Epic Games and Section 9 have an atmospheric action-adventure in End of Abyss | preview

During the Summer Game Fest showcase, Section 9 Interactive debuted its upcoming atmospheric action-adventure, End of Abyss, with a brand new trailer.

I was able to get a hands-on preview of the game from developer Section 9. Epic Games Publishing plans to launch End of Abyss in 2026 for the PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Players can wishlist on each platform. The game has a top-down view of a character with a big helmet who has to explore a mysterious underground compound. It’s set in a dark sci-fi world with an emphasis on exploration, supported by engaging and tense combat.

Mattias Ottvall, co-creator of End of Abyss at Section 9 Interactive, showed me the game. He showed me the game for a while and then I took over the demo as the player. From the very start, it had a spooky look. I knew I was going to run into things in the dark that were going to be scary.

In the depths of the compound, you are sent on a mission to investigate disturbances of unknown origin. It spirals into a harrowing descent through a broken and abandoned world. Players take on the role of the young combat technician, Cel, as she uncovers the truth behind the facility’s derelict areas and confronts the monstrous creatures that roam them.

Her team has been drawn to the spot because of cryptic messages that might be pleas for help. Cel has to descend into the halls of a sprawling complex, where broken machines whisper from the depths, and nothing players encounter is fully human. In the cinematics of the trailer, you see the grotesque zombie-like creatures that used to be human.

Now they’re something that you have to give a wide berth to. You can scan them and find out more about what afflicts them, and discover whether one is likely to be really dead or just lurking and waiting for prey.

Cel has to fight to survive. Outmatched by twisted horrors, players must upgrade their gear and adapt, pushing their limits just to stay alive against the crushing pressure of the facility you’re trapped within. Thankfully, there is plenty of ammo around. But it’s easy to run out during combat, especially since it’s fighting in close quarters much of the time.

The demo took place about 10% into the full game. Cell has been separated from her other crew members and has to go it alone. She has a scanning device that can identify just about everything — even things embedded in the walls — and that encourages exploration.

It was very tough for me to aim, as I had to unlearn how to play a shooter. Normally, I play Call of Duty and pull the left trigger of a controller to aim. But this time, it made my character do a forward roll. Instead, I had to use the right stick to aim, and that was pretty hard, as it’s hard to line up a shot when you are looking at the action from above. Shooting a pistol, I had to waste a first shot and then adjust quickly to start putting bullets into monsters.

I fared much better when Ottval gave me a shotgun and a lot of ammo. But as you see in the trailer, if you have a giant bulbous enemy, you can shoot it and a piece will break off and start attacking you. So then you have more than one enemy coming at you. And if you shoot one of the bigger characters, it can split into two equal-sized characters to come after you. And then there were small creatures that I had to either precisely shoot or stab with a knife.

All of that took a lot of time, thanks to the top-down view. And it meant that I wasted a lot of time trying to line up shots when the enemies closed on my and hit me. With the boss fight, just a few hits from the boss took me down. I also had to constantly run away from the creatures, stab myself in the arm with a shot and restore some of my health.

Fortunately, if you die, you can respawn pretty close to your death spot. There are Save Stations where you can respawn if you die. All your progression is saved, as is anything that you picked up and put in your inventory. If you unlocked a door, it will still be open when you get back to it.

And players must explore lost paths. You have to use your scanner a lot to detect things that you wouldn’t other see. For instance, there’s a spot on a wall. And it’s an indicator that it’s important. If you scan the wall, you can find that it’s weak. If you find explosives, you can blow a hole through that wall.

The monsters look scary in the trailer, but not so much from above. Yet I found that they were so creepy and the space so confined that they made me panic when they came after me. In that sense, it felt almost like a horror game.

Players can navigate branching paths and uncover hidden areas using their scanner and the tools unlocked along the way. Pathways open as players grow stronger, allowing them to return to forgotten corridors and secrets once sealed away.

Section 9 Interactive is a small studio founded by veteran developers from Little Nightmares, Little Nightmares 2, and LittleBigPlanet PS VITA. Their ambition and passion is to create games with compelling visuals and interesting worlds to explore. I don’t know all that much about the story, other than Cel is trying to find contact in a very spooky place filled with things that are trying to kill her. That’s scary.