You play as an unnamed worker in a dark concrete building filled with boxes, traffic cones, documents, and workers, all of which seem to be doing very little work. The sprawling complex is both haunting and mysterious, and you’re tasked with finding a giant colourful egg, somewhere underground, for an unknown person on the end of a telephone.
Everything in this game is quite surreal and ominous. Whether it’s the guard dog surrounded by a pool of blood, people in weird suits exclaiming that every Wednesday they’re given a pretzel or even a giant enigmatic hand contained within a wall. As you converse with the other employees, you will collect items, uncover clues, and solve puzzles.
The game plays out as a classic point-and-click adventure game from a first-person perspective with PlayStation One-style graphics and an eerie atmospheric soundtrack. Nothing in the game moves, even the NPCs, which adds to the ambience but makes the game seem quite basic.
The puzzles themselves are fairly tedious – mostly fetch quests and key hunts. For example, find a meal token to exchange for a meal, and use the meal to feed the hungry worker who then gives you a key to open a door. It’s all pretty simple stuff and the constant back-and-forth does become exhausting.
What did impress me is the weirdness of it all, especially the strange atmosphere that was generated as you explore. It’s this, along with the interestingly bizarre locations and peculiar characters, that does most of the heavy lifting here. The abstract exploration doesn’t outstay its welcome either, as you will complete the game within 1-2 hours.
Four different endings are promised, although I only saw one throughout my PlayStation playthrough, and I wasn’t eager to repeat the adventure. I also found it frustrating having to click everything to determine whether or not I could interact with the object. An optional setting to include an ‘interaction glow’ would have been welcome. Also after around an hour or so, I started to feel a little nausea, which I’ve found to occur with some Indie titles that are written using the Unity engine.
If you wish to solve the mystery, Under the Warehouse is out now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch for £4.99 // $5.99 // €5.99.
