As submerged opened for the first time, I had high hopes the story seemed interesting and world it was setting had me intrigued, unfortunately I was left feeling mostly let down.
Submerged tells the story of a wounded boy and his older sister, Miku, wash up on the banks of a sunken city on their boat. Miku’s brother is injured and she has to carry him to s tone plinth for him to rest on, before needing to rest herself. After a short time she reveals she needs to find supplies to help her brother recover.
There are supplies all over the city, but they sitting on top of hotels, libraries and other city buildings. Miku must explored the city in her boat and find her way to the supplies. She has a telescope that gives you the ability to find crates which are then added to your map, there are secrets to find around the city too, which reveal more of how the city became submerged. There are also upgrades for your boat which allow you to boost your boat’s speed for a certain amount of time.
To get to the crates and secrets you will need to find a way to access each building, before taking on the climbing puzzles. It all feels like very Assassins Creed as you make your way up, but without any of the fun. Miku’s body feels lifeless as she climbs and no there is no fear factor as she can’t fall off. I used the world puzzle because you have to work out the route to get to the supply crates, it’s not as simple as just climbing up to the top of the building, you’ll have to double back on yourself to access different ledges. I never found them too difficult. As you reach each crate the game fades and you begin a new day to go off and explore the city for the next crate.
I enjoyed the peacefulness of the game, it’s worth taking the time to look around as you make your ascent to the supply crates and exploring the city in the boat. The map is fairly big and you’ll soon find that you are not alone as you’ll be accompanied by Dolphins, Whales and other sea creatures. The colour palette keeps reminding me of Enslaved, lots of green and blue, it’s just a shame that the submerged building all seem to look the same, especially from afar. At night the game looks lovely, especially as the moonlight shines off the water. It’s not going to be winning any awards for its graphics but it certainly has it own charm about it.
Achievement hunters will be pleased as there are 10 worth 100 points each, the only challenging achievement is finding all of the secrets in the game.
I enjoyed playing Submerged as it was a welcome change of pace, once you got used to the fact that the game is more about discovering a story rather than an action packed adventure you’ll enjoy your time with the game much more.
Certain gamers will give Submerged a hard time, I’ve been changing my mind constantly, from loving to hating the game, and as time has gone on I’ve enjoyed it more and more, it’s short, it’s fairly simple, but there was something about it that kept me going back.
Thanks to Xbox and Uppercut Games for their support
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