Umbilical Is A Fascinating Co-Op Horror Games About Staying Connected

thegamer.com:

A lot of people go to game conventions like PAX West to see the big expensive booths and grab a sneak peak at the next big triple-A game, but the real ones know the good stuff is always hiding in plain sight. If you really want to see something special, walk up to the most unassuming booth in some quietest part of the show floor and ask for a demo. At last weekend’s PAX, that's how you would have found Umbilical, a survival-horror co-op game from an indie Brazilian publisher called DX Gameworks. Umbilical is, as the developers describe, a game about connection inspired by Alien, Returnal, and of course, Death Stranding.

You play as Alicia, a woman on a mission to protect an inhospitable planet from a malicious parasite that wants to consume the world’s energy source. To be more precise, you actually play as Alicia and her drone, which is linked to her suit by a long, umbilical-like tether. Alicia can not survive without being connected to the drone, so protecting their connection is your number one priority.

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Umbilical has a unique perspective and control scheme that lends itself well to survival horror. You see the world from the point of view of the drone looking down on Alicia from a bird’s eye view. You control each of them independently, each half of the controller assigned to each character. In co-op, each player will control one character. It seemed to me that the experience is mostly designed for co-op, since the themes of connection will be much more present while trying to work with another person to survive, but the developers assured that single player will be a perfectly viable way to play as well.

While Alicia explores the planet, the