Under The Waves

plus qu'un jeu, une thérapie.

Eksploracyjna wyprawa nurkiem w głąb oceanu odnaleźć sens dalszego życia po wielkiej stracie. Podziwiamy piękną faunę i to co może człowiek niestety zniszczyć swoimi działaniami oraz chęcią zysku. Podobał mi się ten walor edukacyjny i przesłanie, które na dzień dzisiejszy jest cały czas aktualne.

I had a tough time thinking if I should give this a positive or negative review. If there were a mixed option that’s where it would sit for me, so while this review may read a bit negative, I still feel like there was a lot of love put into this game and I would feel bad contributing to a bad rating. (I also don’t think I can bring myself to negatively review a game with whales in it!) With that out of the way… This game is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I am a sucker for underwater games and I have been enjoying a lot of “walking sim” games lately, though perhaps it is unfair to call Under the Waves a walking sim as I do think it has a bit more going on mechanically. I think that is actually the main issue I have with this game. It’s got just enough real gameplay going on to make it a more significant part of the experience than most games in this genre and, to be honest, the gameplay just wasn’t very fun for me. The control scheme is pretty bad (I played on controller which is recommended for this title). I found the “A to move forward at any reasonable speed” and right thumbstick for camera movements has my hand feeling a bit sore as I type this, which isn't a problem I usually have. The character and submarine movement felt a bit clunky, though the latter is better than the former. I felt like I was fighting the character and camera, especially in more confined spaces. The game tries to have some light survival/resource management elements which I feel could have been omitted. The game throws consumables at you, especially oxygen, to a point where you’d really have to try to run out. All of this I could’ve forgiven if the game didn’t make EVERYTHING. SO. SLOW. Every single time you get in and out of your submarine (you do this a lot) you have a 7-9 second animation. It makes the decision of “oh let me hop out to pick up these resources” into a painful one every time. Every item you pick up has an animation lockout of a few seconds and sometimes you have to wait for our main character to stop talking to interact with anything. I get the game wants to be immersive, but it doesn’t immerse me at all, it's just frustrating. In short, the gameplay was a slog I felt I had to get through rather than something I enjoyed, so why did I finish it, for the story? Well … kind of? I’ll keep this spoiler free for prospective buyers. Honestly, I didn’t really like our protagonist, Stan, all that much. I found him a bit irritating and many of his decisions to just be dumb. It felt like several times that he was making progress towards coming to terms with his trauma, only to double back on it. There were some good moments in the story and the emotional heart of it was strong and is what kept me playing, and in fairness I was starting to come around to Stan more towards the end of the game. I also liked our submersible, it’s a cool design and feels like a companion on our journey. I definitely feel that the story and character of Stan would resonate with others more than he did with me, and if you’ve been through a similar experience to him, I can imagine this being a very heart wrenching story. All-in-all. This is a decent game with a nice story which is let down (at least for me) by the meandering pace of gameplay and constant animation locks. If you’re looking for a beautiful and chill underwater game with a personal and emotional story, and you’re willing to overlook the poor controls and animation locks then pick this up, maybe on a sale.