Here's the pitch for Blind Descent: Stranded beneath the surface of Mars, in a secretive ecosystem unknown to humanity, you and up to three friends must survive and thrive in an unfamiliar alien environment while figuring out the fate of a missing exploration team.
"What begins as a desperate search for missing crew members evolves into a journey of symbiosis with a world that resist, adapts, and remembers," said developer Pokuch in a press release.
Which is a pretty cool new idea to me. I mean, everyone knows about the hollow Earth where dinosaurs and stuff live, but hollow Mars? Never heard of it.
A lot of what the developers have to say about Blind Descent emphasizes what they're calling the "symbiosis system" whereby parts of the environment interact with each other and react to your actions and presence. Survival won't just be collecting resources, it'll be learning how the creatures and plants of the Martian underground behave. The trailer emphasizes how players will have to become part of the reactive ecosystem in order to survive by gaining abilities and mutations from biological phenomena.
I'm particularly intrigued by the idea of "shelters with consequences," as the developers put it. "Build log-by-log in a world where nature reclaims what's left unattended. Your bases can be overgrown, devoured, or corrupted," they say. Why am I intrigued? Because a huge part of any construction in a natural area is just the pure upkeep of stopping vines, trees, and critters from putting holes in your house and burrowing under your fences and uprooting your garden. I'd love to see that reflected in a survival-craft videogame.
In addition to the ecosystem, the underground cavern environment will play a big role: You'll use dynamic climbing equipment to scale vertical shafts, navigate broken terrain, and cross gaps in the landscape.
Blind Descent is the debut title from independent Turkish development studio Pokuch—and has apparently been in development since 2019. It will be published by META Publishing, a subsidiary of RPG developer Owlcat Games.
You can find Blind Descent on Steam, where it will release in early access.
