Antro

I went into Antro expecting a rhythm curiosity from a first-time studio and came out the other side genuinely moved by its premise, if also a little frustrated by its reach exceeding its grasp. Gatera Studio was founded in Barcelona with a specific mission: represent urban, underground culture in games. That conviction bleeds into every pixel of this thing, and conviction counts for a lot when you are judging an indie debut. The world is a stratified underground city beneath the ruins of Barcelona, where survivors of a global collapse called La Cúpula - a tech-authoritarian regime - have outlawed music, art and dissent. You play as Nittch, a nihilistic courier who picks up a mysterious package and ends up swept into the resistance group Los Discordantes. The setting is unmistakably inspired by Playdead's Inside in its claustrophobic silhouette aesthetic, but Gatera adds neon graffiti, faceless crowds, and a visual identity that feels genuinely specific to Catalan urban culture. Collectibles scattered off the main path expand the lore of this world, and the background dressing - propaganda posters, robot enforcers, strata-divided districts - does more worldbuilding than the dialogue ever manages. The story itself is thin and ends abruptly without much resolution, which is a real shame given how charged the setting feels. Gameplay splits into two modes that alternate throughout. The calmer exploration stretches have light parkour, simple stealth, and rhythm-based door puzzles where you tap buttons in time with a beat to progress. These sections breathe, let you hunt for collectibles, and set the tone. Then the music kicks in properly, Nittch breaks into an auto-run, and the whole screen locks into a chase sequence where jump, slide and bat-swing must be timed to the track. When those sequences click, they are genuinely electric. The levels are built around the songs rather than the other way around, meaning environmental hazards, enemies, and even background visual effects sync to the beat. A collapsing beam swings on the downstroke. A drone explodes on the snare. It is an interactive music video in the best sense. The soundtrack itself - original tracks from Spanish and Catalan hip-hop and drill artists across genres including R&B and electronic - is a legitimate highlight, the kind you want to find on streaming services after the credits roll. The caveats are real, though, and you should know them before buying. The whole thing clocks around ninety minutes to two hours, less if you skip collectibles. That brevity is not inherently a sin - a short game that knows when to end is something I will always defend - but Antro has not quite figured out its pacing before the credits arrive. The difficulty barely ramps until the final level, the auto-runner timing feels more generous than rhythmically satisfying (your inputs often do not need to land precisely on the beat), and Nittch's movement has a slight floatiness and forward drift on landings that makes precision sections feel sloppier than intended. Some players have also noted that switching language settings to English still leaves chunks of text in Spanish or Catalan, which matters if you want to follow the story closely. For a debut, these are understandable production limits. For a paying customer, they are worth weighing honestly. Antro is the kind of small game I want to exist. It represents a cultural voice rarely heard in the medium, it was built with real love for music as a structural element rather than wallpaper, and it shows a studio with a distinctive point of view. The execution is rough in places, and at its current length the price-to-runtime ratio deserves scrutiny. But if you have even a passing interest in rhythm-infused platformers, Catalan urban music, or dystopian indie aesthetics, the two hours it asks for are worth the trip.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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