EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE

About EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE

EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE is a free roguelite survival horror game by CC ARTS, published by Hyperstrange. It came out on Steam for Windows on January 6, 2023, and there's also a download on the studio's itch.io page. It's the opening of EMPTY SHELL, the full game the studio announced alongside it.

Each volunteer has signed a contract for a recovery operation without being told much. The facility on the island had been abandoned for decades, they were told, but it is clear at once that something is wrong. Logs, emails and documents from the 1950s tell what happened there, from lost contact with a structure to an expedition that never came back.

You see the facility from above, almost in black and white, with only your light cutting into dark corridors and cold rooms behind a camcorder-style frame. Creatures come out of the dark, and fights are quick and bloody. You scavenge weapons, ammunition and gadgets, decide what to keep in a small inventory, line up antennas and solve other small terminal puzzles, and spend money at upgrade stations on ammo, medkits, armor or a turret.

It is a roguelite. The levels are built anew each time you enter or die, your starting kit is random, and every death sends in a fresh volunteer. There are two levels, and a player guide on Steam notes that the rooms repeat from run to run, so you start to learn which ones hide loot. Your last volunteer's body stays where it fell and can be searched.

The fear is in the dark and in what each room may hold, more than in a story told at you. Enemies often have their own footsteps or a sound before they attack, so headphones help. It suits players who like Teleglitch or the darker side of top-down shooters and want something free to try in an evening.

How to play EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE

1. Add the game free on Steam, or download it from itch.io, and launch it.
2. Enter the facility as a volunteer and explore room by room with your light.
3. Pick up weapons, ammunition, gadgets and documents, and choose what to keep in your limited inventory.
4. Fight or avoid the creatures you meet, and solve the small terminal puzzles that open the way.
5. Spend the money you find at upgrade stations, then push on to the second and last level.
6. When you die, start again with a new volunteer and a new layout.

Tips

• Read every log you find: they tell the facility's story from the 1950s on.
• Do not waste ammunition on every shadow; save it for the creatures that rush you.
• If the screen is too dark to read, the graphics options can help. A player guide on Steam suggests changing them before you blame your eyes.
• Learn to use your melee weapon. The same guide rates the crowbar and shovel highly among starting weapons, and says a fire axe can be bought at upgrade stations.
• Keep away from doorways that look blocked or that you cannot aim through, since enemies sometimes wait behind them.
• After a death, go back to where your last volunteer fell. Their body can be looted for some of what they carried.

Questions