This isn’t the Earth you’re familiar with. Descend into The Foglands and change the fate of Jim and the rest of humanity.
Humans are not known for their desire to enter into any underground place. Sometimes, on other planets, it may be different. The Foglands shows how dedicated humans are to self-preservation, regardless of the outside world’s events. Some dangers, however, affect everyone irrespective of how little they care.
Descend into the depths of a planet distant from Earth. People have lived here for a few generations. But, like Earth, some things that make it special are an extreme danger. The Foglands comes from Well Told Entertainment and tells the story of a man named Joe and his exploits in the tunnels of the planet. Banished from death thanks to The Stranger, at the behest of ‘the people up top,’ Joe has their blessing to descend into the depths to destroy the worm that nearly killed him. As nervous as Jim is, it’ll be a wonder how he takes down the monstrosity.
Why does The Stranger care at all what happens to Jim? What do they get out of it? Whatever their motivations for asking Joe to explore The Foglands, The Stranger seems willing to help on some level. However, Jim is told very early on that once his objective is complete, his ‘ticket’ to the train back to the mortal realm will be revoked. The Foglands is an action-oriented shooter game that puts into question whether the spirits we see follow us across the stars and into the depths of other planets.
The Foglands does not have controls that are too complicated. Where some titles require a person to whip their controller to summon a weapon, this title has a conveniently located belt. One must first acquire weapons from the shop at the start of the game. After grabbing the revolvers, one presses the second trigger on either controller and when an orb in the belt is blue, one must let the trigger go to ‘store’ the item. It can be done with other items, such as grenades, fuses, or wrenches.
To ‘look’ anywhere requires toggling with the right controller’s thumbstick. The left controller thumbstick is what moves Joe around in the environment. Pressing down on the left thumbstick will also allow the player character to sprint. This is a little inconvenient as it requires actively pressing down on it when trying to maneuver around numerous enemies. It isn’t hard to find myself with a game over screen when struggling to turn around, shoot enemies, and reload all within seconds of each other.
Aside from changing the seated or standing perspective in The Foglands, one can also change the height in the pause menu. Unfortunately, for those who like to toggle our sprint, this is not available to change in the game. It would make battles against larger enemies far easier if sprint can be set to ‘auto.’ Otherwise, evading enemies when they are extremely agile can be a chore.
Incendiaries like grenades come in a variety of types, but the ammo can be loaded into any weapon. Grenades in The Foglands are simple to use, which is convenient for my absolutely chaotic play style in first-person shooters. Just pull the incendiary from Joe’s belt, hit the second trigger, and toss it into a horde of enemies. There are a few times Joe stands a little too close to the grenade, and it will never end well if the player is too close. It is also a terrible idea to hold the grenade after “pulling the pin.”
In addition to the storage of weapons, Joe carries energy cells that are universally adaptable to any weapon he carries. It’s a huge relief not having to scavenge for ammo, which I’m not even sure exists in the environment my character is exploring. The energy cells in The Foglands have their own slot, which is convenient, but it becomes frustrating to reload during certain confrontations. Even after resetting the boundary and my character’s perspective, it’s possible to grab a gun by mistake while trying to grab the ammo required.
The reloading itself is actually pretty cool. The vultures, or revolver weapons, can be reloaded by pressing B or Y on the respective controllers. After doing so, the gun will open up, allowing Joe to slide an energy cell in. Pressing the button that opens the gun will close it and reset the ammo count on the back of the gun.
Aside from the demon creatures, one must also contend with other humans who have taken a liking to the depths of The Foglands. Many of these underdwelling humans are outwardly aggressive towards anyone who is not them. Most of them will engage with Joe on sight, but a handful of them provide a resting spot for any would-be explorer to reload or grab ammo or a fuse they may have forgotten.
Weapons and health have upgrades available that can be acquired at the desk in the ‘lobby level.’ A few of the items here are available for purchase through the use of scrap. But upgrades for things like the guns, health, or power often require items that can only be found scattered throughout The Foglands or dropped by boss-level enemies.
Enemies come in a small variety of different types. The initial creatures one encounters in The Foglands look a lot like typical demons. Despite their intimidating look, they are vulnerable to only a few rounds. While they can be taken out with no more than a handful of rounds, if ignored too long, one can get a cheap shot in, absolutely ending Joe without any time to react to what’s happening. It’s a bummer when it happens once, but there’s no frustration like suffering a cheap shot during a boss battle.
Tools like wrenches can be purchased in the lobby area. As far as one can tell, these are simply used for throwing at enemies. And while tossing an object one-shot minion-level enemies, the act of having to pick it back up is too much of a chore. When one drops any firearm, that firearm returns automatically to the corresponding storage slot. Having to pick up the wrench all the time makes it feel like a waste of scrap to even purchase.
Jim has plenty of upgrades available to his person. However, it is fairly difficult to determine just how effective some of them are and whether they are useful in any way. In the lobby area of The Foglands is a ‘runner vault’. In this vault are a substantial amount of upgrades for things like health, combat effectiveness, and other enhancements. Despite having opened multiple upgrades using purple’ runner keys’, the only noticeable personal upgrade is one that increases Jim’s durability.
It is unclear just how some of these upgrades in The Foglands work in any way. Even after choosing them, playing across The Foglands does not feel any different to me. One upgrade states, “Time slows when shooting enemies while falling.” Sure, it sounds like a great upgrade, provided there is a steady amount of times where one needs to ‘fall.’ The problem with this particular upgrade is never finding it necessary to fall at any point during a given run.
Aside from increasing Jim’s durability and health, another upgrade increases the amount of damage the Vulture can do. This does seem to provide a noticeable change in gameplay. It allows Jim to take out enemies with fewer rounds than he could previously. This is fantastic because even sitting down, one’s back can only take so much when folding over a bit to pick up ammo.
A great deal of The Foglands is restricted at the very beginning. Doors will have the words’ map required’ if a section is restricted from access. Conveniently, each map costs only one runner key to obtain inside the vault. After getting these maps, additional regions in The Foglands are finally accessible, also giving Jim the ability to engage in battle with different boss characters.
Because there is no active map, it is often easy to find oneself lost in the labyrinth of the underground. Much of the environment looks the same unless going into a very specific location, which there aren’t a lot of. The lack of texture in the environment can make navigating any route extremely confusing. It’s possible to backtrack, but most of the time, elevators will only activate once.
There’s nothing about the visuals that can be called spectacular. That being said, character design is unique enough for the world they live in. One might equate the graphics to a late-stage FPS on PlayStation 2. It provides a great sense of nostalgia for longtime fans of the shooter genre. Personally speaking, the Stranger character’s design is probably the best-designed character of those in the universe of The Foglands. The only visible part of Jim is the disembodied hands.
There is not much variety in the enemy design. Minion-level demon creatures come in one type, and the human characters may have three different looks. Because of this, a steady stream of enemies that all look the same can make things very dull during battle. Boss designs are another story, though. The initial boss, the tall horned demon, has a very interesting design. It stands at what looks like ten feet tall. And has horns that appear about two feet long.
The audio throughout The Foglands was great. The weapons sounded as realistic as possible, considering the medium used. Each character has a unique voice actor, providing a nice touch when it comes to what a player listens to. Too often, there will be some characters whose emotions are hard to figure out because of their monotone dialogue.
The Foglands is, at its heart, an action-oriented shooter game. There is nothing eye-catching about the visuals, and upgrades are confusing most of the time. While some upgrades provide something substantial, any player looking for a very noticeable change in gameplay might end up disappointed in their inability to see a change despite the number of runner keys used to obtain the upgrades.
Despite its problems, Jim’s ability to return from death provides a sense of replay value that other titles in the same vein may not possess. It’s a great way to challenge one’s patience and see if they really have the willpower to continue despite frustration. If you’re looking for something consistent and don’t mind a minor hiccup every now and then, definitely check this title out.
