October saw a glut of horror games primed for spooky season, varying from psychological thrillers that delve into the protagonist’s psyche, to more fantastical themed endeavours borrowing from the works of Lovecraft. Few can compare conceptually to QUByte’s Saborus though, which puts a spin on the genre by placing you in control of a chicken trying to escape from a slaughterhouse. Cast aside mental images of Chicken Run-style shenanigans, running across robotic pie production lines and such, as Saborus has an 18+ age rating.
It plays heavily into the aspect of controlling a chicken, limiting interactions to things a real-life counterpart would be capable of. This extends to running and hiding from danger, sabotaging electronics using sharp claws, carrying around power packs and other small items in the clutches of their beak, and, well, not much else beyond “hacking” computers by randomly pressing buttons on the keyboard. Being flightless, they’re susceptible to taking fall damage too, which ends up becoming one of many points of contention.
While evidently produced on a small budget and with limited resources, Saborus – named after the meat production facility itself – isn’t too shabby looking overall, sporting realistic shadows and lighting, along with crisp textures. It still gets off to a bad start however by commencing with a chase sequence in which it’s essential to run, only there’s no prompt to inform what the run button is. This results in a few swift deaths – and prompting quick recap of the controller layout – while being introduced to the game’s long (30 second, approx.) loading times. The problem here being that you’re going to be dying often, each time forcing a checkpoint reload.
On that subject, checkpoints only occur after completing a section, with some of these edging towards twenty minutes long, later featuring very tricky platforming sections (hello again, fall damage) that are confounded further by iffy collision detection. Quite often it appears that our feathered friend is hovering over objects rather than standing on them.
By limiting the number of actions available to our hapless hero, Saborus very quickly settles into a groove. For the most part, you’re ushered into large boxy factory environments and must locate glowing power pods from the furthest reaches and use them to power scissor lifts and forklifts to open a path, all the while avoiding Saborus personnel. If they catch a glimpse they’ll give chase, at which point you can either hide or run. Jumping onto boxes is a fool proof strategy, as they’re unable to grab you the moment you take the high ground. Later, power pods need to be charged and carried to their destination before they deplete, and often you’ll need to damage electrical panels to set an electrical trap – which enemies must be lured into first.
For variety, there are chase sequences – which largely boil down to memorisation rather than fast reflexes – while the game’s second half is more horror themed, forcing you to traverse piles of gnawed carcasses while dealing with a new beastly adversary sensitive to light. When the size of locations grows, all of the game’s problems start to mount and become unbearable, resulting in sections that’ll have you cursing the sporadic checkpoints and woolly jumping. The same music also plays throughout, although thankfully it suits the menacing tone and isn’t too grating.
What does make matters worse is that Saborus keeps on going far beyond the 3-4 hours that would have been sufficient, chucking you into one maze-like location to another until it finally decides that enough is enough. That’s no exaggeration, as two mazes appear back-to-back, in which torches must be carried as you frantically dash to one charging point to the next before the light dims. The first of these mazes made me sigh; the second made me cuss. Only a couple of other enemy types are introduced throughout the later scenes, including flamethrower-equip drones that patrol small areas, and a mutated pig that’s easy to avoid due to the chicken’s ability to run indefinitely.
Doubtlessly, Saborus was made with good intentions. It touches upon the sensitive theme of animal cruelty, and while some locations are quite gruesome, it never comes off as crass or heavy handed. There’s even an attempt at weaving a narrative, with Saborus up to no good when it comes to developing a new product line. Sure, it’s told using the most clumsy and awkward dialogue imaginable, but it does help expand the premise beyond simply escaping.
The potential was here for a unique horror experience, but that potential is squander by making you feel more like a lab rat in a maze rather than a helpless chicken going great lengths to survive. Either due to budget constraints or a lack of ambition and technical knowhow, we’re left with something that has an hours’ worth of ideas stretched over five, becoming increasingly predictable and tiresome as it drags on. It left me feeling colder than day old KFC.
High Room Studio’s Saborus is out now on all formats. Published by QUByte Interactive.