Indie Game Spotlight Double Feature – Depths of Fear:: Knossos

By Christopher DiBella

Live Wire Managing Editor

Preface: This October 29th, 2018 issue of the Live Wire will include a DOUBLE FEATURE of the Indie Game Spotlight, that’s right TWO Indie Game Spotlight articles for the price of one! A regular Indie Game Spotlight in the paper, and this EXCLUSIVE web article.

Game Information

Name: Depths of Fear :: Knossos

Price: $5.99
Developer: Dirigo Games

Release Date: April 24, 2014

Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux

Genre: Surreal Horror, Fantasy Roguelike, Dungeon Crawler

Right off the bat, I want to say that Depths of Fear:: Knossos is NOT a good game by any stretch of the imagination.

The setup is simple, the setting is ancient greece and you have been dropped into the Minotaur’s labyrinth. You will have to gain eight medallions pieces to unlock a sword to fight the minotaur himself. These can only be gained by dealing with the eight bosses of the labyrinth, descending to the bottom floor of their section of the labyrinth (where they can be killed), and retrieving their token. Roaming randomly generated levels, stalked by the area’s respective monster of greek myth as they roam the level, searching for you in the dark. It is a horror dungeon crawler with purchasable items, randomly generated levels to descend, closets and dark spots to hide in… but the execution is where things go astray, and rather quickly at that.

Knossos looks terrible, frequently reusing premade assets, grubby textures and poorly animated models. It plays pretty terribly, weapon feedback is nearly nonexistent, you hit a skeleton with just about any weapon type and they crumple in a hit or two, falling apart with a sound that resembles a bag of clams falling down the stairs, slapped with reverb. The gameplay may get frequently repetitive, and it simply feels cheap. The minimalist 70’s era synthesizer swings between sounding cheap and awful and strikingly effective. The entire game is wrapped in a nearly opaque darkness with no way to adjust to make the game brighter, leaving you with only a torch which when used, makes it easier for enemies to see you.

However, the Indie Game Spotlight has never been about showing you the very “best” games, but rather, spotlighting interesting and unique experiences you cannot get from anywhere but independent developers. And Depths of Fear :: Knossos is certainly unique. Soaked in a surreal atmosphere of low budget B movie schlock, feeling like something you might catch as a kid at 2AM on cinemax, it is certainly unique.

Unpredictable is the best way to describe Depths of Fear:: Knossos. It is one if the rare games I can think of where it feels as if the developer might not have control over his own creation, as if the game has taken on a life of its own, like a broken down theme park where the cheap animatronics continue to move long after the park was abandoned. This aspect creates a feeling that is terrifying in an unplaceable way.

Every time you enter a new floor, you will have some idea of what to expect, but no real idea of what will happen. The game seems quaint and almost hilariously amateurish, and then suddenly right as your guard is down, a Satyr spots you, letting out a horrific bleat that echoes across the dungeon, and suddenly every single enemy on the floor is after you, you are running for your life, so badly injured that you are seeing in black and white and desperately, desperately looking for a safe, dark place to hide.

I have seen things while playing Depths of Fear which I cannot explain.
Running from enemies only to encounter a door that opens to a brick wall, starting a new level only to see the Satyr’s shadow frozen, dancing in place along a distant wall, going down ladders to fight mountains of red exposed flesh in pitch black darkness, pouring out a swarm of insects… I have had cerberus follow me into a dark room, I hid behind a pile boxes so he couldn’t see me, which normally means he will start walking away, allowing me to escape. But instead… he would start to walk away, and every single time at the door of the room, the combat music would start, he would turn around and lunge back at the boxes, over and over, as if he knew I was in the room but by the laws of the game he could not kill me outright. And just like that, Cerberus had cleverly trapped me.

There will be eerie times where the music seems to refuse to come in, and when spending a long time in a level an idea might creep into your head that the game forgot to spawn in an exit, always false, but just enough to shake your confidence. This is what Knossos excels at, letting you get comfortable, and then shaking up that perception that you know how everything is going to work out. Some levels may be unnervingly quiet and easy, and many others may feel like creeping through a wobbling, decrepit house, one piece of wood out of place, and the entire building collapses on top of you.

Is it worth your money? I honestly have no idea. The most endearing part of this game is the inherent pluckiness of a game with such minute resources trying to create such a striking atmosphere, and almost succeeding despite technical issues and the game’s sometimes laughable presentation. That being said there are not many game quite like Depths of Fear:: Knossos, few games which generate such a concentrated feeling of terrified confusion on such a consistent basis.

In the current halloween steam sale, Depths of Fear:: Knossos is selling for a little under 60 cents, so you do not have much to lose from giving it a go.

Recommended for: Curious gamers with a tolerance for bugs and unpolished, janky games.

Recommended for a similar feel:

• Witch Hunt by Andril Vi,
• Nosferatu The Wrath of Malachi by IdolFX

Further Screenshots: