Submerged Review
Submerged Review
Developer Uppercut Games
Publisher Uppercut Games
Platform PS4 & PC
Release Date Out Now
Submerged at best was a risk worth taking however the end product is simply not that engaging. Although the idea of stripping out violence is not particularly unique at this stage, it is always somewhat refreshing when studios don’t rely on the old video game standards and swap out guns for discovery, carnage for scenery, and blood for adventure. Submerged however fails to replace that violence with anything to draw you in.
You can’t die which immediately takes away from the experience. You can’t run out of time, you can’t fall from the buildings you climb. You are not racing against anyone else to gather necessary resources, and despite thinking you should really rush to save your dying brother not only is there is plenty of time for site seeing it is encouraged.
There is a minimal story that basically boils down to you needing to save your sick bother. To do this you must identify buildings that may have what you need. Then you potter over in your little boat and climb it to collect the bits and bobs, and return them to your brother.
Visually the game is pretty; the city you find yourself in is made up of dilapidated buildings covered in vegetation, all partially submerged by sea water. All around you are magnificent sea creatures, giant whales, sting rays, and odd human type creatures who look on ominously. None make any effort to impede you but rather just go about their life.
The day night cycle reveals some stunning visuals as the sun sets across the water, the creatures break the surface and the ivy gently flutters in the breeze. It is all very lovely but its efforts to replace traditional gaming elements with just the curiosity of exploring the city means this gets very boring once you realize this is little more than an interactive screen saver.
Overall: It looks nice and plays reasonably well, it was worth taking the risk to try something new but this experiment missed the vital key point for games like this. Simply taking out the violence is not enough, you need to replace it with something better to keep the player interested.
Score: 2.5
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