Submerged: Hidden Depths is a game for those who enjoy exploring strange and desolate worlds. Taking place in a sunken city, the player takes control of a brother-sister duo as they explore this post-apocalyptic sunken world constructed out of the tops of sky-scrapers, highways, and radio towers.
A non-violent game that is suitable for most ages (except the young and easily scared – there is a giant ‘tree man’ which will likely give young players nightmares), the player’s main task is to heal a number of gigantic black plants which have overrun the city and turned nearly everyone they’ve come into contact with into hollow, plant-like replicas. I say nearly everyone, as the sister came into contact with the plant, but instead of killing her, it instead gave her a strange connection to it, manifesting as vines entwined around one of her arms. This gives the entire game an air which is a blend of sombre melancholy mixed with hope.
As players try to heal the plants, they have the opportunity to explore and collect a number of items, including forgotten relics (like typewriters), upgrades to the boat, cosmetic changes (costumes for the sister and new paint-jobs for the boat), flowers, animals, and diaries. The last serve to fill in the backstory of what befell the people who once inhabited the city. The city is huge, and between the collectibles and semi-submerged structures to explore, there’s a lot the player can do. Even once the main story-line is finished (which advances each time the player heals one of the black plants), players can still explore the world and collect any items they may have missed.
One of the surprising things about Submerged: Hidden Depths is that it is a non-platforming platformer. That is, the level construction would be at home in any platformer: there are ledges to climb up to, monkey bars and ropes to swing across and polls sticking out of the water to jump on. However, all action is completely automated. The player simply aims their character in the right direction, and pushes the forward button. What’s more surprising is that this actually works – and I say this as a player who has a long and deep love for platforming games (usually, the more unforgiving the better). It focuses the player’s task on finding the route through the level, instead of pathfinding and execution, and I can see that it would make a good introduction to a person who’s never before played anything in the platforming genre.
One offshoot of this (to keep with the plant theme) is that the levels are rather linear. While this doesn’t matter the first time you go through a level, it can make retreading ground in order to snag collectibles tedious. This is primarily because some collectibles are hidden on branching paths, which lead to dead ends, and it’s not always clear which path leads to the collectible and which leads you further towards your goal of healing the plant, meaning backtracking is inevitable. Also, healing a plant automatically sends you back to your main base, meaning that if you missed any collectibles you want to get, you’ll have to work your way back through the level again. Another offshoot of effectively putting the player on rails, is that it is possible to get stuck occasionally causing the character to stick and jitter around until you manage to backtrack, and line your character up a bit better.
While this didn’t matter in the beginning, it did get frustrating towards the last levels of the game, where I found myself ignoring collectibles, and viewing some of the platforming elements (like vines which wind their way down a wall) as being simply variety for variety’s sake. This suggests two things. Firstly the actual game is a bit too big, and could have benefitted from having maybe two-or-three less plants to heal. Secondly, that the best way to enjoy this game is in bite-sized chunks: a small bit of exploring, healing a plant, and then leaving it for another day.
Visually, the game is a mixed-bag. The world, especially when shrouded in mist, or with the sun lighting up the sky, looks amazing. The blackened plants swell and turn green, sprouting an array of flowers as they do, looking stunning, all enhanced by the slightly haunting piano music that accompanies it. Movement also feels fast and smooth, and it’s enjoyable to scale to the top of a structure. However, draw-distances – even on maximum settings – are a bit short, some of the animations look a bit stilted, and models can sometimes trip over the line between being stylized, and simply being basic. There is also a noticeable stutter when the game loads a new area.
While it’s not perfect , Submerged: Hidden Depths is still an enjoyable experience and I can happily recommend it to those who either want a non-stressful ‘platforming’ and exploration game, or looking for a game to share with their child. ■