Industria

Developed By: Bleakmill

Published By: Headup

Price: £15.49 / $19.99

Shooter

 

Being able to weave a well-thought out story with an exciting first-person shooter campaign can be quite the tight rope to walk. Very few games can do it so well, providing fast paced, high octane action alongside a gripping story. Those I can think of off the top of my head are Bioshock, Half Life 2, and Singularity. With influence from Half Life itself, Industria is one of those games that try to walk this rope. Do it succeed or plummet? 

Nice And Shiny

We’ll start off by getting the graphics out of the way. Industria is a rather good looking game, and one that is boosted by its phenomenal environmental design. However, it does have its issues, mainly the lighting system which they use. I think I’ve talked about it before, but lighting is the most important thing when it comes to making your game look good. If the lighting is bad, the game will just look bad, no matter how good the textures are. 

The lighting here works sometimes, but not so much other times. It’s really hit or miss, and while it does hit a lot, it also has plenty of misses. However, when it hits, it really does hit, providing a rather beautiful view of Industria’s setting. 

What takes me out of this setting is Industria’s poor optimization. Even on the lowest setting, with the DLSS set to Ultra-Performance, there will be multiple times where the game will chug its way through, with hiccups along the way. It really brought me out of this immersive world, as it was hard to actually immerse myself when the game couldn’t even keep up with the pacing. 

Welcome to Berlin

The story of Industria begins during the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The protagonist, Nora, receives a call from her romantic partner, Walter, about how their mega computer ATLAS has gone out of control. Nora rushes to the lab to help, only to find Walter had gone through a portal they created themselves. Following him, she finds herself not only out of place, but out of time, in a world overtaken by machines. 

Upon arriving to this world, you get a sense of familiar presentation likened to that of Bioshock. A new world, wrought with things that are not very friendly towards you, except for one person who talks to you throughout most of the game.

As you go through this strange portal, you are suddenly in a place you don’t recognize. It almost reminded me of Bioshock, but a little less of that game’s spectacular atmosphere and presentation. Industria came close to what that game could do, and did a fine job of it. 

I will say, the environmental design of this game is pretty good. It set out and succeeded at what it wanted to do, which was make you feel alien in your own world. It took this rich architecture and married it to this almost industrial look that works quite well. Every inch of the world is covered in machinery, and you feel quite unwelcome despite it being your world, and did a fine job telling a story just by environments alone.

Machines In Mystery

Honestly, the story of Industria itself provides plenty of mystery from the beginning. What’s going on? Why did this happen? Where am I? All of these questions are mostly provided via the environments themselves, and some are even answered by the stray note you find. 

I am not too fond of the note-finding method of storytelling, but there really was no other way if they wanted more information to be given. What I did enjoy is the environmental storytelling; spotting details in the background, so you can see something wild just outside of the game world, and wonder why the hell it’s there. There are even points in the story where you are taken to this strange office setting. There you hear murmurs and are brought to a theater that gives a metaphorical performance of what’s happening.

Missing The Mark

Sadly, most of these questions go unanswered, with nothing really satisfying to fill the void the loss of that knowledge provides. That paired with an ending that feels abrupt, and just at the point where it feels like the story is picking up, all makes what was built up just feel meaningless. Those office moments didn’t mean much as they didn’t say a whole lot. The game is only two to three hours long, so there’s not much you can fit within that timespan. 

I’m not saying the game needed more content, even if that would help flesh things out more. There are plenty of stories that are short and fulfilling. It just feels like with how the story is paced, there should’ve been more. There felt like there was no falling action, no climax even. Just the rising action, random side things, and then we’re straight to the conclusion. 

What helped alleviate this, though only for a little, were the performances of the two leads, Nora and Brent. What turns into a round of questions becomes a relationship worth seeing to the end. Brent helps Nora, and vice versa, with each learning more and more about each other as time goes on. Their banter actually becomes cordial and even a little humorous by the end. I wish there was more so we could get more of that. 

Bashing Robots

Outside of the narrative are the more gameplay-oriented parts, like the gunplay as well as the small amount of puzzles and exploration that you can do. The combat itself is fine. You only get five weapons, but I don’t have an issue with that. They each have their use that I don’t favor one over the other. I even used the dinky pistol a good few times. So, yeah, the combat was decent. Nothing special, but shooting guns did feel pretty good. 

However it didn’t feel fully satisfying, for the damage they wrought upon enemies wasn’t as impactful as I had hoped. The most you’d get is an arm coming off or them falling to pieces in a rather flaccid fashion. The hit registration on them is pretty weak, to be honest. 

In addition to that, while there is enemy variety, there isn’t much to really rave about. I think there are about four or five different types to come across. There aren’t many ways to approach each one, it’s mostly just shoot until dead. The only thing that really left an impact were the charging enemies. They just make this creepy noise and then charge, which does actually make me panic a bit. 

Lastly, in terms of enemies, I just want to talk about how poor their AI is. If these are supposed to be the oppressive force that people feared for years, that’s going to have to be shown in their skill, which they have none. Like I said, shoot until dead, and they usually let you do it for the most part. Sometimes they will even run into a wall.

Exploring Berlin

The other side of gameplay is exploration and puzzles, but I’ll say there is very little of both. The game is pretty linear, without many things to go off and explore. Mostly it will just be for extra ammo, flashlight batteries, or a note, not much else. 

Actually, speaking of flashlight batteries, I was wondering why this game even has a battery system. At almost no point was I running out, there were so many, and the one time I did run out, it only made the game more annoying to explore. So I just don’t understand why they put one in, instead of just giving us a flashlight that just works indefinitely. 

Not So Puzzling

As for the puzzles, they aren’t complex, but that might be the point. You have an inventory that holds records and items that you can use on things. The hardest of them would probably be the physics ones where you stack things, but only because the physics are a bit broken and things will just bounce.

When they bounce, they make a hell of a lot of noise. The sound design for Industria is fine for what it has. The guns go bang, the robots go bang, things that bang together bang. But what I think I like most about it is specifically the sounds of the world around you. 

The towns you traverse are covered in machinery, and not just ones that want to kill you. Industria takes place in an average town, but they find a way to make you feel unwelcome. The sounds of the machinery are alien and unsettling, sometimes making you feel like an enemy is just behind you even. 

To add onto that, the music does a fantastic job of setting the tone. Nora is confused and alone in this, save for the voice through her radio, and the music emphasizes this. Most of the soundtrack are lone notes, played individually, sometimes with vocals. The sparsity of instruments really push this feeling of isolation. 

Malfunctions

Now, I’ve already mentioned the poor optimization of Industria, but there were other problems that plagued my two and a half playthroughs. Glitches and crashes were present throughout, and did ruin my enjoyment, especially when the checkpoint system is quite lax. This game still requires a hell of a lot of polish even after the few patches that came out fixed some issues. 

I remember playing the demo of this game and finding myself intrigued by the world, not exactly with the gameplay. So when I finally got to the full game and it amounted to some interesting parts but overall nothing else, I felt disappointed. That, with all the other added problems was actually kind of a bummer. 

However, I do see an inkling of intrigue in this game that just needs more to fully flesh out its story and world. If they polish it to a shine, fix the optimization, and maybe even add a bit more to the story, I’d say I can call this game at least worth a buy on a sale.

Currently, though, I can’t say it’s worth purchasing. Industria is a narrative-driven first-person-shooter whose narrative is somewhat lacking and its shooting is only just fine. It really wants to be like Half Life, and in some areas I can see it, even feel it. Yet it doesn’t quite get there. I would like to see what this team can do next time now that they are more experienced. I’m sure they can come out with something special once they have the capability to fulfill their vision.

 

Verdict

Not Quite There

 

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Reviewed by Freelance7. Game provided by Headup.