Review: Industria Is a Competent Atmospheric Shooter

I’m a huge fan of atmospheric first person shooters, but lately the trend of single player shooters has seemed to diminish a bit. Instead, most first person games are either the type where you run from horrible monsters, or multiplayer games that are light on story. Games like Half-Life just aren’t as common anymore, unfortunately—so it’s nice to play a game like Industria that reminds me of the early days of story-driven shooters.

Industria is an atmospheric story driven single player first person shooter. In it you play as a woman searching for her husband after some sort of an event at his research facility—a site that is located in East Berlin near the end of the Cold War. But that doesn’t really matter, because before you know it you’ll be whisked into an alternate reality where robots have caused a local apocalyptic event in what seems to be closer to the early 1900s. Soon you find yourself trying to escape all sorts of robotic enemies while trying to discover the fate of your husband.

There is a serious Half-Life feel to Industria. The early 1900’s Eastern European architecture is adulterated by all sorts of robotic alterations, giving the entire game a sort of retro Half-Life 2 feeling. Instead of the Combine, however, you’re dealing with a mysterious threat that manifested about 20 years prior.

I really missed atmospheric first person shooters that gave you a chance to fight back, and Industria does a good job with that. There is a balance between danger and gunplay, though Industria doesn’t offer up a hardcore challenge. Instead, it’s mostly go from point A to point B while shooting robots and discovering the truth of the world. There are a few environmental puzzles, but nothing really that should stump anyone for too long.

The gunplay in Industria is fun, but it’s not groundbreaking. I do appreciate the lack of hit markers, and the reality that brings to combat. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good hit marker showing me that I’m putting rounds on my target, but there’s something about putting down a robot using the scope of the sniper rifle, and you get no other indication of a hit than the robot falling over.

Industria is story driven, and while it has a compelling mystery, I don’t think the story ultimately pays off. Just as you’re starting to discover some truths, the game ends. I don’t want to be set up for a sequel, I want some sort of conclusion, even if there are threads left to pull—and Industria ends so abruptly, and without any meaningful conclusion, it’s almost frustrating. What makes it worse is that the game could have ended at an earlier point, but instead meanders a bit to set up a sequel.

Overall, Industria is a fun, short first person shooter that’s worth checking out. I enjoyed the time I spent shooting robots, but its length and how it abruptly ends makes it hard to recommend without reservation. But it has a good atmosphere with fun gunplay that makes it worth checking out.

Industria is available now for PC via Steam.

A Steam key was provided to us for the purpose of this review.