- Engaging core gameplay with deep submarine simulation
- Immersive and terrifying atmosphere
- Exceptional multiplayer and co-op experience
- Poor solo play due to weak bot AI
- Unappealing graphics and visuals
- Severe performance and optimization issues
Emotions
Players feel satisfied by the game's deep content, high replayability, and extensive mod support, which allows for diverse and customizable gameplay experiences. Overcoming challenging but rewarding learning curves, mastering game mechanics, and achieving success, especially when playing cooperatively with friends, significantly contribute to this emotion. The game's immersive atmosphere, engaging emergent storytelling, and overall quality also enhance player satisfaction.
Excitement stems from the game's unique, chaotic, and unpredictable nature, particularly in multiplayer scenarios. Players are thrilled by intense combat, survival situations, and the constant threat of deadly sea monsters and unexpected events. The game's horror elements, deep lore, and the potential for emergent drama and stories also contribute to a captivating and energetic gameplay experience.
Amusement is primarily driven by the game's chaotic and absurd multiplayer interactions, often involving friends, leading to hilarious and memorable scenarios. Dark humor, unexpected deaths, and the freedom to engage in both constructive and destructive actions, including 'clowning around,' create a unique and entertaining experience. The emergent gameplay and the sheer absurdity of situations contribute to frequent laughter.
Frustration arises from various technical issues such as poor optimization, bugs, and multiplayer desync. Players also experience frustration due to incompetent bot AI, clunky controls, and the disruptive actions of griefers or uncooperative crewmates. The game's steep learning curve and the difficulty of solo play further contribute to this negative emotion.
Disappointment is often linked to the game's price point, unfulfilled expectations regarding single-player content, and repetitive gameplay without mods. Players express dissatisfaction with unaddressed bugs, poor optimization, and a perceived lack of depth in certain game mechanics or story elements. The difficulty in gathering friends to play and the negative experiences with random players also contribute to this feeling.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 89% · Negative 11%. Score: 11 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently praise the game's core gameplay, finding it highly engaging, challenging, and deeply rewarding. Many highlight its unique blend of complexity and accessibility, leading to hundreds of hours of replayable fun, whether played solo or with friends. The game is frequently described as an 'absolute blast' and a 'masterpiece' that offers excellent value for its price.
- The game excels in creating a unique, immersive, and often terrifying atmosphere. Players frequently mention the claustrophobic feeling of being in a submarine, the dread of the deep alien ocean, and the effective use of sound design to enhance the horror. The 2D graphics, while simple, are highly effective in conveying this oppressive and suspenseful environment.
- The game offers deep and realistic submarine simulation, allowing players to manage intricate systems like wiring, oxygen, and reactor temperatures. This is complemented by diverse and interdependent crew roles (e.g., engineer, medic, security), which foster teamwork and strategic thinking, making the multi-crew experience highly immersive and engaging.
- Multiplayer is consistently highlighted as a core strength, significantly enhancing the game's fun and replayability. Players emphasize the chaotic, humorous, and memorable experiences that arise from teamwork (or lack thereof) with friends, leading to unique social interactions and emergent storytelling. The game is seen as an excellent test of friendships and a generator of shared, unforgettable moments.
- The game is lauded for its dynamic, unpredictable, and emergent gameplay, where every session feels fresh due to unexpected events, monster attacks, and player interactions. This creates a constant state of tension, requiring quick thinking, adaptability, and teamwork to manage crises. Players appreciate the unique blend of strategy, action, and the potential for chaotic, humorous scenarios.
Negatives:
- The single-player experience is widely criticized as tedious, frustrating, and unplayable due to incompetent and suicidal AI bots. Bots often fail to complete objectives, exhibit poor pathfinding, engage in friendly fire, and require excessive micromanagement, making solo play feel like an afterthought.
- The game's 2D graphics, art style, and overall visual presentation are often described as unappealing, basic, or 'wonky,' deterring new players and making it difficult to recommend to friends. This also contributes to a perception of the game being 'half-baked' or lacking polish.
- The game suffers from severe and persistent optimization issues, including low FPS, lag, and frequent crashes, even on powerful PCs. This is exacerbated by its reliance on single-core CPU processing and poor netcode, making the experience unstable and frustrating.
- Players report that the game can become repetitive and boring after the initial immersion, especially in the late game or during solo play. This is attributed to monotonous plot progression, a lack of mission variety, and resource management becoming irrelevant.
- The game is frequently described as brutal, unforgiving, and extremely difficult, even for experienced players. Mistakes are heavily penalized, leading to frequent deaths, resource depletion, and intense, stressful experiences.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay revolves around operating and maintaining a submarine in a hostile underwater environment. Players must manage damage, flooding, and repairs while facing constant threats from creatures and environmental hazards that can breach the hull and sink the vessel.
- The game features a robust class-based crew system, with roles like Captain, Engineer, Mechanic, Medic, and Security Officer. Effective teamwork and communication are crucial for managing the submarine's systems, handling crises, and ensuring the crew's survival, whether playing with friends or managing AI bots.
- The game offers a campaign mode with progression through different locations and increasing difficulty. Players undertake various missions, such as transporting cargo, mining, activating beacons, and fighting monsters, to earn money and reputation for upgrading their submarine and crew.
- The medical system is detailed, requiring medics to manage various injuries, diseases, and medications. Players can administer a wide range of substances, including morphine and other narcotics, which can lead to both life-saving interventions and chaotic, often humorous, misuse or overdose.
- The game features a diverse array of hostile creatures, ranging from small crawlers and hammerheads to massive leviathans and 'end worms'. These monsters pose a constant threat, attacking the submarine and its crew, often leading to intense combat and survival challenges.
Performance:
- Many players report significant performance issues, including low FPS and lag, especially in cities, during intense combat (like worm attacks), or in later game stages with many entities. This is often attributed to poor optimization, particularly the game's reliance on a single CPU thread, despite some players having powerful hardware.
- Despite optimization concerns, a notable portion of the player base finds the game to be lightweight and not demanding on hardware, running well on a wide range of systems, including older or humble PCs, and even achieving high FPS on low-end graphics cards.
- Dedicated servers are suggested as a way to alleviate connection issues in multiplayer, indicating that server hosting can improve the online experience, though some still report packet loss and stuttering.
- Frequent crashes and sudden exits are reported, particularly when playing with mods rather than the vanilla game, suggesting stability issues with modded gameplay.
- The game is noted for its small installation size (800 MBs) but can consume a surprisingly large amount of RAM (8 GBs), which is an unusual characteristic for its type.
Recommendations:
- The game receives overwhelmingly positive recommendations, with many players rating it highly (often 9/10 or 10/10). It's frequently described as an excellent, unforgettable, and highly enjoyable experience, especially when played with friends.
- The game is strongly recommended for co-op play with friends, as this significantly enhances the experience. Playing solo or with random players is generally not advised, with many suggesting finding a dedicated group or joining community servers for the best enjoyment.
- The game appeals to players who enjoy chaos, challenging survival, and deep-sea exploration. It's particularly recommended for fans of cooperative games, submarine simulations, and those who appreciate a unique blend of horror, management, and problem-solving.
- While many recommend buying the game, there's a strong consensus to purchase it during a sale. Players feel it offers good value, especially at a discounted price, making it a worthwhile investment.
- Players humorously recommend the game for its chaotic, often fatal, and sometimes absurd experiences. They express a desire to repeat scenarios involving crew deaths, submarine destruction, and other 'barotraumatic' events, highlighting the game's unique and memorable (if dark) humor.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is a niche, cooperative experience best enjoyed with friends, offering a challenging and often chaotic gameplay loop. It appeals to players who enjoy science fiction, unknown worlds, and a steep learning curve, often requiring a willingness to engage with complex systems. The community is generally helpful, but the game's difficulty can strain friendships.
- Players consistently report hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of playtime, indicating significant replayability and depth. This is further enhanced by active developer updates and a vast amount of community-created mod content, ensuring a fresh experience even after extensive play.
- This summary is based on limited and low-quality feedback, including personal anecdotes, meme references, and specific content suggestions. While some players express excitement for future updates and modding, the overall signal is weak and not broadly representative of common player sentiment.
- The public server community can be toxic, with frequent griefing and sabotage, leading many players to recommend closed or private servers with friends. This toxicity often stems from players learning the game in private and then being banned from public servers, contributing to a mixed multiplayer experience.
- The game is consistently set beneath the icy, treacherous surface of Europa, Jupiter's moon. This unique and dangerous setting is a core aspect of the game's identity and atmosphere, providing a distinct backdrop for the gameplay.
