SCP – Containment Breach Mobile Review

Blink and You’ll Miss It

ALOB Games brings Joonas Rikkonen’s terrifying 2012 indie survival horror game to mobile. SCP – Containment Breach Mobile continues to frighten players with the dangerous “SCP’s” that have escaped containment. Players must race through the facility while these creatures hunt them down. ALOB Games manages to bring all the charm of this title to mobile, and frankly, all the bugs. Controls can be difficult to get used to at first and only get worse when you need to move quickly. Moving the camera and the character get overwhelming in some situations and easily become frustrating.

Anyone familiar with SCP – Containment Breach for the PC will have an easy time adjusting to the mobile version. The story behind the original game is very complicated and can be difficult for newcomers to learn. Joonas Rikkonen developed the game based on a website that detailed fictional stories about the SCP Foundation, which contains and researches strange and sometimes supernatural events and creatures. It’s full of interesting articles about the SCPs featured in the game, but not needed to play. Each SCP has a nickname as well as an official SCP number. The first one you encounter, SCP-173, is known as “The Sculpture” as it’s made of concrete and rebar.

There are unique strategies for each of the creatures you encounter in the game that you can learn through playing and reading documents you find scattered in the levels. You also might need to look up a few guides to understand everything that’s going on. It’s possible to play without guides, but the documents can be difficult to read on a small phone screen.

Creature Feature

SCP- Containment Breach Mobile uses the same story, gameplay, and graphics as the original PC version. Controls for this title can get very messy and frustrating as you get your bearings in the game. A joystick appears at the bottom of the screen for you to move around but need to use your other hand to look up and down. Besides these controls, there are buttons for sprinting, interacting with objects and doors, and blinking. This is an important button you need to remember to use while it’s safe. The first SCP you come across can only move when you aren’t looking. If you blink, it can move quickly towards you. You will blink automatically if the bar goes down to refill, but it could happen at the wrong moment.

You’ll likely die repeatedly early on while you get used to everything so it’s important to save often. The gamer’s objective is to escape while avoiding the SCPs, but glitches are just as much of a threat. One of the most common bugs I encountered was getting stuck on an environmental object. Sometimes a space will be wide enough to enter, but not to leave. The only way to escape is to reload your save file, another reason to save often.

Close the Door

SCP – Containment Breach Mobile manages to create a terrifying atmosphere that will leave you unnerved as you race around the facility. It’s layout is randomly generated whenever you start a new game, making each time you play feel like a unique experience. With rooms moving around, the items you want will be in different places each time and you might not find the right item before you need it. This title is challenging to beat, which can result in many players growing frustrated. And that’s not even counting when people can’t complete a level due to glitches. One common bug causes multiple rooms to generate merged together. That can make it impossible to get the items required to escape.

Overall, this title can be exciting for some players and annoying for others. Fans of creepy stories and fictional monsters might enjoy the vast background of this title through the unique and interesting creatures. However, bugs and wonky controls can grow irritating as you work your way through, especially the further you get into a level. ALOB Games certainly lives up to its name—A Lot of Bugs.