Submerged

My honest read on Submerged is this: critics landed at a 47 on Metacritic, but the 77% positive Steam rating from over 1,700 players tells a different story - not a better or worse one, just a more honest one. The gap exists because this game refuses to be evaluated by normal metrics. There is no combat, no way to die, no fail state of any kind. You pilot Miku's small motorboat through flooded city streets, raise a telescope to spot supply crates dangling from rooftops, dock at buildings, and free-climb vines, ladders, pipes, and ledges to reach them. That loop - boat, telescope, climb, cutscene, repeat - is the entirety of the gameplay. If you walk in expecting anything else, you will be bored inside twenty minutes. What Uppercut Games actually built here is closer to an interactive diorama than a traditional game. The studio was formed by ex-BioShock developers, and their eye for environmental mood is the one undeniable asset. The drowned cityscape, with its moss-covered towers, whale-like creatures drifting through flooded avenues, and a dynamic day-night cycle with shifting weather, creates a genuinely eerie kind of calm. The soundtrack - which won Best Audio at Freeplay 2015 - does a lot of heavy lifting, filling the silence between objectives with something that actually fits the loneliness of the setting. When the atmosphere clicks, it clicks hard. The mechanical complaints are real and fair. Climbing feels robotic; Miku moves across ledges and pipes with limited animation fidelity, and the platforming asks nothing of the player in terms of skill or timing. The collectibles - boat parts, creature sightings, diary fragments, hidden landmarks - pad the runtime but rarely justify themselves. Boat upgrades only meaningfully affect your boost meter, and the story is wordless enough that it can read as obscure rather than poetic depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing. The world also has a repetition problem: the flooded ruins, while atmospheric, lack enough architectural variety to sustain curiosity over the full two-to-four hour completion window. The audience that gets something genuine out of Submerged is specific but real. It is legitimately good for young players or family co-viewing, stress decompression sessions, or anyone who has bounced off more demanding walking simulators and wanted something even softer. Comparisons to Journey and Shadow of the Colossus were bandied about at launch - Submerged does not reach either, but the aspiration is at least pointed in an interesting direction. Players who loved the quieter stretches of games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons or who simply enjoy cruising an open world without agenda will find something worth their time here, especially at the low price point it typically sits at now.

Alex · Scout Team

Catch-all

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