Diving into Beneath’s demo feels less like a leisurely test drive and more like strapping yourself into a wetsuit strapped with a ticking time bomb. As veteran diver Noah Quinn, you emerge into a water-logged oceanographic research station gone dark. Every flicker of your dive light reveals peeling paint, rusted railings, and the unsettling suggestion that you’re never truly alone.
Ammo is precious, oxygen even more so. A single misfire can mean a panicked scramble for cover—and running out of air is just as deadly as any monster lurking in the murk. By the time you claw your way back to the surface, heart pounding in time with the demo’s relentless score, you’ll have a new appreciation for big-budget games that give you a full ammo belt and unlimited breath.
Camel 101 draws directly from horror-shooter greats like F.E.A.R., stripping away anything that doesn’t serve the tension. The gunplay has weight—recoil kicks your aim off-center, making every round feel like it counts. Scavenging for bullets or searching a flooded lab for oxygen canisters presents constant trade-offs. Do you risk a deeper exploration for supplies or make a beeline for a refill station before your lungs start screaming?
Each environment acts as both backdrop and adversary. Half-submerged corridors force you to watch your oxygen meter, while tight ventilation shafts become claustrophobic gauntlets. The sense of vulnerability underpins every twitch in your dive light’s beam.
It’s not just the visuals that get under your skin. Metal groans and pressurized pipes hiss like hidden sea creatures waiting to strike. Radio static crackles with fragmented warnings—are they real colleagues or hallucinations brought on by fear? In those brutal silences, you’ll find yourself holding your breath, muscles coiled, waiting for the next unholy shriek.
Camel 101, known for action-heavy sci-fi shooters such as Dead Effect, opted for a more meticulous approach with Beneath. “We want each encounter to feel like a high-stakes tightrope act,” says a Camel 101 representative. “Every decision—push on for supplies or play it safe—could be your last.”
This mindset extends to environmental storytelling rather than cheap jump scares. Rusted valves, waterlogged research logs, and cryptic audio diaries piece together the station’s tragic history. The dread comes not from sudden shock but from the ever-present sense of something ancient stirring just beyond your light.
On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, Beneath aims for 4K at 60 FPS, using dynamic lighting and volumetric fog to turn every corner into a potential death trap. DualSense adaptive triggers mimic the resistance of your dive gun, and haptic feedback hammers in time with your dropping oxygen levels. Minor texture pop-ins on consoles serve as a reminder that this is still an indie project in development—but they never shatter the immersion.
Even the most pulse-pounding demo can stumble if the core loop grows repetitive. Ammo scavenging must stay urgent, not routine. Level design needs to mix tight corridors with wider areas to avoid a feeling of monotony. And story beats must deepen the mystery without over-relying on fetch quests or backtracking.
Beneath’s free Steam demo is a masterclass in resource-driven horror. It hints at a single-player experience that marries Lovecraftian dread with smart, weighty combat and next-gen immersion features. Play before August 4, 2025, and prepare to question every gasp for air—and every decision you make in the crushing depths.
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