Submerged review for Xbox One, PS4

Platform: Xbox One
Also On: PS4, PC
Publisher: Uppercut Games
Developer: Uppercut Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+

Thereโ€™s a very easy way to determine whether youโ€™ll enjoy Submerged: is climbing your favourite part of Uncharted? Do you like the parkour elements of Assassinโ€™s Creed more than anything else in that series? If yes, then Submerged will be right up your alley. If not, youโ€™ll probably hate it.

I know thatโ€™s a pretty simplistic way of looking at things, but Submerged is a pretty simplistic game. Thereโ€™s no combat. No enemies. No clock or timer looming over your head. No dialogue. No way to die. Itโ€™s just you and your boat, exploring a cityโ€™s waterlogged ruins.Submerged 1

Admittedly, thereโ€™s a bit of a story pushing everything forward: youโ€™re looking for supplies to help save your brotherโ€™s life. And that, in turn, informs your in-game actions, at least to an extent โ€” your exploration will end up being driven largely by telltale glimpses of shiny objects (which indicate emergency rations are close by) and red flowers (which mean youโ€™ll be able to climb into the ruined building to look around).

But it only pushes you forward to the extent you let it. Without a clock, you can simply drift around the city for days on end, taking in the sights and occasional sounds of a drowned, mostly deserted city. In fact, for players for whom the exploration is the main draw, finding rations may actually be a disincentive, since once you uncover those the game automatically cuts your exploration short, and you instantly get taken back to your home base and your brother.

Submerged 2

This is actually a really odd design choice, since Submerged is clearly meant to be all about exploration. The developers put a lot of effort into creating a world thatโ€™s meant to be discovered, with little hints of what life was like pre-disaster scattered everywhere. There are the big, obvious signs that youโ€™re looking around what used to be a thriving metropolis: the skeletal remains of a stadiumโ€™s lights, a giant statue towering over everything, some gorgeous hotels. But there are also the smaller details that make the world feel lived in: a pig-shaped butcher sign here, billboards and ads ads painted on the sides of buildings there. Itโ€™s things like this that transform the game from being just a pretty-looking tech demo to being something worth playing โ€” and why I donโ€™t understand the gameโ€™s reasoning behind reducing the amount of time you spend looking around, particularly when itโ€™s a fairly short game as it is.

Should you devote the time to it, though? Again, it goes back to that initial question: how much do you like climbing and exploring? On the whole, I think itโ€™s worth it, since Subdmergedโ€™s world is absolutely gorgeous, and itโ€™s relaxing to just drift along on the current as dolphins and sting rays and whales swim by. If you want a deeper, meatier experience, though, youโ€™d probably be better served looking elsewhere, because this game just doesnโ€™t have that.

Grade: B+
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