Industria in the test: small raw diamond with German participation

Fancy a shooter like Half-Life 2? Industria offers what you are looking for, but does not expect a top title.

Singleplayer ego shooters are especially loud, bombastic and with a folding game tempo today. As soon as we are offered within the genre experiences such as Half-Life or Bioshock, where there is also a lot of commencement, which still takes time for quiet moments, exploration or even puzzles. With Industria, just such a title for the PC has recently been published. Although the action is in the foreground, but loud and bombastically, the whole thing is not at all.

That would probably not have not been able to get that existing Studio BleeakMill from only two men. The team makes the impression as if it knew exactly how great the own ambitions were allowed. Industria is a very short pleasure and the essentials with three to four hours of playing - good! It takes you to an interesting world and prepares great hours, especially Half-Life fans, if you are ready to compromise. Industria is through and through a low-budget game, which is in principle no problem when making it aware. It s a pity that it has not only committed Bleeakmill to money, but some of the craftsmanship know-how.

When the fall of the wall for you becomes a minor matter

At the beginning of Industria you are in Berlin. It is the 9th of November 1989 and main character Nora wakes up on her sofa. A call of your life partner Walter brings you out of sleep. It not only informs you that a historic event is on the way (the fall of the wall, which else?), But also about the problems regarding his and Noras joint work: the arithmetic unit Atlas, which they have developed, is out of control and have spread on all servers. Add to that the office was closed and the Stasi was on site to apart everything. Walter must keep ATLAS absolutely. He only means that he go now must not wool Nora with her and she love. Then he simply puts up. Nora can not let that stand and immediately sets off the way to the office where she does not find anyone.

She finds out that her lover has gone to the big machine, which stands in the subsoil of the office building. Yes, that sounds funny, but it is the same as Industria itself. And because Nora Walter can not let go (in the broad sense), she does it right away. Then it gets into a parallel dimension. There she explores a deserted city that was overrun by mechanical engineering. Walter lacks every trace, even though he had to arrive there only a few minutes before her. Her only contact is a stranger man who only looks out of distance at the beginning and then only achieved by radio. With his help, Nora tries to find Walter.

We can not go into detail at this point, which concerns our criticisms at the Story of Industria, as we would have to anticipate too much. Therefore, we stay vague at this point, which is sufficient to outline at least roughly the weaknesses. Bleeakmill does not succeed in inspiring a narrative level. The basic scenario and the premise of action offer enormous potential. Industria builds mysteries that we would like to see revealed. The parallel world is definitely interesting and we would have liked to know more about its history. Unfortunately, the game here remains very superficial, which also the various documents hardly change something that are distributed in the levels. And then there is still an end that is completely open. It provides a question of a question that we could browse ourselves before, while everything else is left in the dark. When the credits begin, we do not even know about the fate of Nora, which is very unsatisfactory.

Death the machines!

The good news is: Playful Industria beats much better. The bad: here too, everything is perfect. That starts with the struggles. Initially, you only have a pickaxe available. With that you can take on the hostile-minded machines, but it is more effective, but they attract them in places where hot steam escapes from a pipe. The game does not point out that you can defeat you so faster. All the more we were pleased that this really worked. It is a pity that such elements can not be found in later gameplay.

As soon as you get the pistol, the first of four different firearms, you just shoot every opponent with quite a few balls to scrap. The five-piece enemy types (which is precisely as with the argumentation amplifiers due to the short playing time and the obviously low budget) are not a great danger on the normal level of difficulty. Who wants to have crispy, plays in hardcore mode, but then Also renounce the automatic memory function. Manually saving is not at any time in both modes, but only as in Resident Evil using typewriters standing on fixed places in the levels.

The weapons (next to the pistol, there is another MP, a shotgun and a sniper rifle) all feel good and the control is flawless. However, the quality of the hit feedback fluctuates. One of the four opponent types shatters in various items when defeating him, which is very satisfactory. Another one again begins to smoke before he gives up the mind and simply falling, which does not feel very well.

Pleasantly slow

As mentioned above, in Industria, not only is clentrified. The game speed is continuous low. Even if you get it in a larger area with ever-rewarding enemy groups until all the necessary switches have switched to leave the level (not just a gloss moment from Industria), the whole thing is still quite slow and little Energety. But we do not mean negative, on the contrary. We like to get a shooter presented, which represents the complete opposite to Call of Duty, Doom and Co.

We really enjoyed it, exploring the linear but never to close hoses. Constantly we came to routes, for example, in houses could enter several apartments and maybe some ammunition, heal items, batteries for the lamp (there are many dark passages) or find documents. Especially at the beginning of the game, Industria also relies on puzzles. At one point, for example, you have to open a garage door, but the wheel responsible is so strongly rusted that it can not be moved. In the area next door there is an apparatus with which their phosphoric acid can be produced, as explained on a blackboard. Coincidentally, there are several machines in the building, which each spend another chemical. You should not mix the wrong ingredients with each other.

OK, really demanding this mystery is not and that also applies to the rest. So what eliminates the game but pleasantly. The same applies to scenes in which their an increased level must achieve to help. Now Nora can not jump very high, nor is she a good climbing. But as in Half-Life 2, you can take some objects in hand and wear through the area - there are also crates that can be stacked so that you can build a provisional staircase.

A game without real highlights

It s a pity that in the second half of the game moments, in which your briefly push your brain, are a real rarity. Despite the manageable season, Industria does not succeed in holding the level. In addition, the game is missing the highlights. There are neither boss fights nor any memorable script sequences. The latter is certainly due to the small developer team, but it is just negative - even because there are no levels that are so cool designed to remain in mind.

Apart from the Prologue in Berlin of 1989 and the end, you are traveling all the time in the abandoned city, which has a very limited color palette. Brown, gray and beige dominate here. From time to time there is a little grease. Stylistically, the world of Industria is great. The old-fashioned architecture of the building is certainly inspired by Berlin. Due to the strange round objects of the machines, which find themselves everywhere (no idea what that is for things) and the many cables that they connect together, everything also remembers City 17 from Half-Life 2, where the futuristic Building the Combine also alternate with rather older buildings.

fluctuating optical quality

The fact that as Industria players in the presentation of presentation must make some smears, sees itself in view of the largest of the project and developer by itself. As far as the graphic is concerned, BleeakMill could have delivered better work. Their quality fluctuates quite strong. The city looks consistent with its detailed housing facades and the successful lighting. Also in the gloomy passages Industria gives a decent picture thanks to successful light and shadow game.

Open, other areas in daylight in turn we do not necessarily inspire us because it lacks details. At the end of the game you are also traveling in a free nature and Industria looks more like a PS3 title. In addition, asset recycling makes itself very strongly noticeable. Many apartments in the game, for example, look exactly the same. It is also a pity that there are raytracing reflections, shadows and environmental coverage, but even on our test computer with an RTX 3080 ti in the extensive areas for a suboptimal frame rate, despite just 1080p and DLSS. So we deactivated the RTX features FLOTT, whereupon Industria was absolutely liquid. Maybe patches can help here.

Completely satisfied, we are with the sound. The dialogues between Nora and the stranger who points their way through the city are properly scored. However, there is a German language issue despite the fact that one half is sitting by Bleeakmill in Berlin. The German texts are not faultless. COMMAS is rarely found in the places where they belong, and also one or the other typo has crept. The effects of weapons and machines sound good and music is rar in Industria, but if it sounds, then always suitable for playing the game. Mostly it is therefore very quiet and stresses greatly the loneliness that Nora felt in the deserted city.

Conclusion

We like Industria. You can tell the game that it is a heart project of people who have taken half-life, especially the second part of the series, to the model. Anyone who stands on shooter of this kind and it s just as a pity as we find that there is too rare, hereby has a good, if a short time. However, you have to get a lot of compromises. Some of the weaknesses can be explained with the low resources of the developers, others can not. Especially the story has turned out to the rear as a great weak point, because it does not resolve the promises that gives the interesting premise. Industria is therefore not an indie-pearl, but rather a raw diamond that would have had much more fines needed. Nevertheless, we are glad to have played it because it is a nice change from the high gloss bombast shooters today. But it would have been so much more in it.

Industria

Per

Mix of action, exploration and puzzles

Pleasantly decelerated

Interesting premise

Solid shooter mechanics

Good spokesman and music

Zumiger Look, ...

Contra

... partly but also visually obsolete

Unsatisfactory end

Lore remains too superficial

Hit feedback quality fluctuates

Hardly puzzles in second half

3/5 stars

Buy Industria nowFancyy a shooter like Half-Life 2? Industria offers what you are looking for, but does not expect a top title.