PC Gamer - UK (2022-06)

Giant, greasy, black vines choke the
settlements and surrounding waters.
The only way to make things right
is for our cursed heroine, Miku,
to return the glowing kernels to
their host plants. The
seeds of destruction
are also the literal
seeds of rebirth.
Or something. The
central mechanic here
makes immediate
sense, but I found
myself confused about
pretty much everything
else. It’s not clear why she believes
it’s the only way for her brother to
have a home, or what the process is
costing the girl. The melancholy is
evident, but the suffering really isn’t.
There’s the suggestion that the City
History collectables and unfolding
narrative snippets will explain things,
but they don’t, really.
The game is going for the
confounding vagaries of Alex
Garland’s Annihilation, and certainly
they share an aesthetic. The
crumbling worlds – both ours and
that of its survivors – are well drawn,
as you’d expect from former BioShock
staffers, and there are a few excellent
touches. Watching everything
blooming into life as you pass
carrying the seed is lovely. You’ll find
yourself turning to watch those
sunsets and making good use of the
game’s Postcard Mode.

LEAF IT OUT

It’s called Submerged: Hidden
Depths, but you spend the whole
thing on the surface, boating
between deserted settlements and
platforming in search of seeds,
flowers, and other ephemera. This

is where I start to have real issues.

The lack of combat makes sense,

but there’s no peril. Miku and her

brother cannot die in gameplay and

so it all feels very lightweight. Your

interactions have

visible results, yes, but

what does it really

mean? There’s no

rush, no danger, and

the environmental

puzzles barely

warrant the name.

Movement in

something like

Assassin’s Creed is largely

automated, but never feels that way.

You feel smart and heroic, with

death a slip away, rather than

someone holding down one button.

Knowing that you can’t fall in

Submerged: Hidden Depths renders

the heights and crumbling

environment like a soft-play barn.

Here you move in the direction of

a marked environmental hazard, and

you lope through it. There’s no timing

and very little pathfinding, involved.

For a game about exploration, this is

effectively an on-rails experience

once you’re inside one of the

corrupted structures. There is a

linear path, that you learn to identify

as it’s marked with red paint or

illuminated plants, and you can’t

deviate, or indeed swim, which seems

bizarre considering the world Miku

and her brother inhabit. You can see

other possibilities, but they’re walled

off. Every time you try to step over a

stone to find an invisible wall or

stand immobile in front of a ledge

that you should be able to climb, it

pulls you out of the illusion. There’s

no diegetic explanation for this

sudden lack of prowess.

There are a few branches that take

you to a collectable, but I found

myself skipping these. There are

plenty of doohickies to round up,

long after you’ve finished the

storyline, but other than upgrades for

your boat there’s little reward for it. I

also got stuck in some scenery early

on, which took two reloads and some

frustrated jockeying to escape. That

may be gone in the final build, but it

discouraged exploration.

I really wanted to love this game.

The idea of a conflict-free wander,

healing the world that humans have

destroyed to an excellent Jeff van

Dyck score, seemed like a balm for

turbulent times. This game falls short

of such greatness, and certainly it

needs a more satisfying conclusion.

There’s always a danger of wanting a

game to be what it isn’t, but I think it

fails by its own standards.

69

An appealing and

occasionally beautiful

way to spend five

hours. Butyou’re

just sight-seeing.

VERDICT

I

t’s not a reassuring thought that once humans mess up the planet,
they’ll do it again in the aftermath, but it’s entirely logical. In
Submerged: Hidden Depths, survivors in the ruins of a world lost
to the ocean anger a mysterious marine entity known as The
Mass, by using its seeds as a power source for their worship of
bygone electronics. Its wrath is total, turning everyone into tentacled
echoes of their last living moments.

BOTANY BAY

Exploring a watery and horticultural apocalypse in SUBMERGED: HIDDEN DEPTHS

By Matt Killeen

The lack

of combat

makes sense,

but there’s

no peril

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

An exploration-focused

platformer in a flooded

world, withno combat.

EXPECT TO PAY

£24

DEVELOPER

Uppercut Games

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

GTX 980 Ti, Intel

i5-4690K, 32GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

submerged

hiddendepths.com

PARKOUR WHAT?

Things you should be able to climb, but can’t

LOG

Eminently walkable planks.

TINY WALL

Surely I can just hop over?

ROPE

An insurmountable obstacle,

unfortunately.

LEDGE

Come on, just let me shimmy

across, I won’t tell anyone.

Submerged: Hidden Depths

REVIEW

79