No Small Roles celebrates the RPG experiences being created by small teams in the indie space.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has done wonders in terms of inspiration and awareness of classic CRPG and tabletop RPG stylings. Many of the RPGs I find on itch.io these days take old-school inspiration, and while they may not have been directly affected by something like Baldur’s Gate 3, they shine a bit brighter as I, and others, seek out a more classical RPG experience as a result of that game’s impact.
Oh, and I love horror, so when one delves into the darker corners of fantasy, it’s a particular sweet spot for me. Cyclopean The Great Abyss from Schmidt Workshops ticks those boxes for me, and its inspirations hark back to the earliest days of the RPG genre.
Presented in a 1-bit style and taking inspiration from the likes of Ultima, Cyclopean The Great Abyss is a 2D/3D hybrid of old where overworld exploration is handled in a top-down two-dimensional fashion, and the dungeon crawling is a 3D first-person scrolling turn-based adventure. The plot sees you in the sleep socks of an old dreamer who finds himself trapped beneath the Dreamlands in the titular Great Abyss.
To escape, your dreamer must utilize the resources at his disposal and find a way back up into the Dreamlands and hopefully back to regular life beyond that. The Great Abyss is a vast, unforgiving world, and it’s full of horrifying Eldritch monsters, so you best be prepared to go through a hell of an ordeal to get out of this nightmare.
Cyclopean The Great Abyss Early Access Trailer
At the start of the game, your dreamer is chosen at random, and they will have some basic abilities and equipment. There is the option to reroll if you’re not entirely happy with your lot, but one way or another, you’re stuck playing some variation of an upper-crust Englishman fighting off the horrors of the Great Abyss.
The game also features alliances, and if your roll is fortunate enough, you’ll get to start with one. This gives you a denizen of the Great Abyss to fight by your side, and while you can find these in the world itself, having a friend to fight your foes from the start is especially useful in the early going as you find your bearings. You need to find and read particular books in the Great Abyss if you want any new alliances during your journey, though.
With that set, it’s into action, and Cyclopean The Great Abyss plops you into the overworld that manages to display just how vast and alien it should feel with clever use of its 1-bit visuals. But the meat of the experience is in the dungeon-crawling, and the stark contrast of a simple color scheme is put to good use in making the content of these dungeons feel unsettling, dingy, and an all-around place you’d rather not be.
Despite the monstrous appearance of those you encounter in the dungeons, they don’t always have to meet the sharp end of your blade. You can talk your way out of trouble in the right circumstances, and given the simplified nature of Cyclopean The Great Abyss, it’s surprising how much tension can breed in these moments you try to weasel out of a fight. The same applies to using stealth to bypass them. It’s old-school, bare-bones stuff, but the writing and presentation lend encounters some weight.
While this is a largely uncompromising old-school CRPG experience, there are occasional knowing nods to the present-day world of RPGs that will help acclimate those new to this kind of thing or in need of a gentle reintroduction.
There’s a few good indie RPG projects out there taking it back to the oldest days of the genre, but for me, Cyclopean The Great Abyss has that horror leaning that makes it stand out. It’s still a work in progress, but I’ve been quite into what’s already there.
Cyclopean The Great Abyss is available now on itch.io and Steam.
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