It started off as a good idea, like most mad science does. There are lots of people, people need to eat, therefore a rapidly-growing food source is needed to meet the needs of an ever-expanding population. People like meat, so it should be some kind of livestock, but the important thing is speed of growth. Get that sorted and everything else will take care of itself. It’s probably safe and not a biohazard that will expand out of control in a lab designed for research rather than defense, feasting on the scientists who were pressured to ignore safety measures in pursuit of results. Even if it does, maybe it can be contained. Maybe the ever-growing bio-horror won’t spread its tendrils deep into the facility with its one motivation being to keep expanding outward forever. Maybe Demon Spore’s lone surviving scientist isn’t completely and irrevocably screwed.
This was never going to end well, but it will end quickly
Alone in a room at the bottom of the facility, the former lead scientist and now tasty monster-snack is unarmed and far from any exits, but the lab was in full production mode with equipment lying around everywhere. Viewed from a high-overhead perspective that’s a little more generous in its range of view than the security-camera style filter would grant (barring very high ceilings), each room is fully visible from the moment you enter. The bio-terrors come in a number of forms, from different types of pods that will give you a little time to walk up and dispatch with a single hit before they hatch, to uglier nasties that are best kept far away from until distracted or immobilized. Thankfully, each room is also filled with all sorts of items that can give a clever scientist an edge. Initially armed with what’s effectively a big stick for defense, the lab is stocked with any number of useful tools if you can just figure out the best way to use them.
The standard go-to tool is a simple fire extinguisher, found in almost every room of the facility, which won’t kill anything but will freeze it in place long enough for a few good whacks from a steel bar to pulp it. Acid and fire vials are common as well, perfect for throwing, and while they don’t instantly destroy anything, the constant damage will accumulate and knock out most creatures after several seconds. For real destructive power, though, a thrown red exploding barrel will do the trick, and with careful positioning its blast can take out multiple horrors at once. The trick is to get the enemies to cluster together, and for that you’re able to do things like toss a chair so enemies will congregate on the noise or even turn on a loud air conditioner. When a more direct approach is needed, though, the map that becomes visible at every room exit pinpoints where guns can be found, plus chests containing other perks like a faster rate of fire or sneakers for increased running speed.
As useful as tools and weapons can be on the small fry, those are just the advance scouts for the main mass that’s growing from the center of the lab. Once you enter a room all the doors lock until the threat is eliminated, and when that includes a node with rapidly-growing tendrils that spawn other nodes, it can be a fast trip to becoming monster chow. Destroying a node also eliminates its tendrils, and the fire extinguisher will freeze it solid like any other monster, but defeating the spawning mass means knowing its weaknesses, understanding the best way to use the room’s items, and not relenting for a second until either the nightmare is driven back or the run is ended in a single hit.
TheDemon Spore demois part of the Steam Next Fest and contains at least a floor’s worth of randomized rooms to try and survive. It’s possible there’s more than one floor, but the odds of surviving to reach the exit are incredibly low, so that’s going to have to remain a mystery for now. Death is frequent and can happen ridiculously quickly, but restarts are instant and it’s easy to fall back into the game’s flow. Grab an extinguisher in the first room, check the map to find the nearest weapon, plot a course to other perks and hope like mad that the biohazard marked in the room in the middle of the map won’t block your way as it expands to take over the facility. No room is safe until after you’ve killed every threat in there and its doors unlock, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by numbers or underestimate a single stray enemy. The scientists got what they wanted, a living organism that grows fast enough to feed a planet, but only if it doesn’t eat everyone first.
