The brooding roguelike Below is coming to PS4 sometime this spring and when it does it will have a new mode that makes the game much easier to play.
This new mode, called Explore, will get rid of a lot of the more punishing things in the game like a thirst meter and traps that kill you in one hit. According to the game’s developers at Capybara Games, Explore mode will also have permanent checkpoints at bonfires so that even when players die they can don’t lose a bunch of progress.
Currently, when players die in Below they have to return to the beach at its start and begin exploring its partially proceduraly generated dungeon anew. While certain bits of progress are saved, others, like the items you were carrying, are lost. This permadeath-lite feature is one of the things that makes Below’s world feel truly bleak and threatening, but it also leads to a lot of backtracking and turned a lot of players away from discovering some of the more interesting secrets deeper into the game.
“Explore mode is our way of answering everyone who played Below at launch and found the challenge a bit too steep,” Capybara’s Kris Piotrowski said in a press release. “It was clear that many players were intrigued by the game’s haunting underworld and rich atmosphere, but its difficulty made the game inaccessible to some. We hope to see new players to get into Below, and for seasoned players to revisit The Isle and enjoy the game in a whole new way.”
The new mode will also come to Xbox One and PC versions of the game.