The face of hope: Underground | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the hopeless, but faceful G.E.M.Simov, a being prowling the dreary depths of the world to bring you tales of horror - such as those I’ve found in “The face of hope: Underground”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
This game starts off very strong. No settings option in the main menu, just an “about” option that brings up nothing. And why would the game need a settings option? Because the sensitivity of the mouse is dreadfully low, making doing almost everything else in this game that involves the mouse a chore at the very least.
But what is the face of hope: Underground (henceforth FOHU)? It is a poorly optimized First-Person Shooter with Horror elements. It features moving around with the WASD keys, jumping with the Spacebar and turning a Flashlight on and off with the F key. Interestingly enough, when the Player starts the game and looks at the menu provided following a press of the Escape key, there are far more options provided than in the Main menu - including 2 settings related options, one of which affects audio, the other affecting graphics. Still no mouse sensitivity, however, as a result of which things remain sloggy.
It does not end here, though. The height of the PC’s jump is very meager and almost fails to function, requiring specific positioning to make even the most basic of jumps. In addition to that, the Player can press the Spacebar while jumping and running up against a wall to constantly make the jump sound effect go off without actually making the PC jump. Other problems that are immediately spotted and leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth of the Player include the fact that the Escape key brings up the in-game menu, but it does not close the in-game menu, resulting in the Player needing to wrestle with the sluggish mouse to do so.
Then there’s the fact that the PC can sprint if the Player holds down Shift. That is great, but the fact that sprinting is infinite, as long as the Shift key is held down, indicates that there’s either a problem with the PC’s base movement speed - which is too low by default - or the sprinting must have been a toggle, not a continuous button press.
Regardless, with those mobility options out of the way, the Player can also press the E key to interact with objects - mainly to pick up key items or to interact with objects, however there is no inventory or inventory screen, as a result of which the Player must remember that things have been picked up. However, the Player also collects almost everything else - such as health-packs or ammo-packs - by simply walking over them. That’s incredibly odd and inconsistent - why must the Player press a button to collect a key, but then just walks over health-packs and ammo?
Additionally, there are issues with the Presentation that affect the Gameplay itself. There’s a health value that features two components - 100/100 it reads - indicating that 100 is the maximum amount of health the Player Character can have. Well, picking up health-packs makes one of those values increase going up to 200 and beyond - while the other does not move.
Then, perhaps, the other value is armor - well no, because whenever the PC takes damage the other value does not lower in the slightest. There is also a big red heart underneath those two values, which is accompanied by a number that reads “3”, though, as with most anything else in the game, there is no indication what that means or what it does. The Player will, however, find out, because they will die. And when they do, they will realize that this indicates how many lives they have. When the Player dies, they lose a life and are brought to the start of the level, though their progress so far is not lost.
How come the Player will die? Well, the Player will die, because the game decides to throw many enemies at them without providing them with a weapon at all. The Player gets to collect loads of Ammo-packs before getting a weapon in their hands, and the only means of dealing wit the enemies is to run past them while taking damage.
It looks as though that is the goal - for the Player is led through an area that features a large multitude of health packs that provide them with an even larger amount of health, but then the further the Player goes, the more frequent do encounters with enemies become, and more enemy types show up, who do substantially more damage than the others, rendering the strategy of sprinting past and interacting with anything intractable… Unsustainable.
However, it turns out that this is a bug. The Player is supposed to find a weapon situated right on top of the key that unlocks the door into the enemy infested place, but that weapon sometimes just does not spawn or it does not react to being interacted with, thus being impossible to pick-up. That’s a problem.
But huzzah, weapons are in the game, as is combat - which is monstrously clunky and unpleasant to go through. As mentioned, the sensitivity of the mouse is very low, meaning that the aiming reticle moves incredibly slowly. Fortunately, the enemies also move very slowly, so that issue solves itself. However, what is also problematic, is that aiming down the sights takes nearly 3 seconds to occur (and requires that the Player keeps holding down the Right mouse button) without changing anything about the way the Player aims or zooming in even slightly.
There is also, incredibly, a melee attack that the Player can utilize - it occurs by pressing the Alt button. But how does fighting go? Well, the Player must struggle with the monstrous recoil (which moves the camera faster and more reliably than the mouse can) while needing nearly 15 bullets per ordinary enemy. Thankfully, reloading is a thing, and ammo is very plentiful.
Alas, things just keep getting worse and worse. Enemies glitch into walls, others notice the Player through walls and screech violently until killed, other enemies somehow glitch themselves into being invincible but also incapable of attacking the Player… It’s a mess.
The Player can also crouch by pressing the Control key, and holding it. However, there is no use for it, as enemies just spot the PC immediately. Overall, there seems to be little reason for the existence of most things, in some situations. An example would be the fact that the first level is pitch black without the flashlight, but then the second level - which, thematically, should also be pitch black - is perfectly navigable without the flashlight, making it pointless.
In general, this game revolves around walking around maze-like levels and finding keys with which to open doors - some leading to other keys, others leading to the next level. It might also feature killing goons to get through, but that’s secondary…
And it, fortunately, ends in like 30 minutes.
This is a horrible game. I’m even unwilling to call it a game - this might be some sort of bit-coin miner that barely functions and is, simply, a horrible pile of filth that should be put to rot somewhere. If this was someone’s actual attempt at making a game, it was definitely that of a young teenage boy who had recently played Fallout 3 and was thinking to itself that yes, this can be done.
Dreadful. Simply dreadful and possessive of no redeeming qualities. 0/3
Presentation
This game looks horrible, sounds horrible, and presents itself horribly. There is no tutorial, even though the control scheme suggests that one is desperately needed (melee attacking by pressing the Alt key is an indication of that).
The game is incredibly dark at times, while at other times it is eye-bleachingly bright whilst also remaining somehow dark. It features a Flashlight that illuminates about 1 foot worth of distance in front of the PC and is so broken that, regardless of whether it is turned on or off, the circular effect depicting the flashlight’s flare is constantly observable on the screen.
The assets used in this game are very rudimentarily ordered and look the exact same, creating same-y mazes that have no identifiable qualities of descriptors. The enemies move in a wonky fashion, which is further amplified in wonkiness by the speed at which they move and the monstrously low framerate (which has no reason being such).
Then there’s the audio - there is no music in anything aside from the ending and the main menu. The sounds that do play are very loud, while others are very quiet, and most of them do not have any relation to the position of their origin. A door might open three corridors away and it will sound just like a door opening in front of the PC. An enemy might detect the Player from four rooms away and will screech at the same earbleed inducing volume as it would if it were right next to the Player.
The sound of the gun is similarly dreadful, neither reminiscent of a gun nor of a bullet striking metal. Then there’s also the sound of being low on health - which is the thumping heartbeat of the PC - playing whenever the PC is at 90 health out of 100.
This game is dreadful, again. It looks bad, its sound design would have been better if it was nonexistent, and it fails in every single aspect. 0/3
Story
The story in this game is nonexistent. The PC starts off in an abandoned, broken down subway station that still features working escalators, then traverses a high-tech maze filled with dangerous robots, after which it emerges from what was, apparently, a bomb shelter into the surface world… And the credits roll (they don’t get to roll, but the credits are supposed to roll).
There is no story, even though the developer has managed to add a few things that suggest that some kind of nuclear war has taken place, which could have involved Skynet’s terminators or a robot uprising of some sort, and that shelters (similar to the vaults from Fallout) wound up being used.
That’s almost impressive, considering there was absolutely nothing aside from the layouts of the levels, the enemies present in the game and a single pair of signs next to a door. It’s almost neat environmental storytelling, but considering that there was nothing - it’s not getting anything. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Obviously no. 0/1
Conclusion
0/10. This is not a game. This is some kind of anomalous pile of trash that should have never made it onto Steam, and it is also some filthy trick. I’ve paid for this - admittedly, 24 cents, but still - I was robbed. Fortunately, it is no longer available on the Steam store, but it does set a precedent. There are games like this out there, and they are being sold. They’re not free - they’re being sold. I am at a loss for words.
I can’t even hang it on the wall of shame in good conscience. There are real games on this here wall, and then this… Ah well, let it hang.