A Calm Post Apocalyptic World – Submerged Review

<p><em>Submerged<&sol;em> is an experience that can take you away from the world for a few hours&period; It calms the soul with its stunning vistas and beautiful melodies&comma; but it gives very little in terms of interesting gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the game&comma; you are Miku&comma; who looks after her injured brother in a stranded and flooded cityscape&period; To do this&comma; you must go up buildings to find care packages left by another civilization&period; Not much is explained in <em>Submerged<&sol;em>&comma; but most of the backstory is told through drawings&period; While this is an interesting way to give background to the mostly mute storyline&comma; it came across as confusing half way through because the pictures didn&&num;8217&semi;t have enough detail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The storyline of the current day is explained through cutscenes as Miku helps her brother go through his ailments every day&period; They have a repetitive structure as we see her get one supply every day&comma; but it is effective as the developers try to establish that she is trying her best to look after him&period; This is all the more effective when something happens mid-way through&comma; as she has to deal with her own problem&period; The body language emitted from the characters does a great job at establishing how they are feeling as well&period; Despite other reviewers saying that they saw the end coming&comma; I would say otherwise&period; To me&comma; it could have gone either way as both characters have to cope with the world around them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04193627&sol;Submerged-3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" wp-image-88650 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04193627&sol;Submerged-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Submerged &lpar;3&rpar;" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; the gameplay is the weakest part of <em>Submerged<&sol;em>&period; There are two sections of the game&colon; first&comma; you have to search the area on a boat&comma; and second&comma; climb a building until you reach the top&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s it&comma; and it gets repetitive quickly&period; This game was developed with the idea of being non-combat based&comma; but without any sense of danger or conflict&comma; <em>Submerged<&sol;em> suffers as the player laboriously climbs&period; An inclusion of a time limit to save Miku&&num;8217&semi;s brother would have added both some drama&comma; and relieved the sense of disbelief from her brother being able to survive by himself as days pass&period; The challenge of the game is to find the way up a building&comma; but it gets frustrating as you lose where you&&num;8217&semi;ve been&period; Time and time again&comma; I had to re-do parts because I went the wrong way&period; Another annoying aspect is that the boat stops accelerating after a while&comma; disrupting the exploration of the world&period; Climbing up to the top of a building feels rewarding&comma; especially with the Unreal Engine 4-run locales&comma; but it is an arduous journey&period; The game also is a bit slow in comparison to other games with climbing sections&comma; like <em>Uncharted<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Tomb Raider<&sol;em>&comma; and <em>Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s Creed<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With all of those frustrations&comma; however&comma; I truly enjoyed the experience of <em>Submerged<&sol;em>&period; Yes&comma; it was slow&comma; but it also made me feel tranquil&period; Whether or not that was the purpose&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure&comma; as the subject matter doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really fit that idea&period; The game has a wonderful art design behind it with buildings stuck in the waves&comma; a glistening sun and moon&comma; and trees flopping in the wind&period; The weather effects&comma; and the day and night cycle just made it a living world&period; The music &&num;8212&semi; despite sometimes being repetitive &&num;8212&semi; and most of the sound effects of the wind and the rain sucked me in as well&period; What took it away ever-so-slightly is when you are exploring on the boat&comma; the frame rate drops significantly when moving fast&period; The boat sections&comma; on the other hand&comma; are fun as you explore the open world&period; You see old advertisements and landmarks that have sunk into the water&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also quite thrilling to jump the waves by boosting&period;  The sense of climbing to the top of the building felt triumphant&comma; and the journey by boat and climbing&comma; overall&comma; was so serene&period; Whenever I have a hard day&comma; I will play <em>Submerged<&sol;em> to feel chilled&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04193612&sol;Submerged-4&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" wp-image-88651 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04193612&sol;Submerged-4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Submerged &lpar;4&rpar;" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Part of the reason why <em>Submerged<&sol;em> is so chilling is the music by Jeff Van Dyck&period; It carries through a serene theme with a strong piano presence&period; The main theme&comma; although it carries a charming melody&comma; is used slightly too much by the developers during the beginning&comma; but as the game progresses&comma; the themes change every once in a while&period; The strings and the maraccas combine with the piano as well to create a wonderful soundtrack overall&period; The use of silent breaks with rain and wind sound effects is a nice touch&comma; but one of the wind sound effects sounds tinny&period; Overall&comma; <em>Submerged<&sol;em> sounds superb despite a few issues with the repetition of the theme&comma; and a tinny sound effect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Submerged<&sol;em> lasts around 2-4 hours&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a bit short&comma; but there are many collectibles to get&period; A cool collectible in the game are pictures&comma; which like in the story&comma; give you background of the world&comma; its history&comma; and the culture&semi; there are 60 of them to find throughout&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Submerged <&sol;em>plunges you deep into a world with wonderful graphics&comma; an intriguing world&comma; and a well conducted soundtrack&comma; but the repetition of climbing a building drains the player without a sense of immediate danger or threat&period; The developers have succeeded in bringing a beautiful&comma; calming experience&comma; but they failed to make it fun to play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 code for Submerged was provided by Uppercut Games for the purpose of this review&period; The images were provided by Uppercut Games&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;