From Reanimal to the Grace sections of Resident Evil Requiem, I’ve spent a lot of the last year feeling helpless in games. There’s something very compelling about the rush of being a defenseless little guy just trying to get by in a big, scary world (just look at how excited everyone is about Alien Isolation 2). Sometimes, however, I’d rather be a scrappy little guy taking on that big, scary world with a shotgun and grenades.

End of Abyss is an atmospheric top-down 3D twin-stick shooter Metroidvania, coming to XBOX Series X|S on October 1, 2026. Published by Epic, it is the debut of Malmö-based Section 9 Interactive, co-founded by brothers Mattias and Marcus Ottval and Gustaf Heinerwall, all three of whom previously worked together at Tarsier Studios (Little Nightmares, Reanimal) as leads in programming, art and game direction, respectively. I got to play a brief demo from several hours into the game recently at Summer Game Fest: Play Days with Mattias walking me through and explaining the game as we went. The demo focused on the nuts-and-bolts basics of combat and exploration.

The game is set in a dark, sprawling, underground complex. The section I played was particularly industrial, as I sought to find and activate three power cores to bring a reactor back online. Protagonist Cel is a “young combat technician” exploring the facility, armed at first with a recharging pistol and wearing a big spherical helmet, reminiscent of an old diving helmet. With the perspective pulled relatively far back from the character, that kind of broad gesture in her silhouette is a smart and efficient way to make her design pop while still looking broadly realistic.

The lineage from the three founders’ work at Tarsier is immediately obvious: End of Abyss is dripping with atmosphere. Everything was perfectly grim and drab and spooky. Shambling, misshapen mutants stalked the facility, lurking in the menacing darkness. I was not in the least surprised to learn from Ottval that some of our shared favorite sci-fi horror films served as aesthetic foundation for the game: “We like the same kind of things, and it’s very much the things we grew up with, like the Alien movies, ‘The Thing.’ Those types of movies are very fond to us, and I think that’s the main inspiration for the atmosphere.” “Alien” is a particularly good comp for all the great industrial detail in the environments.

As I learned when I interviewed Reanimal’s leads earlier in the year, Tarsier’s work is very much focused on crafting a series of big, cinematic moments, with mechanically simple gameplay stringing them together. End of Abyss takes a lot of aesthetic cues from their work at Tarsier, but then layers in a lot more traditional action and exploration gameplay. As a twin-stick shooter, you walk with the left and aim in 360 degrees around you with the right. On face buttons there is a dodge roll and limited-use healing, which recharges when you use save pods around the map.

In addition to the unlimited-use energy pistol, I also acquired a limited-ammo shotgun that was necessary for tougher enemies, or managing crowds with its knockback. I first found flares, which could be used to illuminate areas and distract enemies, and then grenades. All this gear is supported by a crafting economy of various materials collected from the environment and enemies and spent at stations to craft new ammo and equipment, as well as unlocking permanent upgrades.

In terms of exploration, there was a lot of classic Metroidvania on display: locked doors and keys, backtracking and shortcuts, scanning things to update your map with informative icons, etc. With limited time for the demo, Mattias was proactively directing me the whole time, so I didn’t really get a sense for the rhythm of exploration, but it all seemed familiar and well executed.

Crucially, all the movement and combat felt great. Controls are snappy and smooth, and I very quickly felt pretty slick dodging past enemies and snapping back to shoot them. I elegantly solved one of the more challenging encounters in my session against a room full of tougher enemies by kiting them around and taking out three or four in one go with a well-placed grenade. Part of why the combat feels so expressive is that so much of the gear had different modes of use on a single button: holding fire on the pistol charges up a powerful shot that temporarily drains your ability to shoot, or the grenade button can be tapped for a close toss or held for a farther one.

Combining the exquisite craft and atmosphere of Little Nightmares with a rock-solid and expressive twin-stick combat system that lets me feel like a badass is gaming cocktail I didn’t know that I needed. Now that I’ve had a little taste and know that the foundation is solid, I can’t wait to see what horrors await deeper in the facility when End of Abyss arrives on XBOX Series X|S in October.

End of Abyss

Epic Games Publishing

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$29.99

Pre-order

In the depths of a mysterious underground compound, a mission to investigate disturbances of unknown origin spirals into a harrowing descent through a broken and abandoned world. Play as the young combat technician, Cel, as she uncovers the truth behind the facility’s derelict areas and confronts the monstrous creatures that roam them. Enter the Abyss Descend into the halls of a sprawling complex, where broken machines whisper to you from the depths, and nothing you encounter is fully human. Fight to Survive Outmatched by the twisted horrors you face, you must upgrade your gear and adapt, pushing your limits just to stay alive against the crushing pressure of the facility you’re trapped within. Explore Lost Paths Navigate branching paths and uncover hidden areas using your Scanner and the tools you unlock along the way. Pathways open as you grow stronger, allowing you to return to forgotten corridors and secrets once sealed away. Developed by Section 9 End of Abyss delivers a focused and immersive experience shaped by a small team in Malmö Sweden, led by experienced developers known for crafting hit games.