The city builder genre is a bit…dry, don’t you think? Developer Megapop is here to change that with their upcoming game, Life Below, published by Kasedo Games. In a refreshing twist, the game takes place below the waves, as you play as an ocean guardian named Thalassa, who is tasked by Gaia to resurrect struggling underwater ecosystems using coral, seashells, lures, and much more to attract and satisfy local wildlife and flora. Through the use of quite a few resource management systems, you’ll slowly start to bring life to the sparsely populated ocean floor.
In the demo, you’ll get the chance to get your feet wet within the narrative and gameplay, meeting your newly appointed guardian, who is a bit hesitant to start their task. Thankfully, the tutorial does an admirable job of balancing holding your tentacles and letting you figure out what to do to proceed and see your biome bloom on your own. I’m usually not a big city builder game player, but that’s because the minutia management typically integrated into those type of games isn’t what I’m looking for, but Life Below illustrates and displays the necessary biome properties, energy, and levels in a way that helps make it easier to know what’s holding you back from building that next fish house, if you need to feed your local inhabitants, or when to start regulating the temperature, among other things. Certain buildings will provide energy or feed, allowing you to continuously collect pearls, or give fauna that have been attracted to your biome a place to stay and stick around at. Others will give research points, which help your progress skills, including unlocking new corals or lures. These buildings can help keep temperature levels in check, or control challenges like volcanic activity, infestations of lionship, pH level fluctuations, and more.
As I proceeded through the included biome in the demo, I went from thinking this was a breeze to precisely calculating how many resources I needed to save my reef from total collapse. Throughout it all though, I felt well-equipped to handle the challenges I faced, and make the most of the opportunities of the reef I was managing. I was able to expand out and unlock even more gameplay varieties, which started to give a taste of how deep the game’s systems could go, and the necessary forethought and active management that would be utilized by the player to succeed in new ways. You have little helpers that act as the ferriers for resources, and keeping up with what buildings they prioritize is a big part of whether you flounder or flourish when things get more unpredictable under the ocean. You can “hatch” more of these buddies, but are limited in how many you can have out there. This limit, like the caps on energy, research points, and other resources, are the controlled factors that make reaching milestones more difficult, but satisfying when completed.
What really makes Life Below glimmer is the completely underwater environment you get to build within. The fish and marine life available within the full release of the game will exceed 40 types, and I’m looking forward to seeing my biomes teeming with life that I don’t usually get to enjoy. There will also be a freeplay mode, in addition to playing through Thalassa’s journey in the campaign. I’m so glad, because panicking whilst trying to save my sharky inhabitants is going to be stressful, and the beauty of the underwater designs deserves to have a chance to be relaxing. The story also has full voice acting, and well-written characters that should all have their own story to tell.
Life Below’s demo is playable now, and the release date is to be announced.
