Anyone who is not trying to sell your something will tell you that ‘punk’ is a mostly meaningless term, mainly popularised by Malcolm McLaren and Vivian Westwood so they could sell bondage gear to teenagers. It is, of course, very punk of me to recognise this. However, this hasn’t stopped every other videogame released in the last 74 years trying to coin their own punk subgenre. The latest to do so is ‘brinepunk’ FPS Abyssus, which seems to have mostly arrived at the terms by being ‘a bit Steampunk, but underwater’. Abyssus looks cool, and so with the power vested in me by the Greggs vegan sausage roll I had for lunch today, I hereby declare that this is the last game allowed to do this. Let’s see if it’s making the most of it, at least.
Abyssus comes from the delightfully-named DoubleMoose (perhaps a distant relative of the triple donkey?), who’ve previously done goofy sandbox Just Die Already. It’s an online co-op shooter where you and up to 3 briney besties play as 19th century ‘brinepunk’ engineers exploring and blasting your way through deep, deep, incredibly deep sea ruins. Here’s some featurepunk from the pagepunk on Steampunk. Uh, Steam:
USE OUTLANDISH GUNS TO KILL OUTLANDISH ENEMIES
Equip yourself with human brinepunk firearms or strange, ancient weapons as you prepare to face foes unlike anything you’ve ever encountered before
EXPERIMENT WITH WEAPON AND CHARACTER MUTATIONS
Modify and customize your guns to suit your playstyle, and harness the power of passive and active abilities to give you an edge over enemies
EXPLORE THE UNDERWATER RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
Influenced by the legend of Atlantis and inspired by Aztec architecture, the world of Abyssus is richly atmospheric and steeped in mystery
If you’re keenpunk, you can actually dive in as soon as tomorrow, too. There are alphas open to everyone at the following times:
- Friday, Dec. 6 – Monday, Dec. 9
- Friday, Dec. 13 – Monday, Dec. 16
- Friday, Dec. 20 – Monday, Dec. 23
You can accesss the alphas via Steam, and the build will let you fight a couple of bosses and minibosses with a selection of weapon mods, modifiers and buffs. Nothing more punk than options, I always say, when asked to rank various usability features on how punk they are.