Submerged: Hidden Depths is an upcoming third-person exploration adventure game from developer Uppercut Games. Submerged: Hidden Depths is the sequel to the award-winning Submerged title. In this new game, you again take control of the sibling duo, Miku and Taku, as they uncover the secrets of a mysterious sunken city in the middle of the ocean. What makes Submerged: Hidden Depths different from other exploration adventures is the fact that the game is story-driven and has zero combat. It is 100% about exploration, puzzle-solving, and enjoying the beautiful environments laid in front of you.
The developers describe Submerged: Hidden Depths as a “relaxploration” adventure, meaning that most of the game is pretty laid back and enjoyable. Most of the frustrating aspects of exploration and puzzle-solving are removed and what you’re left with is a core experience that anyone can enjoy. This includes elements like combat, frustrating control schemes, and impossible-to-solve puzzles that hinder progression. This might turn away hardcore gamers who want a challenge, but in my opinion, this is a much-needed change of pace.
Let’s start with the obvious. Submerged: Hidden Depths is a beautiful-looking game. A lot of the environments here are set in places surrounded by water that require boat travel. Because of this, the water here looks simply amazing. Water isn’t too hard to do these days, but the water here looks very realistic from the way that the waves move to the way that it ripples and foams when you go over it with your boat. That also goes for the reflections of objects and light over them. It just looks so good.
Of course, the environments aside from the water also look fantastic. There are tons of detail present everywhere you look – individual blades of grass, detailed cuts in each plank of wood, the texture of each brick and stone, and the way the characters look. It’s just all so beautifully done that you sometimes can’t help to just stop playing and take it all in.
Gameplay is another area where the game shines. The developers made this game as simple as possible for players to just jump in and explore. The controls require mostly just moving the characters around and a button press here and there to interact with objects or to pick them up. You don’t have to do anything stressful like using a jump button or climb button to perform actions. Literally, just walk up to a jump and you’ll automatically jump. The same goes for climbing and scaling walls. Basically, much of this makes for a seamless and enjoyable experience, allowing you to concentrate more on the story and puzzle elements. There are also no stressful enemy encounters either.
Aside from exploration and puzzle-solving, there’s also a collection aspect of the game. Find hidden items that will let you uncover the story, customize and upgrade your boat, discover new creatures, and more.
Anyways, we were only able to play about an hour of the Submerged: Hidden Depths on PC. What we played so far was fantastic and it’s definitely a different experience from other exploration titles. Think of this like Tomb Raider, but without the stress. Since this is a preview of the game, this is not a full review and we just wanted to give our initial impressions so far. A full review of the game won’t be available until the official release which is in March.
Submerged: Hidden Depths will be available for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on March 10, 2022.
Disclaimer: Received game from developer and/or publisher for coverage purposes.
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