(Review) Industria

The Short Version:

A sci-fi thriller that’ll have you travelling across dimensions, Industria has just as many positive aspects as it does negative. Extra time should have been provided to iron out some of the nicks that impede on an otherwise solid experience.

Yet, despite its noticeable flaws, it’s still a title that I most definitely recommend. The story is gripping, something that’s further enhanced by its compelling worldbuilding, and the level design is fantastic. Recommend purchasing it at a discount.

Pros:

-Incredibly detailed level design

-Intriguing worldbuilding

-Well-written story

-Good voice acting

-Satisfying gunplay

Cons:

-Awful enemy AI

-Too easy

-Wonky melee combat

-Poor ray-tracing optimisation

-Price is too high

My Rating: 7/10 - Good

The significantly poor AI is a big detriment, as it makes the game feel too easy. But putting that aside, Industria is a compelling and beautiful-looking sci-fi FPS that's worth time and investment.

Where Am I?

Industria is a sci-fi, first-person shooter that mostly takes place in an alternate universe. You play as Nora, who, before being thrown into an inter-dimensional crisis, was a citizen of East Germany. After a concerning phone call with Walter, a close colleague, has her worried, she decides to investigate the research facility they both work at, in search of him.

This leads to an unprecedented series of events that transport her to Hakavik, a ruined metropolis infested with dangerous machines. The city has become a shadow of its former self, with various metallic structures seemingly overgrowing the brick underlayers.

The majority of your time will be spent exploring through its vast streets and dilapidated buildings, coming across various notes detailing a forgotten history, as well as fighting off the robotic denizens patrolling around the city. Looking for Walter’s whereabouts is no easy feat. Learning how Nora ended up where she is and how everything came to be the way it is was a fun and memorable ride.

It doesn't take long to encounter Brent, a lone survivor who will assist you via the radio. His presence makes the game feel less solitary.

Industria’s narrative is short, closing in at just about four hours, but the amount of worldbuilding, as well as navigating the world itself, makes it feel longer than it actually is. Each piece of paper you find provides valuable insight into the city’s riveting past.

Overall, from a writing standpoint, I have no complaints. Everything here was produced to a high standard; the same goes for the voice acting too. If you’re looking for a good, albeit unusual story, you’ll find one here.

Where Humans Fear to Tread...

Despite very much being a linear experience, the levels are crafted in such a way that entices you to explore them. In fact, it’s strongly recommended that you do. As well as finding lore-related items, you’ll come across ammo, health stims, and batteries for your torch, all of which are essential for survival.

You aren’t provided with a compass or a minimap, and while the path forward is usually obvious, it is quite easy to lose yourself in the sights of the city. Hakavik is absolutely stunning to look at. Its structures span as far as the eye can see, and while there is some copy and paste here and there, traversing across it never felt like a chore.

It's safe to say that Hakavik has seen better days. The scale of which the machines have covered the city is nothing short of disturbing.

The visuals are almost top-notch. Texture quality is brilliant, and the same goes for the lighting as well, for the most part. Clipping is frequent, however, and very noticeable, but not to the degree that it becomes a detriment.

The only major problem I have in the graphical department is the ray-tracing optimization, which is very poor, bringing the FPS down to 30 on average, despite having a PC more than capable of running it. Even turning on just one ray-tracing setting plummets the performance. I had to switch it off and play without it, which in all fairness, was fine.

Fighting Super Smart Robots is Pretty Easy...

It doesn’t take long to find yourself engaged in confrontation, and this is where Industria begins to crack under pressure. The quality of the combat will vary dramatically thanks to the significantly poor quality of the AI; ironic considering the fact that the enemies are supposed servants of an advanced artificial intelligence, but ah well.

Seeing an enemy run around in circles because it doesn’t seem to know how to reach you is definitely one way to kill the immersion. Oftentimes all you have to do to avoid serious danger is find a room they can’t get into, then shoot them from there. As a result of these bugs, the game becomes incredibly easy, even on higher difficulties. Making sure my torch had enough juice was probably more challenging than fighting off deadly machines.

Will the robot use its strength to break the planks down? No. Will it run backwards and forwards hoping they'll disappear. Probably, yeah.

Speaking of fighting, how does that work? Well, your first weapon is a pickaxe… and it sucks. Its hit detection is awful and it’s hard to tell if you’re dealing damage since hitting things with it feels wonky. Once you acquire guns, however, things begin to switch. Each gun packs a punch and is genuinely fun to use.

The situations involving the most enemies in open areas were usually the instances where combat was at its best, since it’s harder for them to get stuck on something. If you move past the pickaxe and the dumb AI, the action as a whole is entertaining.

In Conclusion

So all in all, Industria has much to praise about, and much to critique. If it had been given a bit more time in the oven, some of these issues could have been rectified. I struggle to recommend it at its current price, since that is definitely too much for what the game provides.

That doesn’t mean it should be ignored. For such a small team, what’s been produced here is more than commendable. The level design is absolutely superb, the story and the worldbuilding are captivating, and, all its faults aside, the gunplay is fun. If you can look past its shortcomings, you’ll see a charming, beautiful-looking game that’s worth your time and investment.

Check out Devils in the Details for more in-depth reviews!

Want to see more of my reviews? Take a look at my archive in Narukoopa's Reviews.

Technical Details:

My PC Specs: Operating System: Windows 10 Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Graphics Card (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Memory (RAM): 16GB

Resolution: 1920x1080

Performance: Consistent 60FPS with no ray-tracing settings enabled. As soon as one is turned on, frame rate plummets to 30FPS on average, depending on where you are in the game.