Explore at your leisure
Belowwas one of 2018’s most perplexing, punitive, and challenging games. The premise is simple — keep going downward — but the execution is meticulous and frustrating. Jordan’s review is dripping with trepidation, like Belowis a game that he wanted so badly to recommend but just couldn’t.
PlayStation 4 owners get to take a crack at Below, but with one major alleviation to all the agony: Developer Capybara is adding an “Explore” mode to Below. Capybara says Explore is “optimized to encourage exploration,” and that it’s meant for players who want to see allBelowhas to offer “without suffering the exquisite pain of [the] original design.” It’s an overt admission that Belowwas too tough, probably even moreso than its creator intended. For those who relish a good challenge (or who just want too see Belowin its original form), that will still be available in “Survive” mode.
All this happens when Belowcomes to PlayStation 4 sometime later this spring. PC and Xbox One players aren’t left in the dark, though. They’ll also get the Explore mode update, presumably upon PS4’s release. All of the discovery with only a fraction of the tedium.