PC Gamer - UK (2022-06)

“Transports itself across the city,
coming and going as it pleases,” says
the busybody. “It’s a small patch of
wrong.” If only there were just one
small patch of wrong in Abermore.
Somewhere below the
surface of this game,
there’s a perfectly
charming heist
simulator that channels
Thief and Skyrim’s Dark
Brotherhood quests.
But it’s drowning – not
just in puddles, but
oceans of wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with the
premise. Abermore casts you as a
street rat in the Gutter, the lowest
level of a vertiginous, medieval
industrial metropolis that roughly
resembles Edinburgh at a steampunk
convention. After your Robin
Hood-esque leader is captured and
imprisoned, you and your fellow
conspirators plot a grand jailbreak, to
take place during the Feast of the
Lucky Few – an eclipse celebration
that doubles as a gross demonstration
of wealth inequality. Hopefully you’ll
be able to nab a few fancy goblets on
the way out to make the point.
At the beginning of the game, the
feast is a couple of weeks away. And
so, each night, you take on a smaller
job for a local ne’er-do-well – clearing
a stately home of its valuables to get
some practice in, fund better
equipment, and increase your
reputation among potential
collaborators. There’s a satisfying
sense of procedure to this setup –
rolling out of your bed at noon,
pottering around a petite hub to pick
up sidequests, and then sidling into
the underground pub where thieves
gather in the evenings. And there’s a

touch of Atlus-style life simulation

involved as you get to know the

regulars, win their trust, and

ultimately pin them down to help out

on the night of the Feast.

MORE OR LESS

It’s out on the job that

the problems really

start to stack up.

There’s a random

element to levels,

designed to keep them

fresh. While you might

recognise the layout of

a locker room or lobby here or there,

these rooms slot together

procedurally. But not effectively.

It’s as if every house were a

clockwork mansion in need of a

watchmaker’s attention. Some rooms

have invisible walls, blocking

movement unexpectedly; others are

missing floors, leaving guards and

consumables stranded in midair. It’s

very common to scale a staircase and

notice an airy gap between two

floors, making the positions of

guards and butlers visible from

above. At worst, gaping holes in the

architecture leave buildings open to

the elements – a far bigger security

issue than me and my lockpicks, and

an insulation nightmare to boot.

Sneaking around these splintered

spaces is, at least, a fundamentally

sound experience. It’s a matter of

secreting yourself into crawlspaces,

under tables, and onto rafters –

essentially becoming insulation

yourself to avoid being seen by

patrolling staff or security cameras.

In this way you gradually map the

building, casing for gems and rare

whiskey and thinking up creative

ways to bypass busy corridors.

There’s a pure, early YouTube

pleasure to watching the house’s

master slip on a banana skin after

responding to a service bell rung by

yours truly. But it’s undermined by

AI that’s unresponsive and

shortsighted – usually a little too

forgiving to ever make you feel truly

vulnerable during heists.

Over time, I learned to

circumvent not just butlers and

cameras but Abermore’s many flaws,

and found myself half-enjoying the

game it could have been. But there’s

simply no way to recommend an

experience that might include falling

through the floor, or getting stuck on

a broken dialogue screen that forces

you to replay an entire day of hub

conversations and inventory

management. I still want to belong

to this psychotically daft twilight

world, where the fence lets out an

admiring “hooo!” as you slide a

particularly big gem across the table,

like a host on Antiques Roadshow.

But the puddles are too many, and

they’re fathoms deep.

54

Unfortunately, even

Abermore’s cult of beetle

worshippers would draw

the line at this many bugs

in the game.

VERDICT

I

n the dead of night, a local busybody comes straight to the door of
your flat with gossip. Evidently, there’s no Facebook in Abermore.
“The puddle’s back,” he says. This pool of liquid sits on the city’s
thoroughfares, apparently, and looks normal enough at a glance.
But when carriages pass through, it doesn’t splash. And while
reflective, it never shows an image. Residents suspect it’s fathoms deep.
Oh, and that anything falling in turns to metal.

AB NOT-SO FAB

ABERMORE is so much less than it could have been

By Jeremy Peel

It’s out on the

job that the

problems

really start to

stack up

YOINKED

The games Abermore owes its shtick to

THE SWINDLE

Steampunk?

Randomised

mansions? A

countdown to the

big heist? The

Swindle did it all

first, while looking

and playing like a

stealthy Spelunky.

ELDRITCH

This post-BioShock

indie game was the

first to take the

immersive sim

formula into

procedural levels,

and it remains a

high water mark

in that regard.

DISHONORED

Arkane’s heists have

always been

incidental – an

accompaniment to

plots of revenge and

assassination – but

its stealth

mechanics have left

a mark on Abermore.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A standalone version of

a Thieves Guild quest

from an imaginary Elder

Scrollsgame

EXPECT TO PAY

£13

DEVELOPER

Four Circle Interactive

PUBLISHER

Fireshine Games

REVIEWED ON

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 X Six

Core CPU, 16GB RAM,

Nvidia Geforce RTX

3060

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

bit.ly/3jf3f5N

Abermore

REVIEW

66