There are video games that, from the very first moments, manage to convey the feeling of standing before something special: a clear idea, a coherent vision, a direction capable of capturing you and not letting you go. Beneath, unfortunately, doesn't belong to this category. From the very first moments, the work of the Portuguese duo Camel 101, the same team behind the somewhat unconvincing Those Who Remain, shows an ambition that never manages to become concrete. Published by Wired Productions, the title emerges as survival horror in first person set in the abysses of the ocean, a setting that, by itself, offers infinite narrative and visual possibilities: the crushing pressure of the depths, the unsettling silence, the unknown lurking in the darkness.
On paper, Beneath promises an experience capable of blending the claustrophobic tension of underwater immersion with the cosmic horror of Lovecraftian origin, nodding to genre milestones like SOMA o F.E.A.R.. In practice, however, the result appears more akin to a technical and conceptual shipwreck, in which good intentions sink under the weight of a fragile and disordered realization.
The build we tested for this preview is in frankly unsightly condition, and calling it that is downright generous. Graphic bugs, optimisation issues, wooden animations, and a dated technical component undermine the ability to appreciate the atmosphere the developers aim to evoke from the outset. And it’s not enough to cite Lovecraft or a palette of muddy greens to evoke the sense of the unknown and madness that such an environment demands.
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The protagonist of Beneath, Noah Quinn, is an expert diver tasked with exploring the wreckage of the German submarine U-571 Der Sturm, a name that immediately evokes mystery and foreboding. On the surface, guiding him via radio is his operator, while his daughter Amber waits aboard the mother ship Pioneer, unaware of the horror that is about to unleash. A few minutes of immersion are enough to transform the scientific mission into a delirium of distorted visions, temporal hallucinations, and indescribable horrors that seep into the ocean’s depths. An abrupt earthquake literally opens the doors to the abyss, dragging Noah into a spiral of madness composed of animated corpses, military conspiracies, and fractured realities — what should be a Lovecraftian epic of despair and cosmic horror. Should be, in fact, because Beneath never truly conveys the sense of fear or wonder that such a setting demands.
The atmospheres, at least at the start, seem to work: rusted, claustrophobic corridors, doors that shut themselves, metallic echoes ringing out in the dark, shadows moving just outside the field of vision. All the necessary ingredients for a good horror are there, but the tension dissolves quickly. The voice acting of Quinn is incoherent and at times embarrassing: it alternates screams of terror with enthusiastic, 90s adventure film squeals, shattering any illusion of immersion. The sound design, which in a title of this kind should be the backbone of the experience, is equally disastrous: instead of building a sense of oppression and unease, it alternates unbalanced sound effects and random noises that end up distracting rather than frightening. The result is an experience devoid of tension, where the direction fails to create memorable moments and the pacing proceeds in fits and starts, constantly broken by non-skippable cutscenes and endless loading screens.
On the gameplay front, Beneath attempts to blend survival and exploration elements, but ends up drowning in sluggishness and frustration. The player can launch flare signals to illuminate the darkest areas, manage limited oxygen and a stamina that inexplicably depletes after just a few metres, and collect resources such as healing syringes, grenades, maintenance kits, and five different types of ammunition. There’s even a pig’s foot, useful in close-quarters combat and, paradoxically, more effective than a pistol: it takes only four shots to eliminate an enemy, compared to five required with a firearm. A balancing choice that could be called absurd is hardly generous, and it completely undermines the sense of weapon progression. Ammunition is scarce, healing is even rarer, and resource management is so poor it forces the player to reload save points or repeat entire sections.
Technically, Beneath appears frozen two generations back. The character models are stiff and poorly animated, lip-syncing is nonexistent, and the classic zombie enemies, with their awkward movements, seem to slide across the floor rather than walk. The environments, dominated by a palette of muddy browns and greens, appear flat and dull, lacking visual depth or chromatic variation. Textures flicker, movement micro-shots are inconsistent, and the graphical options are absurd: no DLSS or FSR, no frame rate cap, no ability to adjust visual quality. Even the hated “dirty lens” effect occupies much of the screen, further degrading scene readability. All of this creates a technically desolate picture, worsened by a general sense of heaviness that has nothing to do with narrative tension. The missions, then, reduce to an unoriginal list of objectives: finding keys, repairing antennas, deciphering codes, retrieving passwords to unlock doors. All already seen, with not a shred of creativity. And as if that weren’t enough, the game is plagued by technical issues: invisible walls blocking passage, textures disappearing, waypoints vanishing into nothingness only to reappear after pausing.
Yet, the real failure of Beneath is not merely technical, but emotional: it doesn’t scare, doesn’t unsettle, doesn’t surprise. The Lovecraftian horror reduces to a series of predictable jump scares, while the sense of danger is almost entirely absent. After a few minutes, the player no longer feels anxiety or curiosity, but mere boredom — that flat, deadened boredom that arises when a video game fails to trigger any emotion.
In short, Camel 101 claims to have been inspired by holy beasts like F.E.A.R., Resident Evil and SOMA, but the result is so far removed from those references as to seem almost an unintentional parody. Beneath would need months, perhaps years of development to reach an acceptable form, but the planned launch in a few weeks leaves little room for optimism. Yet, beneath the surface, an interesting idea exists: that of a cosmic horror set in the depths of the ocean, a place perfect for evoking the sense of insignificance and oppression typical of Lovecraft. But this spark remains smothered by bugs, outdated design and a confused direction. In this state, Beneath is not an abyss to dive into in search of fear, but one to escape from quickly, before disappointment pulls us definitively to the bottom.
