Catacomb Abyss 3-D First Playthrough (via CatacombGL)
0Subsequent to Catacomb 3-D, Softdisk developed 3 more episodes; the first of those is Catacomb Abyss. Taking place after the defeat of Nemesis in Catacomb 3-D, our hero finds himself once again facing off against the forces of evil, who have evidently constructed a mausoleum in Nemesis' honor.
Catacomb Abyss progresses through a variety of environments, each introducing new types of enemies. Some are familiar from Catacomb 3-D, but there are several new additions as well, at least one of which I have to imagine Wizordum may have been inspired by.
I played on the harder of the two available difficulties, and the game skewed extremely easy until the final sections, and then it was a slog more than anything else. And I was a bit disappointed to see there were no interesting hub levels in this installment.
Unfortunately, the excessively-tanky demons make a return (as even the title graphic suggests), and they kind of overstay their welcome near the end of the game. Fortunately(?), this developers compensated by allowing the player to stock far more potions, zappers (similar to bolts), and exterminators (similar to nukes), and have mercifully updated the HUD to numerically express your stock of each. Interestingly, Abyss seems to have done away with the charge shot, though I can't say I mind, since there didn't seem to be a strong argument for using it in Catacomb 3-D.
Abyss managed to be interesting in terms of the new environments and enemies; meanwhile the artwork that cycles at startup seems to indicate a whole bunch of enemy types we still haven't seen, so I'm curious to find out what's left in store for the remaining two episodes.