Psychological Thriller ‘Spirits Of Xanadu’ Hits Steam On March 26th

Night Dive Studios, through a collaboration between the minds behind the popular browser game Good Morning, Commander and After the Comet (still in development), is finally releasing Spirits of Xanadu on Steam, available for $14.99 from the 26th of March 2015.

I had the chance to get some hands-on time with this surprisingly enjoyable and atmospheric game, and I really enjoyed it despite my apprehension at first. I am one of those people who tends to judge a book by its cover and judge a game by its graphics. After my experience with Spirits of Xanadu, I am working to kick that habit now.

You start in a considerably “blocky” ship cockpit with a briefcase containing the relevant items you need to begin your journey of discovery. There is no hand holding, so either you have to read the controls or figure them out for yourself. From the start there is an eerie feel. There’s no one to greet you except the humanoid figure staring you down as you exit your ship.

After you (well, I) decide to finally leave the safety of the docking bay with a newfound gun (definite foreshadowing – similar in feel to Tomb Raider’s fight scenes) after stalling with fear, you have to figure out based on audio cues and a range of notes available all across the ship what happened, how to fix the ship’s systems, and then you have to find it within yourself to do one of (I believe) three possible endings, one considerably easier and catastrophic than the other. Players have speculated on the community discussion forums that perhaps there are more endings, linked to a series of collectibles scattered around the ship. The developers have not revealed more on that.

Despite the chilling atmosphere, challenging puzzles and well-done FPS aspects, Spirits of Xanadu does have a few issues. This game is only tailored to those who want to read, collect and do everything a game has to offer. You can essentially speed-run it, skip all of the little bits and complete the game in potentially under 15 minutes (I played for a little less than 3 hours) but, if it is your first playthrough, you will find yourself very underwhelmed with a lot of unanswered questions. I had a wonderful time chatting to the developer during my playthrough, and he helped me a little bit along the way, gave me a few hints and such. I almost gave up on the basketball, but discovered there’s more to the hoop than meets the eye with Allen’s help.

If you’re planning on using a controller (which is fully supported), you best be prepared for frustration and sensitivity tweaking. I switched to a keyboard within 5 minutes. The AI has a lot to be desired – moving far to erratically or quickly to be able to kill fast or even survive in some cases (curse you, basketball robots!). They have limited FOV and thus a room filled to the brim with scouring robots may not be as much of a threat as initially thought, as you can pick them off in much smaller groups and sometimes avoid confrontation completely when it should’ve been inevitable.

Do I think you should try this game? Yes –  if puzzles, mysteries and space are your favourite things, I would definitely recommend this game. If not, there is no harm done in giving it a go. I am not usually into FPS games, much less scary (well, to me) games (I’m a real wuss) but I was very much into Spirits of Xanadu and it has opened a lot of doors for me. As well as this, you can have a bunch of fun finding the various Easter eggs hidden throughout the map.

Remember to catch it tomorrow (March 26th) before the spoilers hit the discussions! It’s great fun not holding hands with a narrator or forums.