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0 Abermore is a first-person stealth and heist simulator by Four Circle Interactive (10 Second Ninja). With publishing by Fireshrine Games (KeyWe, Mechwarrior 5), Abermore is only available on PC via Steam. There does not appear to be any plans to bring the game to console.
Abermore is a Stealthy Bomb
For all outward appearances, Abermore looked to be a game I’d greatly enjoy playing. It has sneaking around, robbing the upper class, and fencing the goods you’ve stolen. But upon playing the game with all those intentions, it is sadly going to be a rough go for most if not all players trying to play at this time. Unlike my usual reviews, this one is going to take a little bit of a different approach so the format may seem a bit off. But please read on for further understanding.
Gameplay
The setting for Abermore is in a neo-Edwardian city of the same name. The objective of the game is to complete various missions to gain reputation and fortune leading up to the “ultimate heist”. You have 18 days (which as far as I could tell meant 18 missions) to prepare and attract collaborators. Collaborators come in the form of NPCs you meet in the seedy bar beneath the city streets. The black market area lets you sell your goods and buy equipment for your different missions. A mission rating determines how much you earn after completing main and bonus objectives.
Abermore also features skills/abilities in the form of tarot cards. You initially find these cards during missions and you can buy additional uses at the black market after unlocking them. You may only hold three card types at a time but each card may have multiple uses. There also appears to be a path to unlocking disguises but I wasn’t able to get further than the initial three default sets.
While all of the above sounds well and good, sadly Abermore has been put on the market as a black mark for Four Circle Interactive. The game is crawling with both inconvenient and game-breaking bugs. In the first mission after the basic tutorial I ran into a bug that kept dropping an item I had found that was part of the main objective. This left me to wander around the area for an additional amount of time looking everywhere for the one item. Another bug kept me from playing the game completely – I’d go into my inventory after the mission and when I would try and leave the room the game would completely lock up.
Probably one of my biggest concerns with Abermore is how the game saves. Because I really have no idea. There is no clear indication on when or how the game saves. Not only that but saves appear to be local to that PC rather than to your Steam account like most games these days. This was frustrating having to wonder if I would have a save game to return to after I was done playing for the time being.
Graphics & Audio
Abermore is only available on PC. The title has a fairly simplistic art style which looks good but doesn’t leave a lot of room for changes. The video settings only include resolution and Vsync on or off. For whatever reason the video settings menu includes audio settings and the gameplay settings menu includes gamma and exposure. In my opinion these should trade places unless the developers want to add “Audio” into the Video menu. Aside from the occasional lighting issue or model sticking through where it shouldn’t I did not find many visual issues.
I didn’t notice any audio really out of place in Abermore either. Actions and movement sound like they should, though I did note this was something that got a patch right away. I was also very thankful to not have to listen to annoying grunting and sounds of exasperation when clicking through dialogue as I had in Aztech Forgotten Gods.
Longevity
At this time I really can’t speak to the longevity of Abermore. I wasn’t able to play past the first main mission due to the game locking up trying to leave a room. And I was only able to complete that mission after having to repeat the intro a few different times. The game boasts that each campaign is unique but I wasn’t able to experience enough to know for sure.
Final Thoughts
Abermore is just simply a great concept at this time. It is not a great game. It does have potential, but it really was clearly not ready for release. I really am not sure what’s going on with Four Circle Interactive either. As of this writing their website gives a Forbidden Access error. Their Twitter has been fairly quiet as well. Hopefully they can sort things out sooner rather than later. But as of right now Abermore is Broken and I cannot recommend picking it up.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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Sad when a game that could be great is ruined by the rush to market.