In my review of Cradle (which I meant to get out last week, apologies!) I noted that I’ve found two distinct types of exploration games. Some are guided, wanting to gently push you towards some goal, others are more free form, wanting you to roam and discover your own story. With Cradle more in the guided camp it was serendipitous that Submerged came right after I finished it as it takes the opposite approach, plonking you in a wide open area and letting you have at it. Whilst my preference for these types of games still tends towards the guided Submerged is a decent little exploration game, even if it errs on the simplistic side.
You are Miku, a determined young girl who’s come to this sunken city in the hopes of finding help for you brother, Taku. He is gravely injured, suffering from a might slash across his chest that threatens to take his life. You must explore this city, clambering through ruined buildings and scaling crumbling towers, looking for supplies to restore Taku to health. You can’t help but feel you’re being watched however as this wild city seems to have eyes on every corner. Still you push forward, your love for your brother driving you forward.
Submerged runs on the Unreal 4 engine and, whilst it’s not going to bring your PC to its knees with the graphics, it does have a great style and aesthetic. It’s one of those games where it’s best visual moments are the ones when you’re in a wide open space, the sprawling ruined city laid out before you. Up close it starts to lose its magic as there’s a lot of repeated asset use without a lot of variety. Still there were numerous times when my wife would peek over my shoulder and exclaim “Pretty!” at my screen so that has to count for something.
The core game play of Submerged is one of exploration as you’re set free in a ruined city to look for supplies, secrets and upgrades for your boat. You could say that there was a platforming aspect to Submerged as well, since you have to scale buildings and ferret your way through their innards, however it’s quite limited in nature. Thankfully you don’t have to stumble blindly through every building to find what you need as your telescope can highlight things on your map for you. Other than that there’s really not much else to speak of in Submerged as it really is quite a simple game.
Whilst you’ll be scaling great heights there’s no threat to falling off and having to start over as the platfroming is strictly controlled. You can’t accidentally let go form a platform, leap to your death or walk off the edge to fall down onto another platform. This does mean that there’s really no tension in any of the climbing sections however, unlike nearly every other platform game I’ve played. At the same time it is kind of nice to switch off and just meander through these sections and it does give you something of an incentive to explore a little more. Still if you were looking for a platforming challenge Submerged isn’t the game you’re looking for.
Submerged behaves pretty much as expected however there are a few little quirks that I feel bear mentioning. There’s obviously something a little off about the day/night cycles as, whilst they seem to work fine, the sun and moon don’t move in a smooth motion. Instead they seem to move in fast increments, something which is readily apparent when there’s long shadows cast on a building. Additionally some of the visual clues for climbing, like the vines and whatnot, aren’t exactly clear on what you can and can’t climb on first blush. A wall covered in small vines? Climbable. A wall covered in large vines? Not climbable however you can climb pipes which are roughly the same size. Of course once you figure these quirks out it’s easy to spot them but it does make for some frustrating moments.
In terms of story Submerged opts to tell it primarily through the use of hieroglyphics that are revealed to you when you complete an objective. Whilst it’s a novel approach I can’t help but feel that it was done mostly in the aid of easing the localization of Submerged more than anything, kind of like why The Sims speak gibberish rather than an actual language. Thus the story, whilst a little touching at some points, lacks any real depth or development that would draw you in. The history of the city is somewhat interesting however the fact that you only have a few pictures to go on means that there’s really not a whole lot to explore, in story terms.
Submerged is a decent experience with a wide open world to explore through stress free platforming. The above average visuals and soundtrack, combined with the relatively low challenge, do make Submerged one of the more relaxing experiences I’ve played in recent memory. However that simplicity and lack of challenge means there’s not much to really draw you in as the story, whilst serviceable, does little to draw you in. Overall whilst I’d recommend giving Submerged a go if you’re into exploration type games there’s just not a lot in there for the general gaming populace.
Rating: 6.0/10
Submerged is available on PC, XboxOne and PlayStation4 right now for $19.99 on all platforms. Game was played on the PC with 2 hours of total playtime and 30% of the achievements unlocked.
