Going Under, the Seattle-based studio known as Aggro Crab, is set to release a curious and ambitious indie game that no one took seriously at first glance because Another Crab’s Treasure is a soulslike game where you control a crab.
A Fun Underwater World
Often, among the multitude of independent games released month after month, we find a gem that leaves us amazed with its innovative proposal. And if there’s one thing Aggro Crab Studio knows how to do, it’s to take a genre and turn it into something entirely unique and personal. Such is the case with their latest creation, Another Crab’s Treasure, a game launching for all consoles this Thursday.
In this adventure, we play as Kril, a crab whose shell is taken by a toy shark due to the high debts he had. Stubborn in sentiment and despairing over the loss of his home, Kril decides to embark on an incredible journey through the depths of the sea, where he discovers that the problem is not only about recovering his shell, but also that a serious illness – called pollution – is annihilating the marine fauna and turning this incredible underwater landscape into a terrifying place.
It is clear that this tender and sympathetic tale hides a reality that we all know about pollution. The serious damage being done to the marine ecosystem is present from the first minute, where Kril uses a plastic fork found at the bottom of the sea as his main weapon. Paths marked with cigarette butts, scattered bags and nets in every corner, and the use of microplastics as “game currency” make it very clear what the folks at Aggro Crab are trying to tell us.
More Souls-like Than We thought
According to its developers, this game is a kind of soulslike. For those unfamiliar with the genre, we’re talking about challenging games where combat is very precise and controlled, and one mistake can make us repeat long sections of the game. Here, we won’t have arrows pointing us where to go, nor will enemies be generous with us. Our skill at the controls will be the only thing responsible for reaching the end of this great marine mess.
Now, if you’re someone who got scared by the previous text, rest assured because the game will give you many tools to make progress not so difficult, although it never gives you anything for free.
Unlike all soulslike games, here you can change its difficulty, but you won’t have the typical easy, medium, or hard; the developers will give you different options to modify the level of the game, but even then, you won’t lose that sense of challenge, allowing you to modify the damage received, or if you want to have more life, or deal more damage when you hit. You’ll be able to vary these parameters at your whim and make this game a unique sensation that you can enjoy however you play.
Improvised Shells, The brilliant Idea of Another Crab’s Treasure
In Another Crab’s Treasure, our main conflict is the loss of our shell, but it’s obvious that this won’t be a problem as the sea is littered with debris that we can use as replacements. Our first contact with these is a soda can, but as we progress, we’ll find much more useful trash, such as beverage caps, shot glasses, hats, coconut shells, and a myriad of possibilities that not only have their unique properties like weight, resistance, and defense, but also, thanks to a power called “umami,” each of them will have unique abilities that we can execute in combat and recharge through basic hits.
As we progress through the sea, we’ll find microplastics that will be useful for improving Kril in giant shells that we’ll find as save points, and in these, we’ll improve both our vitality, endurance, attack, and umami.
To upgrade our equipment, we can also use different “stowaways” which are objects that we find scattered and we can equip them to get bonuses in different stats. As if all this weren’t enough, we’ll come across the Moon Snail who will give us the benefit of obtaining new abilities from an extensive tree as we are accustomed.
Final Thoughts
The game won’t be just suffering and fighting against difficult enemies, not at all. It will also have its platforming part where, thanks to a hook and a little string, we’ll be able to move and hook onto different lures that we’ll find in different sections of the map, giving greater verticality to the scenarios overflowing with details wherever you look.
We’ll traverse very different and varied areas, such as incredible coral reefs, forests of seaweed, open sea waters, and an underwater city where we’ll find some merchants offering different shells and upgrades.
Its artistic style is one of those things that catches the eye, and although it looks completely charming, it balances very well with that unexpected degree of difficulty that you’ll find in your first contact.
The music is another great complement to the game, as it immerses you in an underwater world that, at least for me, I didn’t expect.
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