Anyway, Submerged is an
independent game which follows the tale of... Sister and Brother? Mother and
Son? Two people who are clearly related as they are travelling around what I
imagine to be the planet in the future after the polar icecaps have melted and
flooded the earth. You play as the Sister/Mother and you must use your tiny
sailboat to explore the tops of buildings to find supplies to keep your
Son/Brother alive.
It’s a simple concept with two major aspects – sailing around the ocean
and climbing buildings. The small world is intricately designed although I did
feel that the sailboat could have been a little bit more manoeuvrable. I lost
count of the amount of times I got stuck on the scenery.
The music is in keeping with the theme of isolation which is good and
bad. It’s quite well documented here that I’m not a fan of music that is
depressing but I do appreciate that it is driven by the theme of the game,
which makes it good. Thankfully though, the game is so short in its
requirements that the music doesn’t become too much of a downer.
Achievements – 1,000 Points – 10
Achievements
With a low achievement count comes very little that actually needs to
be done, especially when you take into account that if you are going to play
the game out for the story (and If you are not, what’s the point in playing
it?) you will naturally get two of the them anyway.
That said, Submerged does try
its best to make you go out of your way, quite literally. There is an
achievement for going to the North, South, East and West borders of the map.
There’s nothing there and no value in doing so other than the achievement.
Another one has you spend a full day and night cycle in the boat which is a
very weird one when you consider that Son/Brother is dying and you are meant to
be in some kind of rush. In real terms, spending a full day and night cycle in
the boat takes about thirty minutes. Obviously though, it feel like a lot
longer when there is not a lot to do but sail around.
Another exploration achievement has you reach the highest point in the
map, which is a giant crane sort of near the centre of the map. You need to
come up here anyway to get some of the collectibles, but the view alone is
worth it.
Getting all of the collectibles is the only real challenge in the game
and it’s not that challenging. Some of the bits you need to find in the larger
areas can be taxing but you have a map which will show you when you’ve got them
all. Any of the others can be found using an online map. It’s not the largest
game map though so it doesn’t prove too time consuming.
That just leaves one more achievement for using the postcard feature
which is probably the easiest one there is. All you have to do is enter the menu,
select ‘Make Postcard’ and press the B button.
Downloadable Content – N/A
Submerged provided me with an
easy completion but wasn’t very rewarding and also felt a little draining
despite its short length. The last achievement I earned was for finishing the
game so there was no reason for me to return to it after finishing it. To be
completely honest, this is a bit of a shame because I think there is definitely
scope to build on what feels like the starting blocks of something. Hopefully
Uppercut Games feel the same and we see something else from them soon.
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