Paradox Interactive has unveiled a new addition to its 'Surviving' series of bad-situation management sims, and this one is a little more sinister than its predecessors. Surviving the Abyss puts players in charge of a research lab at the bottom of the sea, where they'll have to build and maintain facilities while managing the needs of its inhabitants.
That sounds innocuous enough, right? But if there's one thing that games like BioShock, Soma, and Stirring Abyss have taught us, it's that nothing good ever happens on the ocean floor, and that's definitely the case here too. Surviving the Abyss is set in 1976, at the height of the Cold War, and the purpose of the research base, you see, is to "perfect and weaponize human cloning." And that's not the worst thing going on: "The darkness hides unexpected horrors," and you're going to have to deal with that too.
The Steam page for Surviving the Abyss really makes the dichotomy clear:
- "Improve life and progress in your facility by researching advanced technologies"—That sounds good!
- "Keep your population sane, obedient and alive as you expand your base and discover the secrets of cloning and genetic research"—That sounds, well, less good.
Surviving Mars, a Martian colony sim released in 2018, was developed by Haemimont Games (although it's now in the hands of Abstraction Games, while Haemimont is off to other things), while the 2019 post-apocalyptic city-builder Surviving the Aftermath came from Iceflake Studios. This new addition to the series is being made by yet another developer, Rocket Flair Studios. Rocket Flair is also working on an ancient Egyptian city-builder called Dynasty of the Sands, but announced in September that it "had to take a short pause due to other commitments," which it would say more about later in the year. The studio didn't specify that Surviving the Abyss is the other commitment in question, but I think it's a pretty good bet. The game will be published under Paradox's new Arc label.
Surviving the Abyss is available for wishlisting on Steam now, and is slated to launch into early access on January 17, 2023.
