End of Abyss (Hands On Preview)
End of Abyss is our MOST ANTICIPATED GAME OF 2026
Without sounding hyperbolic, after going hands on with End of Abyss at Summer Game Fest, it might be the next evolution of the Metroidvania genre. Metroid catapulted the genre into the limelight in 1986, and then the series once again took the genre to new heights with Metroid Prime in 2002.
During the Summer Game Fest Presentation, End of Abyss jumped off the screen and captured my attention. It looked like an atmospheric twin stick shooter from the likes of playdead or Tarsier Studios, and there is good reason for that, which i’ll get to very shortly.
I had the privilege to sit down and play End of Abyss with Mattias Ottval, one of the co-founders of Section 9 Interactive. He talked about the humble beginnings of the game, the inspirations driving the design and how it evolved from a top down twin stick shooter to a metroidvania. When my time was up with End of Abyss, I knew I had played something special and it comes down to three simple things:
The Studio Pedigree
The Inspirations
The Design Philosophy
SECTION 9 INTERACTIVE
Not revealed in the trailer, but Section 9 Interactive is a small studio that was founded by previous founders of Tarsier Studios including tech leads, art leads and creative directors. I asked Mattias why that wasn’t in the trailer and he said that they didn’t want to lead with this information in the trailer, which revealed a lot about his character. It showed respect for the people who still remained at Tarsier, but it also a humbleness of the achievements that everyone at Section 9 Interactive has accomplished and how they want to End of Abyss to achieve greatness on its own merits.
However, knowing this information about the pedigree of the studio is strongly indicative to the end product that we will receive. This was the first pleasant surprise that I was treated to when I walked into my hands on preview with the Section 9 Interactive debut title slated for 2026. The second pleasant surprise was that the trailer looked like a top down, twin stick shooter, which are a rare breed and this idea was already exciting, but he quickly told me that End of Abyss had evolved into a metroidvania.
INSPIRATIONS
The list of inspiration for End of Abyss is long. From outside the gaming medium, End of Abyss is inspired from Alien, Akira, The Thing and Ghost in The Shell.
The most prominent inspiration is easily Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror film Alien. Obviously the female protagonist, but also just like the crew of the Nostromo who followed a distress signal in the deep reaches of space that fated most of the people aboard, End of Abyss follows a similar structure by investigating a distress signal that says “to the one that hears this, we are waiting for you” although investigating distress signals has become a sci fi trope, that’s because the device works perfectly as it taps into the core of humanity and our innate desire to help. The alien inspiration carries forward with tech like the scanner that feels very retro futuristic.
You play as a young combat engineer called Cel with one L, and you’re part of a team that descends into this abandoned underground facility, but somehow you have become separated and are now isolated in the depths of the unknown. It’s clear that something is very wrong with this facility. It’s clearly been abandoned for a while and some type of parasite has taken over.
Mattias also mentioned how Ghost in the Shell and Akira were big inspirations for End of Abyss and while we only really saw a dystopian futuristic setting, it would be safe to assume that Cel is a cybernetic human similar to The Major from Ghost in The Shell and the upgrades that she will find to go deeper into the Abyss with be augments of her body, but that’s just a theory at the moment
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
This might be a bit of a tangent, but I’m reminded of FX’s The Bear when I think about what makes End of Abyss so great. The best plates in the best restaurants in the world have less elements than more, because less is more.
Mattias tells me that End of Abyss is deeply inspired by the early NES classics The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, two games that strongly embrace the less is more approach. Worlds that were vast, full of mystery, danger and begged to be explored. The focus was on exploration, non linearity and atmosphere. There was something so intriguing about never knowing whats around the next corner and that is echoed in End of Abyss.
Mechanically, the minimalist approach is carried over as well. You begin with a pistol and a scanner. There is a craft bench and a save cube you emerge from. Boss combat also goes for less is more with a souls-like inspiration that requires proper dodge timing and taking advantage of moments of weakness. However, souls-like inspiration ends there as “you don’t lose anything upon death except for distance” Mattias said
Walking around the facility your footsteps echo, the metal creaks, the scanner makes electronic beeps, wind lightly howls through tunnels and disturbing things make disturbing sounds. If there was music in the demo, it was used extremely sparsely because and End of Abyss was better because of it. The atmosphere created immersed you in this isolation just like the original Metroid. Combined with the high tension from limited ammo, low health and slow reload speed
End of Abyss is taking a lot of vintage genre elements and mixing them with modern ones including the map icon from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown where you had the ability to pin the map with a picture. However, in End of Abyss, you will need to scan the item or door and then it will remain on your map with all the pertinent details.
Most importantly a lot of this wouldn’t make much difference if the game didn’t play well, but it does.
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME OF 2026
End of Abyss was easily the best thing I played at Summer Game Fest with its dark, atmospheric tone, paired with unique perspective and twin stick controls. End of Abyss felt as much like survival horror, as it did twin stick shooter as it did a metroidvania, which ultimately meant that it felt like nothing I have experienced before and why it’s my most anticipated game of 2026.
