Info about Stirring Abyss:

Official game description:
New Enemy Now Available
=======================
About the Game
==============
Stirring Abyss is an indie tactical squad-based game with strong RPG elements in which you uncover the ancient mysteries of the depths depicted in the classic vein of Lovecraftian horror.  
You take charge of the surviving crew of the USS Salem, a U.S. Navy submarine that sinks while on a top secret research mission during the early years of the Cold War. They find themselves surrounded by the ruins of a forgotten civilization, their vessel too badly damaged to escape the seabed.  
In Story Mode, you slowly unravel the mysteries of the depths in a desperate quest to rescue your missing crewmembers and fix the crippled Salem. The choices you make determine the fate of your crew - and the entire world.  
Every expedition lives or dies by the strength of its crew. You have a diverse array of character traits and skills at your disposal, each opening exciting new options in both combat and in story events. As you delve ever deeper, you may also subject your crew to powerful but grisly mutations; the price of survival is high, and no one escapes the abyss unchanged.  
The horror and the void which hide in deep waters can become too much to bear, and your crew may experience episodes of exhaustion and insanity. Will their psyche get stronger, or will it be forever damaged? A game of dice with Fate itself will determine the outcome.  
Salvaged resources can be turned into weapons, armor, or other useful supplies - or they can be used to repair and upgrade the Salem, giving your crew a crucial edge in the fight for survival. The more you explore the abyss during the missions, the more chances you have to find the lost treasures of the deep.  
The hauntingly beautiful environment holds many secrets and mysteries to explore, but danger lurks just outside the feeble circles of light you bring with you. Be wise, and use your skills to scout the black waters and light up the path: unseen terrors may be hiding just out of sight.  
The Endless Mode pits your crew in a roguelike battle against an army of neverending enemies that only grow stronger as you progress. It is the ultimate test of strategic ability, as you not only choose how to improve your own squad, but also pick your poison as to what powers your foes gain.

Release date: Oct 29, 2020

Categories: Turn-based Tactical RPG, Lovecraftian Horror, Squad Management, Resource Management, Base Building, Roguelike, Character Progression, Crafting

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 60; verdict: Tinkering Required; summary: The game has mixed feedback: some Linux users report flawless out-of-box performance, but there are significant issues including game-breaking black screen bugs after tutorial or character death, and unreadable translation text requiring manual file editing. These issues force tinkering and break gameplay, warranting a 'Tinkering Required' rating.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $10.00 - $20.00
  - Reasoning: Multiple reviews suggest the game is not worth its full price, recommending discounts or a price of $10-$15. Evidence includes explicit mention of $10-$15 as fair for similar titles, advice to buy on discount or during sales, and a description of limited content (10 hours of fun). The community thus views a base range of $10-$20 as fair, aligning with perceived value and feature depth.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 40.0h
  - Story completion: 19.0h
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: 19.0h
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides multiple playtime reports: one player took 40 hours to complete the game with all side missions (gameCompletion), another finished the main story in 19 hours on Normal (storyCompletion), and a third mentions 19 hours to complete the game on Normal, which aligns with the story completion time. The endgame metric (19 hours) is inferred from the 19-hour completion claim, as it represents the time to finish the main story. Session length is unsupported, as no evidence specifies typical play session duration.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: Stirring Abyss has a steep early learning curve that may frustrate newcomers, but enjoyment reliably increases once players level up divers, unlock sub upgrades, and gain familiarity with the survival-tactical systems, typically after the first few hours or a handful of runs.
  - Stance: Clicks after
  - Anchor: Mid to late game / after a few runs
  - Time to anchor: N/A
  - Friction: steep learning curve; limited tutorial; early mission resource scarcity; no healing between missions at start; slow exploration movement
  - Unlock drivers: character leveling; unlocking sub healing room; learning system mechanics; getting a feel after initial runs
  - Conditions: learning curve steepness; tutorial quality; player tolerance for repetition; willingness to restart runs; appreciation of atmosphere
- Player Archetypes:
  - Tactical Challenges Seeker (buy)
    - Motivation: To test their tactical skills against the game's hardest challenges.
    - Playstyle: Plays on higher difficulty from the start for tension, seeks tactical depth, and optimizes strategies.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: Hardcore-Strategie-Über-General-Brainiac-Maschine
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Lovecraft Narrative Immersed (buy)
    - Motivation: To experience a deeply immersive Lovecraftian narrative and setting.
    - Playstyle: Plays at a relaxed pace, exploring the underwater setting and absorbing the Lovecraftian atmosphere while managing game systems.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: Stirring Abyss prequel/comparison mentioner; 原：旧日支配者之治
  - XCOM Veteran Comparative (buy)
    - Motivation: To experience a fresh twist on the XCOM tactical formula.
    - Playstyle: Approaches the game with XCOM-like tactical expectations, comparing mechanics, and seeking novelty within the genre.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: XCOM; Xenonauts
  - Resource Manager Strategist (sale)
    - Motivation: To master the resource economy and make strategic decisions under scarcity.
    - Playstyle: Focuses on efficient resource allocation, base building, and careful stat management rather than grinding.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Excellent Lovecraftian atmosphere (weight 0.97): Players consistently praise the game's oppressive, atmospheric dread and faithful adaptation of Lovecraftian themes. This is the most frequently mentioned positive aspect across multiple clusters.
- Engaging leveling and mutations (weight 0.52): The character progression systems, including leveling and mutation mechanics, are praised for being exciting and offering meaningful customization.
- Solid tactical combat (weight 0.41): The turn-based tactical combat is consistently described as engaging, with careful positioning, resource management, and effective mechanics.
- Successful X-COM inspiration (weight 0.39): Many players enjoy the synthesis of old X-COM (especially Terror from the Deep) gameplay with Lovecraftian elements, evoking nostalgia and a polished experience.
- Appealing art style (weight 0.32): The vintage-inspired art style and attractive visuals are well-received, evoking nostalgia while looking smooth and polished.
- Great music and sound (weight 0.25): The audio design, including music and sound effects, is highly commended for enhancing immersion and the Lovecraftian mood.
- Overall fun and entertaining (weight 0.22): General sentiment is that the game is enjoyable, immersive, and worth playing.
- Satisfying story narrative (weight 0.2): Players appreciate the story mode's compelling narrative, impactful ending, and moral choices that affect outcomes.
- Sanity system fits theme (weight 0.14): The sanity mechanic is noted for its thematic integration with Lovecraftian horror, adding tension and depth to gameplay.
- Fun ship upgrades (weight 0.14): Upgrading the ship and repurposing rooms is enjoyable, adding a satisfying base management layer.
- Diverse mission variety (weight 0.13): Missions offer good variety for a single playthrough, preventing monotony.
- Procedural maps add replayability (weight 0.13): Procedurally generated maps keep gameplay fresh and enhance replayability.
- Epic boss encounters (weight 0.13): Boss fights are described as epic and hardcore, providing challenging highlights.
- Ideal game length (weight 0.13): Players appreciate that the game is relatively short, which prevents it from becoming monotonous.

Common complaints:
- Unbalanced and extreme difficulty (weight 0.85): Difficulty is misaligned: normal is too easy for some, yet hard is brutal. Broken builds trivialize one mode while other builds are useless.
- Misleading difficulty and progression (weight 0.63): Normal mode is too easy, but hard is too punishing. Difficulty spikes and fluctuations lead to frustration.
- Repetitive gameplay and content (weight 0.62): Players report repetitive gameplay due to limited enemy types, similar maps, and monotonous missions. This leads to boring combat and lack of variety.
- Limited and useless builds (weight 0.6): Players note few viable builds, with many mutations and items being useless. This restricts strategic depth and leads to monotony.
- Poor enemy and map diversity (weight 0.52): Feedback indicates there are fewer enemy types and maps feel samey, contributing to monotonous combat. The lack of variety reduces replayability.
- Clunky controls and interface (weight 0.43): Controls feel janky with misclicks, overlapping windows, small fonts, and unclear character selection. Navigation is not ideal.
- Visual and UI issues (weight 0.39): Dated graphics, small unreadable text, font problems, and immersion-breaking sprites. Visual style can hinder navigation.
- Lack of tutorials and explanations (weight 0.39): Crucial game mechanics are not explained, causing confusion about mutations, enigma board, air system, and skill checks. Players may miss important features.
- Poor save and load system (weight 0.35): Auto-save forces ironman mode, limited slots, and loading last save only. Reloading to fix mistakes is inconvenient or impossible.
- Limited content and low replayability (weight 0.35): Game offers few levels, scenarios, and missions, resulting in about 20 hours of content. Roguelike mode feels like filler.
- Poor soundtrack and sound design (weight 0.32): Soundtrack is monotonous and too short, and sound design is simplistic. Lack of voice acting also noted.
- Underdeveloped character progression (weight 0.3): Low maximum levels, few classes, limited skill sets, and shallow progression. Resource farming feels more important than character growth.
- Restrictive air and resource systems (weight 0.28): Limited air forces rushing main objective, and lack of supply missions restricts resources. This limits exploration.
- Underwhelming story and setting (weight 0.26): Story is Lovecraft-lite, lacks depth, and choices are purely technical. Some dislike the theme or art style.
- Limited combat tactics and pacing (weight 0.26): Combat pacing feels slow, with lengthy encounters and melee focus lacking tactical positioning. Missing high-percentage shots adds frustration.
- Underwhelming mutation randomness (weight 0.24): Rerolling mutations costs valuable resources, and mutations are often useless, forcing save scumming.
- Unfair enemy mechanics (weight 0.22): Enemies always hit unless debuffed, kite players, and can attack unseen. This creates unfair difficulty.
- Bugs and translation issues (weight 0.21): Frequent bugs like characters stuck in turn, crashes from translator mod, and rough translation in places.
- Low item slots and gear options (weight 0.17): Only two item slots (rarely three) and most items useless. Limited equipment options restrict strategy.
- Missing official license and localization (weight 0.09): No official Cthulhu license and no Polish language version noted as minor negatives.

Gameplay feedback:
- Submarine base and management (weight 0.66): Players manage a damaged submarine as their base, repairing rooms, upgrading systems, and crafting items between missions. This combines base-building with resource management like oxygen, health, and sanity.
- Character progression and customization (weight 0.52): Characters have skill trees, mutations, and three distinct archetypes (ranged, melee, utility) that can be leveled up. This allows deep customization of each diver's abilities and traits.
- Turn-based tactical underwater combat (weight 0.45): The game is a turn-based tactical RPG set underwater, featuring multiple mission types such as Salvage, Rescue, and Seal Defense. Combat requires strategic positioning and resource management.
- Enigma Board research and mutations (weight 0.39): The Enigma Board is a research system that unlocks mutations and upgrades for divers. Mutations are always positive enhancements that evolve character abilities over time.
- Story campaign and endless modes (weight 0.38): The game offers both a story campaign with main and side missions, and an endless mode. Special missions include boss fights that test tactical skills.
- Oxygen and sanity management (weight 0.35): Oxygen depletion acts as a turn-by-turn timer during missions, alongside corruption and sanity as additional constraints. Managing these resources is critical to survival.
- Roguelike survival elements (weight 0.14): Roguelike elements include procedural generation and permadeath, adding replay value. The survival mode emphasizes resource scarcity and tactical decisions.
- Crafting system for items (weight 0.14): Crafting allows players to create useful items from salvaged materials. This supports the base management and mission preparation loop.
- Endless nightmare mode (weight 0.13): An endless nightmare mode provides infinite replayability with increasing difficulty. Players can test their builds against endless waves of enemies.
- Sanity loss and madness effects (weight 0.13): Psychic attacks can drive characters mad, causing dementia phases when sanity reaches zero. This adds a psychological threat alongside physical damage.
- Weapons lack upgrades (weight 0.13): Unique weapons do not upgrade from the start, which some players find limiting. This may affect long-term character power progression.

Performance notes:
- Excellent technical performance (weight 0.21): The game runs without bugs, freezes, or technical issues on various systems, including Linux and an HP Pavilion laptop.

Recommendations:
- Must-have for XCOM and tactical fans (weight 0.33): Multiple individual reviews call it a must-have for XCOM fans, tactical RPG fans, and especially Lovecraft fans, comparing it favorably to XCOM and Darkest Dungeon. The repetition across small clusters reinforces this as a top niche.
- Top recommendation for XCOM and Lovecraft fans (weight 0.27): Players strongly recommend this game to fans of XCOM and Lovecraftian horror, highlighting its appeal to those who enjoy tactical turn-based combat with a dark atmosphere. This cluster has the highest frequency, indicating a core audience for the game.
- Not worth full price (weight 0.19): Some players feel the game is not worth its full price of $25-30, suggesting a discount or lower price point to reflect its modest scope. This indicates a value issue.
- Chill Lovecraftian tactical experience (weight 0.14): The game offers a chill Lovecraftian turn-based experience, appealing to those who enjoy slow tactical combat. The niche appeal to relaxed gameplay within the horror genre is noted.
- Waiting for patches and updates (weight 0.14): Some players are willing to wait for patches or updates before playing again, suggesting technical or balance issues that need addressing.
- Consider difficulty choice carefully (weight 0.13): Some recommend playing on a lower difficulty first to understand mechanics, while others suggest hard mode for tension, indicating a learning curve for different play styles.
- Try the demo first (weight 0.13): Multiple reviews suggest trying the demo before purchasing, implying the game has a specific appeal that may not suit everyone.
- Do not recommend to some (weight 0.13): Some explicit recommendations to skip the game or not recommend it, indicating it failed to satisfy certain players, possibly due to difficulty or bugs.
- Good for short sessions (weight 0.12): Some players find the game suitable for casual short sessions or a quick break, indicating it can be played in small bursts despite its tactical depth.
- Perfect for nostalgia fans (weight 0.08): For nostalgia fans and genre purists, this game is perfect, suggesting it faithfully recreates the classic experience with a Lovecraftian twist. This is a strong but singular recommendation.
- Limited replayability after campaign (weight 0.08): One reviewer felt that after completing a full campaign, they were ready to move on, suggesting limited replayability or a satisfying but finite experience.
- Only for hardcore strategy players (weight 0.08): The game is noted as only for hardcore strategy players and not a feel-good experience, implying high difficulty and a lack of casual appeal.
- Try Barotrauma as alternative (weight 0.07): A player suggests trying Barotrauma as an alternative, likely for those seeking deeper survival or tactical horror elements. This is a niche but specific alternative.
- Not for fast run-and-gun fans (weight 0.07): A warning that the game is unsuitable for players who prefer fast run-and-gun tactics, confirming its slow, deliberate turn-based nature.
- Not for impatient or tentacle-haters (weight 0.07): A humorous but clear warning that the game is not for impatient players, those tired of tentacle monsters, or those intolerant to seafood, emphasizing its Lovecraftian and niche themes.
- Appeals to Dredge and The Shallows fans (weight 0.07): A specific comparison to Dredge and the movie 'The Shallows' suggests the game appeals to fans of cosmic horror and water-based settings. This is a unique but niche reference.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.13): Players feel frustrated due to poor class selection, skill variety, and enemy diversity, with the final boss being a bullet sponge. Brutal difficulty forces extreme save scumming and broken builds, while mission design can softlock players and salvage missions are unfairly luck-dependent. The turn-based combat offers nothing new and feels worse than older XCOM titles.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.11): Satisfaction arises from successful missions feeling genuinely earned due to harsh balancing, combined with an atmospheric experience that is not too long or expensive. The balanced difficulty and great atmosphere contribute to an overall excellent gameplay experience, recommended for fans of XCOM and Xenonauts.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.11): Players enjoy the rich story, base building, crew leveling, and mutations, finding it a fun squad-based tactical game with depth. The presence of horrible mutant fish monsters adds to the fun, though some wish for more to explore.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement stems from the game being incredible and very strategic, with strong difficulty spikes that are enjoyable and challenging gameplay demanding persistence. Boss encounters are definite highlights, and the second attempt allows players to 'kick some ass,' with a great atmosphere and art style reminiscent of XCOM combat.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment comes from realizing how little content exists, making the game a joyless march toward the end, with simplified tactical aspects and lack of positioning/cover. The game mimics X-Com Terror from the Deep (1995) and feels outdated, with devs abandoning it, making it a missed opportunity despite a great setting.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.05): Nostalgia is evoked by taking players back to playing Terror from the Deep, mixing base building, crew leveling, and mutations. The gloomy loneliness of the ocean floor is effectively revived.
- Mixed feelings (weight 0.03): Mixed feelings arise from a good atmosphere and campaign, but the experience becomes somewhat repetitive if players try to harvest all resources.
- Anticlimax (weight 0.03): Anticlimax occurs because the last boss was killed without needing healing or special tactics, making the final encounter feel underwhelming.
- Tension (weight 0.03): Tension is maintained through a constant feeling of isolation and danger created by underwater environments, eerie lighting, and oppressive sound design.
- Anxiety (weight 0.03): Anxiety results from dangerous enemies, limited resources, and harsh punishment for mistakes, keeping players on edge throughout.
- Completion (weight 0.03): Completion is expressed as one playthrough being sufficient despite the roguelike style, indicating the game does not encourage replayability.
- Reluctance (weight 0.03): Reluctance stems from the reviewer not accepting the Western Lovecraft theme, but they left a positive review due to good community comments.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy comes from the great theme and combat depth that kept missions engaging throughout the experience.
- Curiosity (weight 0.03): Curiosity is sparked by lore snippets doled out during exploration, which players found enjoyable and immersive.
- Mild disappointment (weight 0.03): Mild disappointment stems from maps being very similar, which is considered a weak point in the game design.
- Engagement (weight 0.03): Engagement is driven by an immersive survival experience with emergent progression and meaningful player choice.
- Amusement (weight 0.03): Amusement arises from the humorous tone and a community donation story that adds lightheartedness.
- Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration is expressed for the game as a masterclass in Lovecraftian and game design principles.
- Relaxation (weight 0.03): Relaxation comes from the chill Lovecraftian experience, offering a calm yet thematic atmosphere.
- Atmospheric engagement (weight 0.03): Atmospheric engagement is achieved through an atmospheric tactical game set in a Lovecraftian setting with creepy underwater creatures.}