can also forgive the linearity of the game somewhat. In order to try and see what Narcosis is like in VR, I did watch a certain green-haired YouTuber play it and can say it looked more engaging in that medium. Finally, the somewhat predictable nature of the game’s scares is even permissible as the developers have made it a point to say the game is more meant to be about survival and not horror. For these reasons, I took a more detailed look at Narcosis and I can see the potential this title has. While it may not be a game for the more experienced gamers who will see through some of the ‘scares’, Narcosis definitely deserves a playthrough from those that find it’s concept interesting.