The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is the most indoors I ve felt since lockdown began

The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is the most indoors I ve felt since lockdown began

The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is the most indoors I've felt since lockdown began Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is the most indoors I've felt since lockdown began Vanishing point. Feature by Steve Hogarty Contributor Updated on 23 Mar 2021 6 comments Like you, I have been surrounded by the same four walls for approximately one billion years now, entombed in a two-bedroom sarcophagus, hemorrhaging rent to an invisible overlord to maintain homeostasis in a world stood still. I'm convinced that, when I am asleep, these walls creep inwards by a few imperceptible millimetres, and that soon I'll have to slowly squeeze through narrow hallways to get around, like my flat is perpetually loading the next area, until one Tuesday afternoon I am finally crushed to death. Interminal Developer: Ian MacLarty Platform: Played on PC Availability: Out now The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is incredibly indoors. It's the most indoors I've felt since lockdown began. It's a free-roaming kaleidoscope, a perspective-shifting maze with no exit and no entrance. As you explore, the shapes of corridors and corners become momentarily apparent, their edges made visible by the patterned walls skewing and stretching as you move around. When you stop or turn, the maze changes. Sections that were once open space become flat textures projected onto solid walls, like Wile E Coyote's paintings of tunnels, or 3D chalk artworks on the pavement. Watch on YouTube There's no light or shadow to offer your eyes any clues as to the catacombs' true shape, just the angles where the different textures seem to line up, and the illusory vanishing points suggested by the barely legible edges of rooms. There is no true shape. The credulous cubic inch of your brain responsible for creating mental maps is bamboozled every few steps you take, giving this visual toy the vibe of an unpredictable, psychedelic nightmare. Once you grow desensitised to raw, undulating colourscapes, you can import your own custom image to use as the pattern of the walls, floors and ceilings, allowing you to freely wander around inside an increasingly distorted memory of your trip to Whitstable Bay. Your photo is stretched and diced into an unrecognisable smear of pixels the deeper into the maze you venture, before pinging back to its original resolution when you round a corner, ready to be blended up all over again. Seeing your pictures of the outside mutilated by the forms of the inside feels suffocating, like being stuck inside your own skull. There was a moment during last month's Super Bowl half-time show when, as part of his act, pop sensation the Weeknd became trapped inside a glass tesseract of light and mirrors somewhere deep inside the bowels of the Raymond James Stadium. The panicked Canadian songster searched in vain for a way out of the shimmering labyrinth, staggering wide-eyed around blind corners and along dazzling catwalks. Disorientated and afraid, the Weeknd repeatedly came face to face with reflections of his reflections, until those very reflections came to life and began to attack him, and then dance with him. The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited is an impression of that moment, the terrifying sensation of being lost inside an infinite cage that won't stop changing shape. There are no reflections to dance with or treasures to discover, beyond the simple sensory joy of experiencing a lot of different colours and shapes happening at the same time. It is a sometimes nauseating and claustrophobic experience, but it's occasionally very beautiful. A Windows Media Player visualiser you can crawl around inside, but can never leave. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer news cast: what Xbox's Bethesda exclusives mean for the future. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store
Share:
0 comments

Comments (0)

Leave a Comment

Minimum 10 characters required

* All fields are required. Comments are moderated before appearing.

No comments yet. Be the first to comment!