Athanasia Preview – Where On Earth Is Carmen Flores?

Did anyone really listen to Alan Grant? Have we learned anything from Jurassic Park? It would seem not, as the boffins of a South American underground lab have somehow brought dinosaurs back from being cancelled, and they’re really not civilised. They’ve seemingly killed everybody in Athanasia, so Carmen Flores is sent in to investigate.

No, she’s not an elusive type that would have Nickelodeon kids wondering, well, the bloody hell she is, as this researcher ain’t afraid of no ghosts – sorry, dinosaurs – and is, what you could say, a very resourceful person. Momentum Game’s title, published by indie elite, Black Lantern Collective, is sort of an FPS, but a thinking-person’s experience.

It’s not that Athanasia is a complicated puzzle hybrid, but it taps into the survival horror reserves and makes ammo and weapons relatively scarce, so you have to make do with the environment. That doesn’t mean pulling back a curtain and hoping to blindside a velociraptor, but you create various concoctions of destruction, starting with the Molotov.

It reminds me of Half-Life both in presentation and premise, to some extent. The game is compared to both System Shock and Dino Crisis – both of which I’ve never played, so I’m sticking with my first comparison, though of a lower budget. That doesn’t contribute to the quality, as it’s quite an ambitious experience

A Thinking Person’s Dino Shooter – With a Knife

Upon arriving at the facility, Carmen immediately ignores the warnings of leaving the place. Audio recordings and terminals provide exposition, with simple Fallout-like text and decent voiceovers. As Claire Redfield – sorry, Carmen – isn’t backing down, she picks up an ‘Aussie knife’, and we learn this will be your communication device with baddies.

While you aren’t limited to poking things (you can throw items, too), the dinosaurs, and in particular the sabertooth tiger-looking hybrids, have the mobility of a bus and can be circled and stabbed with ease. A crossbow soon comes into play, and though it isn’t an endgame experience, it’s a bit more fun with the cat-and-mouse style of play. Best of all, you can pick up arrows that have been embedded in flesh.

The same doesn’t apply to destructible objects in Athanasia, and in truth, if it isn’t the turrets that kill you, it’ll be the environment. This isn’t treacherous chills or jungle vegetation, though explosive components will be the biggest threat. This can be from MacGyver-like gas canisters or make-do bombs that explode if you hit them, or the more common one: explosive terminals.

There’s an abundance of terminals with notes about the facility, security clearance and unlocking doors, but for some reason, you can sabotage more of them, causing an explosion and subsequent fire. And, while these explosions and flames are inevitably a threat to my safety, I couldn’t help but trigger the destruction sequence each and every time.

Dinosaurs With “Lasers”?

As perplexing as my choices are, there are also genuine problem-solving situations to be had, from puzzles to opening doors to finding alternate routes through the facility using the available maps, crawlspaces, and newly blasted doors to a new area.

Athanasia is claustrophobic, offers a decent level of tension, but ultimately, is an engaging experience that is most certaintly worth a look if you’d like a retro FPS that’s been marinated in classic survival horror. Let’s just hope the full game doesn’t introduce T-Rexs with lasers…