Remember Below? It was announced for the Xbox One in 2013, confirmed for the PC in 2014, gave us some hands-on time in 2016, and then smashed face-first into a brick wall a few months later when developer Capybara Games delayed it indefinitely. Capybara said at the time that it wasn't the sort of "indefinite delay" that means the project is dead, however, but simply an acknowledgment that the game needed a lot more work than anyone expected, and it had no idea when it would actually be ready.
"Instead of giving you a new, loose release window, we will be going dark while we take the time that we need to complete Below without compromise," the studio explained. "The next time you see a major Below update, that means our game has a firm release date, which we’ll share."
Depending on how you want to parse the semantics of that promise, it may or may not have been broken by creative director Kris Piotrowski, who told Engadget that Below maybe—probably, even—will be out this year.
"I still can't say the exact date, but we are aiming for this year—although we've said that over and over, so..." Piotrowski said. "We have all the systems in place and now we're kind of going deeper and deeper through the world, and polishing and trying to just get it all packaged up."
It's not exactly a "major update," and so I guess we can let slide the fact that it's not a firm release date, either. I'm not too hung up on it either way, since honesty compels me to admit that I'd completely forgotten about it until now, but I'm glad to hear that it hasn't withered on the vine and might actually be out before the end of the year. I thought Below looked promising the first time I saw it, and our 2016 preview left me even more excited to try it.
It might be out of date at this point, but if this is your first encounter with Below (or if it's just slipped your mind) you can find out more about it at whatliesbelow.com.
