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Sublevel Zero Redux Switch Review

My introduction to six degrees of freedom, commonly abbreviated to 6DOF, was with the Nintendo 64 release of the excellent Forsaken back in 1998. The game that put the concept into the spotlight was Descent, though, nearly 25 years ago to be exact (1995), along with it being one of the first games to fully use 3D graphics. The best way to describe 6DOF is imagine taking a first-person shooter, but add in the ability to move in any direction. There is no movement locked from the player, enabling complete freedom to explore the whole area of 3D space. In the current market, releases for this type of game are rather low, similar to a few genres from the 90s, to the point that a reboot of Descent is scheduled to release at some point. As with a lot of indie developers, the small team at Sigtrap Games have decided to bring something that was left in history back, but mix in something that is rather popular this generation, the use of procedurally-generated levels with roguelite elements.

Sublevel Zero Redux does not have much of a story. There is a quick introduction that throws some short paragraphs to explain that the universe is tearing itself apart and eating up various systems and transporting them randomly to some other location that could be millions of years away. The human race has spaced out across the universe due to this event, split into clans, and as a unknown pilot for one of these unknown clans the player travels through space looking for ancient technology from the era before the chaos of the universe going haywire. The pilot’s ship is sucked into an abandoned facility and the only way out is to jump through a portal after collecting a flux engine part and jumping into another forgotten facility.

The roguelite elements are used in full swing from the get go. In the beginning, the game offers two ships, with quite a few more to unlock by doing the various challenges, highlighted in the detail section to the side. These are basically the game’s achievements, asking to perform stuff like destroying 300 enemies with plasma weapons, ramming 150 enemies or finishing a level with 85% or more accuracy. Ships will feature different armour values, starting weapons and inventory space to carry more gear. Three difficulties are also available, normal, classic and hard, which alter the game by making weaker enemies, more item drops, cheaper crafting and making nanites (currency) staying in the world longer before they vanish. On top of this are also four campaigns that will unlock to offer more difficulty after beating each one of a few times as it stacks difficulties until eventually getting to the Hardcore campaign.

It’s a good job the game adds additional challenges when beating a run, since a single run, once past the initial short “green” campaign made up of four levels, is only six levels long and can be beaten in less than an hour, sometimes less than 40 minutes depending on how the procedurally generated levels are crafted. These generated levels do make a run feel that bit more unique, helping with the shortness of the campaign, but as with most games that use this method of level design, things become clear on how the algorithm works as levels can sometimes be nothing but long corridors, giant rooms or blocked off doors existing that do not quite blend together as naturally as levels created by hand to be used in something more coherent. A good thing to note is that the map is great at tracking where the player has travelled, filling in as you go, making it easy enough to see which areas have yet to be visited in.

Levels are designed to fully incorporate the six degrees of freedom, so it is a good job that the controls are superb in the zero-g space. Both sticks are used to move the ship around in various directions, with a couple of face buttons to help rotate 90 degrees and another two shoulder buttons to ascend and descend. There is a little learning curve for anyone who has not experienced a 6DOF game, but once it clicks, it becomes second nature to zip and zoom around. The weight of the ship comes across nicely with the increased acceleration and decreasing speed physics, and feels nimble that one can dodge around danger on reaction. One thing to note is that hitting the edges of the map does not cause damage, letting the pilot only have to worry about the enemies around them.

Motion controls have been added to this Switch release to move the cross-hair independently from the ship movement or have it move the entire ship. While testing them both, I personally preferred the former of the options, but I eventually went back to classic controls, since there is a slight bit of auto-aim in place to make it easier to hit some of the smaller targets.

Packed in each level are robotic AI that come in many sizes and are all tasked to get rid of the intruder. Enemies can be waiting in plain sight or sneakingly hidden, coming out to jump from corners or gaps. As progression is made through each of the stages in a run, the enemy begins to become less brain-dead and more dynamic, avoiding danger and being less direct. Engaging with these enemies can sometimes be a little confusing, as just like the levels themselves, enemies are also full of colourful designs, and while they are often simple shapes, they can sometimes be a bit harder to see due to their similar colours to the environment. I do wonder if this is down to the randomness of the level generator.

At the end of each level is the reactor core, basically the boss of the level, but they never come across feeling as the big baddy, since it’s basically a room with lots of enemies and a big core that will blast lasers around the room. It comes across a bit anticlimactic, and it would have been much better if instead there was a random chance of different core types or boss enemies that would get thrown into the mix, since fighting six similar cores, albeit with more lasers coming out of it, is rather unsatisfying.

Key to survival is the loot system, being similar to an action RPG, enemies (or chests) will drop items on death. Ammo and nanites will always drop, while health packs are more rarer, but can be stocked to use on will to replenish health. Weapons will quite often float out in a bubble to collect – hull and engine upgrades are also available as loot – coming with random statistics and rarity. A ship can have four weapons equipped to it, based on either rockets or more rapid firing guns, such as auto-cannons, flame throwers and pulsar rifles, all which can be changed on the fly through the menu options. Inventory is rather limited, often finding having to discard weapons back into the level to be able to then pick up items.

One thing to note is I wish there were a vacuum element around the ship, because nanites are rather small and to collect them requires touching them, which can be a pain when there are so scattered around. Another thing to discover is blueprints, which are upgrades using existing weapons as materials to developer better gear. Blueprints are handy, because their plans stay with each run, enabling a player to be able to faster improve their weapons without the need to have to discover the blueprint again. The implementation of crafting helps to increase the rate loot is given to the player, but is rather limited in practice, and the variety of weapons isn’t that big enough to see crazy things, such as what was seen in Mothergunship and its insane customisation options.

Visuals have transitioned well to the Switch, which is helped by Sublevel Zero Redux‘s distinct pixel-art look that aims for a blocky aesthetic. This is obviously a modern day title, but the aesthetics come across as what I would imagine a hi-res PSX title would be – it’s a funky look that I dig quite a bit. Detail isn’t complex, in fact it is rather flat, simplistic and plastered full of colour giving it a pleasant neon palette that goes to show that a style can work just as well as a title that uses all the fancy latest graphic tech. Using such a style enabled the game to scale well on PC, and so this also takes some of the strain from the Switch’s limited GPU power. Some fidelity had to go, such as the use of anti-aliasing seems none existing, as enemy, weapon and edges of the world are extremely jaggy. Frame rate can also take a hit in some of the busy action scenes, but thankfully were usually short and not low enough to hurt the gameplay. Backing up the cool visuals is a nice sci-fi chip-tune soundtrack that subtly fits well within the game without being dramatic, almost a calming feeling to keep the player focused. A good soundtrack, but not one I would personal listen to away from it.

The developers have done solid work on porting Sublevel Zero Redux to the Switch, keeping performance well, even if the image quality isn’t as clean as on previous systems, its visual style helps cover this up through its design and the controls map well to the hybrid console. This is a game that due to its short runs, makes sense to play on the go as well as on a big TV.

Sublevel Zero Redux has helped remind us that 6DOF gameplay is something that should return in bigger bulk, and fans that enjoy games like Descent will see things here to relish – tight controls, fluid movement and the challenge. The small issues with Sublevel Zero Redux come with its procedurally-generated and roguelite elements, mainly the former, where levels are not as engaging as they could be, and so its down to the punchy, fun combat and the constant supply of improved weapons to keep the game engaging until the end of its multi-campaign, rather than staying after it is over to improve runs.

7 out of 10