Submerged: Hidden Depths Review

Synopsis:
Boat, climb, interact and explore in the beautiful ruins of a sunken world.

Publisher: Uppercut Games
Reviewed on: PC (Ryzen 5 2600, RTX 2070 Super, 32GB DDR4)
Also available for: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia

Developer: Uppercut Games
Co-Founder/Art Director: Andrew James
Co-Founder/Design Director: Ed Orman
Co-Founder/Tech Director: Ryan Lancaster
Music Composer & Sound Design: Jeff van Dyck

I can totally understand why Submerged: Hidden Depths was a Google Stadia exclusive for a time. Its minimal controls and ease of pop-in, pop-out gameplay would be great for on-the-go gameplay and weaker internet connections with the streaming service. It’s now made its way to consoles and PC, and it’s well worth checking out, as long as you can appreciate the minimalist gameplay style and relaxing vibes.

There’s a story here, but it’s all told via hieroglyphs found in journals or quick cutscenes. I have no idea if the game is connected to Submerged, the previous game from Uppercut Games and ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Playing Submerged: Hidden Depths is about the feeling and not the narrative.

You’ll find people and animals amongst the land masses who have been frozen in their last moments, or clinging to the planet to help you for whatever reason – image captured by the author

You control both Miku and Taku in the game, although primarily the sister Miku. The siblings have access to a boat, and in this strange city that’s been devoured by water, Miku discovers she can carry seeds that, when placed in holes, can breathe life back into areas of the city and remove the nasty roots and thorns covering over. However, using this ability seems to take something out of her, but she pushes on even as her brother looks upon her with worry.

There are ten of these seeds in Submerged: Hidden Depths to be completed before you’ll roll credits, and although I’m sure you can do it in a couple of hours if rushing, it took me around five hours while stopping to do some extra exploration.

I took a few screenshots while playing this game as the art style lent to some beautiful and unique visuals – image captured by the author

Skiing across the water, you can use a telescope to spot areas of interest and then head to the following seed location you find, or check out the various other collectables to be found. There are relics to be found in the bottom of the ocean, journal entries that expanded the world, and even boat upgrades that’ll let you boost longer.

When you head onto land, the core gameplay is a combination of platforming and light puzzling solving. However, none of that requires much brainpower of finger pressing. As I mentioned at the start of the review, everything is about simple inputs and Submerged: Hidden Depths is a much more relaxing game for it, although this gameplay style isn’t going to be for everyone. You’ll press up on the analog stick to climb, forward to fling across gaps, and puzzles come down to which direction to take a bowling ball that’ll help keep a gate or door open for you.

Play

Submerged: Hidden Depths has a vibrant and cartoon-like art style that I immensely enjoyed and a fantastic original soundtrack by Jeff van Dyck. I was never sick of listening to or looking at the game, and these elements combined to make the relaxing goals of the game come true.

We’re amongst massive big AAA open-world games at the moment, with more to come, and Submerged: Hidden Depths is the perfect pallet cleanser. It may not do anything particularly unique, but its bite-sized ocean world to explore feels relaxing, not threatening, and I appreciate that fact.