You're put into the shoes of a female African special forces operator who apparently has fallen into an ancient mystical temple with the rest of her team and was the last to wake up from unconsciousness. The third-person perspective, African music and the bells and whistles of the Unreal Engine create a very unique atmosphere, something sadly lacking from AAA titles over the past 20 years.
The general movement of your character and weapons handling is competent and serviceable for what it is. The puzzles are not more difficult than standard modern video-game puzzles (ie. much easier than in the old days) and it's clear from the attention to detail in the story and mythology there's a more than passing religious significance to the developers woven into the plot. I think despite the likes of Western-themed adventurers exploring parts of Africa, nothing like this has been done before.
As this is an indie I overlook it not having features like professional voice-actors, movie-quality cut-scenes, re-mappable controls, no mouse in menus and some general feel of jankiness that just can't be ironed out by a team of just three devs. The environments are repetitive and at least from what I saw were somewhat confusing which was compounded by a map that was probably too simplistic for a 3D action game and didn't show your character's exact position/direction in a traditional way. While I do appreciate someone doing something differently, it should never be so obtuse as to not give enough information at a glance.
I only played about an hour of the game which seems to be 25% of it's playtime and this was due to the relative difficulty I have with souls-like games and my aversion to the survival-horror genre. It'll be fun for people who like to have enemies blink into existence from the mist and darkness and take a quarter of your health in one shot. It might have helped if the sound mix didn't confuse me into thinking something was in a different direction to where it was but it still meant my character was not long for life.
Final Verdict: It's a shame that to find anything unique and new these days, you have to delve into the virtual bargain bin, but this is a game that a fan of either or both survival horror or souls-like (but with guns) should investigate for as little as €2.
Technicals: 60 mins through EGS Windows 11 with an RTX4070Ti @ 80FPS
Availability: Outliver: Tribulation is available from Steam for €7.79. Review copy granted Free from Epic Games in Oct 2024.
