SKYHILL: Black Mist is the second installment in the SKYHILL series. The player wakes up inside a huge apartment complex known as ‘Skyhill’, only things are not as they seem. Your daughter has been kidnapped, and the whole building is infested with monsters and cultists. In this non-linear survival game, you have to carve your way through the condominium, solving problems and taking down the beasts that stand in your way.
Release Date: Delayed to June 11th (previously 28/05/2020)
Platform(s): PC
Price: TBC
Developer: Mandragora
Publisher: Klabater
Your character is infected by the ‘black mist’ early on, and it’s transforming him into a monster. To survive, you have to constantly search for more medicine, sneaking and fighting your way through to more resources. Crafting is a feature, leading me to believe it will be about conserving what you can find, and using the least amount on each enemy you come across. Reminiscent of a top-down The Last of Us when it comes to gameplay.
Mandragora are the developers of the SKYHILL world, with the first SKYHILL game receiving Mostly Positive reviews on Steam. Whereas the original SKYHILL was a roguelike sidescroller, the team have decided to tackle the more difficult complex top-down genre. While both take place in an apartment block that’s been overrun with some sort of horrific creature, this time it’s black mist zombies as opposed to mutants.
Mandragora also developed the dungeon-crawler roguelike Freaky Awesome, a title very similar to The Binding of Issac. This more recent release from the studio recieved less acclaim, and only achieved Mixed reviews due to strange design decisions.
Here’s hoping that the return to their original franchise and design hits the spot their first SKYHILL managed to exploit. The team clearly have some experience under their belts, so it makes sense to be confident they’ll deliver on the technical aspects.
The interconnected apartment building is owned by a suspicious bio-tech corporation that controls the entire city. Umbrella Resident Evil vibes, anyone? No doubt it’s Skyhill Inc. that caused this rampant chaos, either on purpose or by accidentally unleashing an experiment. The question remains, what are the creatures that are created by the mist, and what even is the mist. It’d be interesting and somewhat horrifying if at the end we discover the mist only infected us, and we’re killing all the ‘humans’ in the world as we attempt to survive. Be careful what you shank, guys.
The player can use any tool at their disposal to combat these evil beings, SKYHILL is built with the design philosophy that the player can tackle any situation in multiple given ways, as seen in the early gameplay trailers. The general options seem to be the usual stealth, or violent combat. Fire, axes, backstabs, seem to be some of the varied weapons available.
You’re meant to die. Die a lot. It’s obvious Mandragora want the player to learn Souls-Style, through failing and re-spawning back in. Try a path and die? Try a different one, eventually you’ll manage, if you’re stubborn enough.
The world is realised in a quirky, low-polygon manner, keeping it easy to develop whilst still looking pretty damn good. In general, the graphics and animations look smooth, you can tell significant effort has been put into getting the feel of the rooms right, and that’s what half the game is about.
The movement does admittedly look a little bit stiff in places, however. Our protagonist is incredibly stalwart, and doesn’t even seem to react to monstrous beings he’s assaulted by. He may be a hard-ass, but the way he leisurely strolls the same way regardless of whether he’s about to get eaten is the largest flaw I can see so far.
SKYHILL: Black Mist looks like a fine title to continue the evolution of the SKYHILL franchise. If you liked the past games in the series definitely pick this one up, and consider it if you’re into top-down tactical or stealth games.
Available on Steam on May 28th.
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