Indie developer Tsvetomir Georgiev’s GLOWCOMA: Chapter 1 recently arrived on Steam, and it feels like a mix of Metro: 2033 and Dead Space, but with a slathering of indie aesthetics slapped on top.

The game definitely looks good, though. Visually it’s competent. The lighting is on point, the animations for the enemies are great, and the dismemberment and gore system is quite satisfying.

The game is currently available over on the Steam store for just $5.99. So you won’t be breaking the bank to get in your game time.

The description on the store page leaves a lot to be desired, but it basically explains that this is a one-man project and doesn’t have the backing or support of a major studio. Georgiev wrote…

“My name is Tsvetomir Georgiev and I work as a 3d designer for movies and games.Started looking into the Unreal engine two and a half years ago in my spare time, and have been working on my first game Glowcoma: chapter 1 since then. Thank you for your time and support. Hope you liked the game.”

You might think that with one guy doing all the work that the game might look like trash, but the opposite is the case. You can check out the trailer below to get an idea of what it’s like.

Apart from the nauseating motion blur, the actual enemy animations and gore are done quite well. The weapons also look menacing and effective, and it’s great to see that at least one developer out there is willing to try something new.

Also, the fact that you can shoot out the legs of the monsters and they’ll still crawl after you makes for some truly harrowing moments.

Unfortunately, it’s not all blood roses and sewage pipes in the land of GLOWCOMA.

The user reviews are currently mixed, and it’s mostly due to Georgiev being a 3D artist and not a programmer. A lot of the complaints center around screen scaling issues, with the window not always filling out to full-screen, resulting in the mouse cursor spilling outside the play area and clicking onto the desktop, which is a pretty horrible thing to experience during the heat of combat.

There are also some complaints about the game lacking graphics options for scaling up or scaling down certain features and resolutions, which many found to be annoying. And then there were a few people who had issues with not being able to properly access the options menu at all.

So hopefully with the money Georgiev makes from the purchases he can fix some of the bugs and improve the quality of life features in GLOWCOMA: Chapter 1, because most of the user reviews – even the negative ones – still highlight how good the game is as far as atmosphere and enemy designs are concerned.

(Thanks for the news tip Harrison Bergeron)