Submerged: Hidden Depths

I got this game for free from the Epic Game Store. It's a sequel, but playing the first doesn't seem necessary. This game is called "hidden depths", but it's all surface exploration. You play as a brother and sister exploring a flooded, post-apocalyptic world. "The Mass" left behind black goo, dead plants, and husk/souls of all people and animals. The sister has some kind of power that she hopes can restore the world. The pair are outcasts from their home due to people being scared of her powers.

You will play as the sister on the main islands while the brother waits in the boat. In the optional areas, you sometimes play as the brother whilst the sister waits on the boat. There's no switching between the characters or puzzles involving the use of both simultaneously. Their spoken language is fictional (I think) but mostly they use expressions to communicate.

The world is basically a large square with 8 main islands in a rough circle, with plenty to discover in-between. You sail between city islands on your boat, and can find points of interest using your telescope which are then marked on your map. This system is a case of periodically using the telescope and quickly panning. If there is something in range, then you are alerted to it with an arrow and circle icon, so you don't even need to have the correct position vertically.

There's landmarks, artefacts and boat upgrades to discover. There's animals too but these aren't marked with the telescope. The boat upgrades are just a small addition to the boost capacity. This is purely optional, but a simple reward to allow you to travel faster for longer. You can probably complete the game without using the telescope because landmarks are pretty distinctive, story locations are often the highest points, artefacts have a large constant splash in the position, and upgrades have boat remains in the water.

Optional collectables give you more backstory, or unlock costumes or hair-styles.

When there is an island you can explore, you need to dock your boat at the correct position. Some of these islands require you to move something in position to form a bridge before you can explore. Sometimes, the towers in particular, just have you moving up a couple of lifts to the top, then have to travel back down again. The optional islands have quite a bit of navigation only to have 1 item which is a book on a table. It can be a little tedious in that regard.

The controls are simple in both sea and land. On land, it's just a case of moving and pressing a button to interact. There's not even a jump button. The movement is similar to what you see in Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, where you are navigating ledges, ladders, posts, vines, drainpipes. The majority of navigational objects are marked with red paint (you can switch the colour in the options menu at any point), although there are some objects marked with red paint that you don't interact with which is a strange design choice.

Unlike Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, there's no combat, and there is no failure state. This is pure exploration. Sometimes the animals will dart towards you (so a possible jump-scare), and there is an ominous giant, but he also poses no threat.

Your overall objective is to return a seed to a plant located on 8 islands. The seed is located at the highest point on the island, and the plant is located near the bottom. So you have to work your way up, then work your way down with the seed. Seeds are hooked up to electrodes, surrounded by electronics like speakers, which is weird, but distinctive. There's some simple navigational puzzles where you place the seed in lifts and have to go a different route to pick it back up. Once you return a seed, you are then automatically returned to your starting island so it's beneficial to make sure you have found the optional items if you want them. You can fast travel after you visit an island, but you will probably have more work to do to traverse the island again.

The graphics are incredibly beautiful, and there's some nice animations (good cloth physics) and visual flair. The islands contain plenty of objects to make it feel like a lived-in world, but then seems copy and paste the more you play. The water is really well done and has a nice bob and splash to it. When you are near buildings, you see waves slam into it and splash-back. When you carry the seed, the land is painted with flowers which is a nice visual effect. Additionally, it has a really nice soundtrack, and nice effects for UI items. There are frame-drops when moving fast in the sea; I assume it was loading the next area.

You do have freedom to explore the game as you wish because there's no pre-requisite items to hinder progress. There's no challenge and only requires a bit of thought to navigate. For the most part, it basically plays itself (in terms of jumping and climbing). After a few hours, you have probably seen everything the game has to offer, but I don't think the game drags at all at around 6 hours. The story seems minimal, but for what the developers hoped to achieve - I think they did it well. The casual experience may appeal to a certain target market though. I think it is ideal as someone's first game because it gives them a sample of open-world design, has them controlling a character in a 3D environment, and gets them looking out for visual cues and hidden items.