Song of the Deep

Song of the Deep
71
Metacritic
84
Steam
76.963
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
11 July 2016
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
84 (481 votes)

From the creators of Ratchet & Clank, Song of the Deep is a metroidvania-style action-adventure game following a young girl’s quest into the unknown to find her missing father. It combines underwater discovery, skill, and suspense with a powerful story.

Show detailed description

Song of the Deep system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or higher
  • Processor: 4 CPUs, >= 2.0 Ghz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 1GB VRAM or higher
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 3 GB available space
Similar games
DLC
Show all DLC
Popularity
Reviews
Write a new review
SweetsRevenge
SweetsRevenge

Song of the Deep is a beautiful, immersive, under sea adventure. The music is wonderful, the art is fantastic and the game play is fun and challenging enough to enjoy yourself but not get too frustrated.

Shock_Tart
Shock_Tart

The game looks good and It's alrighty gameplay wise. However Its so extremely slow paced and the puzzles are more tedious than anything, I couldnt bring myself to finish the game. It felt more like a chore to try and finish rather than something fun. If you want it Id say get it on sale, Or if you like very slow paced games its the one for you. However I personally cannot reccomend this game.

General Wok
General Wok

What a fun surprise this game was. Reminded me a lot of Hollow Knight, especially in that in keeps going on after you think it's going to end. It's not as long as Hollow Knight though. It ends abrubtly, with some story elements not fully tied up, but I wouldn't really say its unsatisfying. All in all all I definitely recommend this one.

noisyturtle
noisyturtle

When there are multiple areas in the game where you can break a puzzle in such a way that you cannot progress beyond that point, I cannot in good conscious give this game a good rating or recommend it.

Imagine you are five or six hours into a game and completing a puzzle, only to realize while you did solve it, you apparently solved it wrong. And due to the save system you are unable to return to a previous state thus negating all your progress and leaving you forever in an unescapable limbo.

That's the gamble you are taking when you devote your time to this game.

To be fair - I was having fun up until that point, which is why I decided to start over from the beginning again only to once more get stuck in a different area. Inexcusable.

Kraken
Kraken

Very cute and relaxing to play

Keyasaurus
Keyasaurus

Despite the fact that this game has a thoughtful story (from what I got to see of it) and beautiful graphics and sounds, it's not adapted to PC, despite how it's labeled. Key command cues which come up on screen are for console, requiring PC players to translate that (aka randomly press keys) to figure out the keyboard command. I'd had good luck with that process until about 30 minutes into the game. (If anyone knows the keyboard equivalent for the speed boost (-) I'd love to know - I tried every key on the keyboard). Such a loss as I was thoroughly enjoying the game until I got stuck.

Cethion (High Tinkerer)
Cethion (High …

This is a deeply enjoyable game that has shades of Aquaria. A 2-D action adventure RPG about exploring the oceans and seeking to rescue your father. It has well designed environments, simple but fun graphics, and entertaining action coupled with solid pacing.

Reeze The Vampire
Reeze The Vampire

I have to say I don't understand the 'very positive' rating on this one. This is easily one of the worst metroidvania-type games I've ever player. It acts as though it has a great big map with lots to explor, but as long as you follow the little marker on the map the game is COMPLETELY linear. At no point did I go out exploring and find something cool and new or special; if it isn't the way the game is making you go at the time, you can't go there, which ruins the gameplay entirely. It may as well be a linear 'left-to-right' puzzle games. Unfortunately, the combat is horrid and the variety of enemies is pathetic, basically 4 enemies with a few variations later on. Like Jelly fish that later become big jellyfish and later are big jellyfish that spit stuff. Really sad. You may think that the puzzles would help the gameplay...they don't, they worsen it. You will constantly be stuck and have to go find a statue head, just wasting time and it becomes so repetative it's really frustrating. After about 50 statue heads you'll be pretty sick of this game. Finally, the story is wholly uninteresting and generic. Girl loses dad, girl goes to find dad, finds basically atlantis. Ooh. That's about it. Really just all around junk game. Looks nice, but if that's all it is you may as well just set a screenshot of the game as your desktop and not spend 15 dollars on this.

ok
ok

just finished the game.. the story line is great and the game guides you along the way with regards to your objectives..

the only problem i have notice is some maze or puzzles are too complex for my baby to solve.. she always get bored after sometime..

just a suggestion.. you guys should allow the game to continue right after it was done.. so that players can explore the map.. even if they had freed the octopos.

but for its a great game! looking forward for the part 2!

Steuermann
Steuermann

Story

You play as Merryn, a young girl who braves the depths of the ocean in her "tiny, rickety, submarine" in search of her father who's gone missing after failing to return home after going out to sea.

The game's storytelling and cutscenes are in the style of a children's storybook, which combined with the narration and voice acting by Siobhán Hewlett (Irish actress, artist, etc.), and the game's visuals, make it quite the wondrous experience.

An interesting tidbit, is that there exists an actual storybook based on Song of the Deep, so even the youngest ones who may not be quite ready for these kind of videogames can still enjoy the adventures of Merryn and her submarine.

Gameplay

Song of the Deep is a 2D Metroidvania-style game, where you explore a vast undersea map in your submarine. Progressing through the game earns you essential upgrades which allow you to interact with the world in new ways as well as gain access to previously inaccessible areas. The game has a detailed map, making it easy to keep track of where you are, where you've been, where you're headed, as well as keeping track of items that you may have encountered but yet been able to collect due to not having the required tools to reach them.

In addition to essential upgrades for progression, you collect health upgrades, tyne upgrades ("tyne" being a source of energy), and you're also able to collect coins and other valuable treasures from defeating enemies, opening treasure chests, completing puzzles, and exploring nooks and crannies of the map. These coins and treasures can in turn be used to buy upgrades in the forms of increased attack power, better maneuverability/speed, and so forth.

Visuals

The game's visuals look simply stunning. They keep in line with the storybook feeling, which gives it a unique look without it feeling like a gimmick or being overdone. The game has areas of lush, colorful forests of kelp and other plantlife, with rays from the sun shinining down from the surface. There are areas with ruins of ancient civilizations, graveyards of sunken ships, and dark and sinister caverns where foes lurk in the shadows.

It has great attention to details, and it's the kind of game that you can play over and over again while still noticing something new every time, be it in the foreground, the background, or perhaps even in regards to the enemies and friends that you come across during your journey.

Soundtrack

The most important aspect of setting a game's tone or mood might just be it's soundtrack. And let me tell you, Song of the Deep does not disappoint in that regard. Not only does it do an excellent job in giving a sense of calmness and serenity while exploring a beautiful kelp forest, or make you feel a great sense of urgency while travelling through a treacherous cavern while being chased by deadly foes, but it's also just simply, a fantastic collection of music.

Personally I've probably spent hundreds of hours so far listening to it while working, drawing, even playing other games, and I'm now yet again listening to it, while writing this review. I'd place it up there with other great soundtracks from games such as Journey, Donkey Kong Country, the Zelda series, and so on.

Controls

A game's controls have the potential to make or break it. It's important that it has good controls, responsive controls, controls that make you feel, well, in control. Failing to do so could make you end up feeling impatient and frustrated if they prevent you from doing even the simplest things, sometimes things even as basic as moving around properly. But making sure that a game has controls that feel just right is probably no easy taks, especially when the game takes place underwater, in a submarine.

The creators of Song of the Deep however, nailed it. Even at the beginning of the game where your submarine, compared to later in the game, is somewhat slow and clunky, it still feels fun to just move around and explore. Engaging enemies and dodging projectiles is satisfying, and it only becomes even more satisfying as you progress through the game and start earning upgrades. And all this, is while still making you feel like you are indeed actually underwater, maneuvering a submarine.

I will say however, without having actually tried to play Song of the Deep with a keyboard and mouse, that I'd probably recommend playing it with a gamepad, being that gamepads usually work and feel better with games in the form of Metroidvanias, platformers, and the like.

Conclusion

The game looks excellent, it plays marvelous, it sounds fantastic, and it's story is presented in the most wonderful way while being so intriguing that it keeps you wanting to keep playing, to see what treasures await you, or to see what kind of challenges lie beyond the next gate, and most importantly, to see wether or not Merryn will be able to rescue her father.

I've put quite a few hours into Song of the Deep, a lot more than the measly 9 hours I've played it here on Steam at the time of writing this review, and I'll definitely be putting in quite a few more as it's the kind of game that I can keep playing through every now and then without ever getting bored of it.

And so far I've had nothing but good things to say about Song of the Deep, but that's kind of the thing, there aren't really anything not positive to say about it. Sure, this game, like any other, might have people who won't find this particular kind of game appealing or suitable to their tastes, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I'd say that Song of the Deep is objectively a great game.

Now if I really had to nitpick, if someone were to really twist my arm to force me to come up with something to say about Song of the Deep that isn't a 110% positivity, it'd probably be that I wouldn't have mind seeing the game have more bosses, that were also more challenging, as well as having more challenging and complex puzzles.

That being said however, as the game is now, it's still absolutely fantastic, but it's also at the same time playable by a much larger audience in terms of it not being too difficult, and that's never a bad thing, so I'll leave the increased difficulty and complexity to a possible spiritual successor or something of the sort.

So.. Song of the Deep, awesome game. I'd recommend it to anyone, anyday. So give it a whirl, get in that submarine and go on an adventure!

MeMosh
MeMosh

Remember that Evo the Dolphin game from SEGA? A decade ago an indie studio released a similar aquatic "metroidvania" called Aquaria, I really liked it since it nailed the underwater gameplay of Evo, fast moving character that can dash through the water for some amazing battles and moments.

Never thought I would play something like that again until this game.

In terms of scale, this is nowhere near as big as Aquaria, instead, this is a more compact/contained experience (100%'d it in 17 hours), as the areas are, for the most part pretty linear, with occasional alternate routes to new areas that are accessible after acquiring powerups (some mild backtracking).

The controls on this one are also very responsive, there's some auto-aiming but its not too excessive; there's a lot of battle options you gather through your adventure and it gets better and better, althougth enemy variety is a bit lacking.

As I already mentioned, the map exploration part is a bit in the light side, lots of teleport options and everything you see gets marked in the map (items, treasures, etc) which is nice.

The story is good and it captures the same whimsical underwater tones that Aquaria did, in a smaller simplier package.

Recommended.

UnluckyDolt
UnluckyDolt

Visually appealling. Storytelling is compelling. Decently difficult.

Recommended = Definately

Gentleman
Gentleman

An amazing metroidvania game with interesting story and beautiful graphics. If you enjoy action/exploration games, Song of the Deep is a great choice!

zap451
zap451

I purchased this game during a sale for $2.99 and really enjoyed it. I was not expecting such a meaty game.
Folk lore story (Irish?) in the style of an underwater "metroidvania" (I'm starting to hate this term) with game mechanics similar to Master Blaster. I clocked in at 12 hours and still missed several of the gold and collectable items. Beautiful illustrations/visuals and a narrator with an Irish accent that I could listen to forever.

No real CONS other than the occaional repetitive "escort the bomb" mission that could be frustrating.
Fantastic game!

cc_citrius
cc_citrius

Not as good as Aquaria but still pretty enjoyable.

Darmok
Darmok

Fun game that combines undersea exploration with metroidvania.

Freespirit
Freespirit

Just finished the game and definitely can recommend it. It is arcade/logical game with very nice graphics and relaxing music.

JLP101
JLP101

Rating: 8/10
Genre: Metroidvania

The Good:
+ Beautiful background art
+ Great controls, the submarine also has some cool weapons and gadgets.
+ Decent puzzles, not only to advance the main story, but many collectables require some thought as well. Even though many collectables are optional, collecting all of them felt fun because most collectables were challenging.
+ Killing enemies and finding treasure allows you to upgrade the submarine. Some upgrades are required to find/unlock more treasure.
+ A cute story that didn’t feel like an afterthought.

The Average:
+/- anticlimactic boss battle
+/- world design feels a bit confusing at times

Conclusion:
Really big surprise for me. I had this on my wish list for a long time because I am a big fan of metroidvania style games. This is a good game that should be played by any fans of the genre.

MarurabaATX
MarurabaATX

a good game. classic sidescrolling and cool creatures

`'Kuma
`'Kuma

Charming little game, but gameplay wise doesn't really hold that well.

Almost every section of the game is linear so some areas are simply cut off until you see a specific cinematic and because the game is so afraid of letting your hand go it always tells you where you need to go on the map and all the treasures around you. Instead of asking you to use your spatial reasoning and memory, it simply becomes a game about backtracking heavily from point A to point B to point A again to see the next cinematic, despite having a nice interconnected world.

The puzzle motifs are awfully repetitive, you'll have to carry the same statue head to its body over a dozen times and anytime it tries to bring an interesting puzzle it immediately tells you the solution without you asking anything.

And finally, the combat system is very limited, while it works for the first few uncounters, you never really unlock interesting abilities to fight your enemies so you end up using the same attacks for most of the game and to top it off, the bestiary is also restricted in size, and the game uses a lot of color swaped enemies.

What's left? Some boss fights are pretty cool, the OST is nice, the story, while not ground breaking is nicely narrated and engaging and the game is pretty beautiful, overall, I'd only recommend for fans of the genre that already played everything else and are otherwise starved.

FluffySquirrel
FluffySquirrel

For the current sale price, this game is a steal. Found it very enjoyable

As others have mentioned, there's a bit of an issue with a lot of backtracking needed if you want all the treasures.. but that's very much optional, by the end of the game I had nearly ten thousand more gold than I needed after all the upgrades

The combat never gets especially taxing I found, but I was gathering all the upgrades as I went, so that may well factor in if you try and speed through. The only issue I had commonly, was that the auto aim on the torpedos is very finnicky and often annoying, which shouldn't really ever be a thing when you're using mouse to aim, just fire them where I'm aiming

nightsmoke
nightsmoke

+ Visuals
+ Music!
+ Gameplay

- Enemies physics can be pain in the a$$ when solving puzzles

Overgear
Overgear

Fun game, looks beautiful, controls well and has a lovely little story. Fun little world to explore with lots of crevices and a small variety of ways to interact with it. Music is pretty decent.
Not enough fast travel points for the backtracking required.
Combat is tedious and gets repetitive (little enemy variety) with lots of rooms locking you in until you beat them all. If you aren't locked in, they'll follow you to the ends of the earth until you kill them.

Sr Pescado
Sr Pescado

I

gerglion
gerglion

Pros:
- Atmospheric underwater metroidvania.
- Very good story.
- Very good music

Cons:
- Pathing of the areas / between areas can sometimes be cumbersome. Warps help, but not always.
- Some mechanic uses are not implicit. Results in some easy puzzles being impossible until you figure out a new use of your power.

Valorin
Valorin

Sometimes I grab games on sale because they look nice, and then forget about them for months. Then, some lazy weekend I just install and take a look. Song of the Deep was such a game. Usually it takes about half an hour until I'm bored and write the game off and deinstall. Not this one though.
Apart from being kinda addictive, which is pretty rare these days, it's really beautiful, not only in a visual kind of way. A real gem of a game.

stepwisecliche
stepwisecliche

Fantastic metroidvania. True to form for the genre. A little glitchy at times with voice lines coming in at clearly incorrect times, but it is a small quibble to a game that is fundamentally charming in tone and style while being - most importantly - fun to play.

Freelancer Lenna
Freelancer Lenna

Song of the Deep is a flawed but enjoyable underwater experience, which I recommend but with caveats. If you're a fan of metroidvanias, especially Aquaria, you'll probably like this game but you might as well wait for a sale. If good combat and/or consistent puzzle design are really important to you, you might want to give this one a skip.

Pros:

+ The map design is well above average. I wouldn't say it's the best possible - there's a few places where it's possible to get stuck and have to reload a save, and there are a few spots where instant death traps don't have nearly large enough timing windows, but everything's laid out to be quite well interconnected and feels big without feeling empty. There are just enough warp points that backtracking doesn't feel like a total chore without making the map connections feel meaningless.

+ The story is just at the right level for a metroidvania - it's present throughout but never overbearing, outside of a reminder system which I couldn't figure out how to turn off and at one point kept triggering while I was on the path that led to where it wanted me to go next.

+ Most of the puzzles are great. They make it clear what tools you're supposed to use and how to use them, while making the solution just challenging enough to make you feel clever without being so challenging as to lock you out of progression for 15 minutes or more.

+ The music is great and fits the environments pretty much all the time. There is one bug that can make boss music replay when you enter the room even though it's very dead, but that's relatively harmless, even amusing.

+ Abilities have some surprisingly well thought out interactions with the environment. I was actually grinning when I accidentally figured out the way to open up a particular type of path by combining one ability with the aftereffects of another ability that would just be a cosmetic effect in almost any other game.

Neutral:

* The game isn't terribly long. I hit 100% achievement completion in just over 9 hours of playtime. While this means it doesn't overstay its welcome, it also may be a bit high on the price per hour ratio depending on your personal standards.

* Most of the art style is quite nice but for some reason the player character and their sub are rendered in 3D when nothing else is which is a bit of a clash. It's not even very good 3D.

* Save point placement is a bit wonky. Sometimes you have to cross half of a region before reaching the next one, sometimes there are two of them in the same room with no obstacles between them.

* While the exploration itself is fun, the rewards for it can be a bit lackluster. Most of them are various denominations of money, some quite large, others not so much. Occasionally you'll get a (very) incremental addition to your health or energy. In rare cases you get an actual upgrade that you can't buy in the shop.

* The controls are a bit floaty in that your character keeps some of their momentum whenever doing anything, but you're underwater so it fits, and you'll probably get used to them for most situations that don't involve combat with multiple enemies. Unfortunately, nearly all combat involves multiple enemies, which leads me to the...

Cons:

- The combat system is a load of hot garbage. You can't aim without moving in the same direction, which makes both avoiding damage and hitting enemies a lot harder than necessary, and the game has a habit of spawning wave after wave of enemies until you're fed up, and then spawning one or two more waves for good measure. Enemies also fade in from the background as they spawn but damage you immediately which just feels unfair. Several of these gauntlets are far enough from save points to force you to travel. At one point there were two back to back, which just wasn't fun at all. Enemies are also extremely recycled - expect to fight the same jellyfish and sea urchin monsters for the entire game. There are also some unkillable turrets - some just shoot you, but others restrict your movements or knock you around while their buddies all smack you, and we all know how much fun invincible enemies that apply status effects are. Combat isn't even very rewarding most of the time, all you can get are health and energy (which only matter for combat) and small amounts of money (which you get much more of through exploring). Aquaria's combat was worlds better, and that was largely "switch to the designated combat form and press left mouse until you win".

- Remember how I said most of the puzzles are great? The rest are annoying to infuriating. Sometimes the puzzle has you push buttons that change the position of a lot of objects at once, but all the buttons overlap and there are too many pieces to properly track so you'll probably just push the buttons at random until you win. Sometimes a key part of the puzzle blends in perfectly with the scenery in a situation where the devs weren't clearly trying to hide it on purpose. Sometimes there's a bunch of enemies that you have to kill before you can even start. Sometimes you're supposed to kill the enemies with the puzzle, but it looks like it's the previous scenario so you waste a whole bunch of time trying to fight them normally when all you have is the knife from Subnautica. Sometimes you have to move precisely between multiple lanes of instant death lasers, but you have momentum in this game so it's super obnoxious (thankfully there's only like one time where this isn't optional content). There are also some color puzzles and AFAIK there isn't currently a colorblind mode.

- There are a few bugs in the game beyond the boss music one. It's possible to get pushed into a corner where you can't move and forced to reload. The seahorse's head turns invisible if you revisit it while it's pounding on the glass. Your submarine stops animating properly once you upgrade the propeller.

- The camera hates you - there's an annoying tendency to zoom in when you'd really prefer to be able to see the thing that's killing you from offscreen. There are at least three optional pickups that are only hard to collect because the camera outright puts your character offscreen. One of them spawns enemies when this happens, and does it when you're in scuba mode and die really fast to any damage source.

GahlShalon
GahlShalon

This game is okay. I have never understood the whole wanting a "Meh" option instead of just "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" until now. There are several spots in the game where you will get instant killed by an enemy/trap/ hazard even though the same type of enemy/trap/ hazard right before it only damaged you lightly. It is very painful to watch your self go from 7/8 of a health bar to dead instantly when this hapens. Other times the game feels too easy, nothing else to say on the matter just sometimes it feels too easy compared to the rest of the game. At the time of righting this I physically can't get outside of my house due to a snow storm and this helped aliviate the cabin fever a little so there is always that. All around it is pretty good, not excellent mind, but still pretty good.

Nugget
Nugget

I have so much mixed feelings on this game. It's a metroidvania type, with a fairy tale-like story where you play as a little girl in a submarine exploring parts of the ocean. It checks all of my boxes. I had eyes on this game as soon as I saw it, but I was fairly dissapointed when I finally played it.

At the start I thought the combat was satisfying and the story was good. But 3 hours in I couldn't care less about the combat. It was too simplistic and easy. Some bosses where great while others (specially the final one) was just bad designed. Exploring felt really boring and I experienced many little bugs.

While some puzzles are good, and the story + gameplay can be good if you want to relax and play a calm game, maybe you can enjoy more than I did, but I was really dissapointed. I only recommend this game on a big sale, and I'm only putting it as a "positive" review because I did play until the end, being more bored than annoyed.

Remy561
Remy561

8/10
A great undersea adventure!

With Merryn her father not returning from his boat trip. Merryn takes it upon herself to build a submarine and search the sea for her father. Deep below you find many wonders of the sea: ancient relics, lost species, forgotten cities, and many more, resulting in a wonderful and colourful adventure!
Will Merryn be able to find and rescue her dad?

+ Beautiful 2d graphics
+ Constantly expanding gameplay options with ship upgrades and artifact finds
+ Great OST that enhances the wonder and calmness of the sea
~ Nice story to move along the game, but nothing really deep or special
- The first boss battle was hard, final boss battle very easy

A lovely metrovania-like game, that changes things up by placing you in a sub!

Quietschisto
Quietschisto

If you are interested in the full, In-Depth and spoiler-free Review, check it out on quietschisto.com

5/10

„Song of the Deep” is a rather short, underwater-based Metroidvania-game about a girl who builds a submarine and dives deep below the surface in order to save her father.
The game doesn’t bring any amazing new stuff to the table and ends a bit anticlimactic, but the game manages to keep the player motivated until the end.
It dabbles in a few gameplay areas, like fighting, puzzles, hidden paths, etc; but ultimately none of these elements get explored too deep…

DavidM
DavidM

More meh than yey.

The abilities you get are mostly just new ways of destroying things that are in the way. Nothing really interesting.

JimtheSFN
JimtheSFN

This game was a great suprise to me.
It gave me the same awesome vibe that Ori and the Blind Forest gave me.
Very fitting environment and looks good.
The combat was fine with all the different skills you can use.
There are different ways to open the path to where you go and have to use items around to help you progress.
If you are one who likes to collect things you have plenty of that in the game.
Can easily recommend this game.

Creme Brutal
Creme Brutal

Sadly I can not recommend this game. I went in thinking it was going to look, feel and play much better then it did somehow. I don't know what I was expecting, anyway it was not meant to be. If you are already a fan of powerful 2D games like Abe's, Ori or Hollow Knight chances are you'll be disappointed by this one.

Big Boy Hex
Big Boy Hex

It's pretty good. Solid 10 hours of game, good for completionists.

Shoujoqueen
Shoujoqueen

Wonderfully designed and beautiful MetroidVania Game. Only downside is it's on the short side.

Demi-hero
Demi-hero

Excelent little metroidvania based around Irish folk lore.

HypnagogeAberrationTeetotalist
HypnagogeAberr…

It's OK. You can play this. You've got your typical hipster-indie-storyline about a girl who loses her father, builds a submarine and looks for him, including a well-trodden violin-and-piano soundtrack for the oohs and aahs when you venture deeper into the ocean. On your way you get more abilities, discover new pathways, unlock everything and beat a boss here or there. Standard Metroidvaniaware.

But why would you want to play this? It's got nothing special that makes it stand out. The movement is slow and sluggish (it makes sense for being underwater but is so annoying when having to traverse long distances), the enemies are annoying to fight and nothing is rewarding. Bad choices for a Metroidvania. There are so many games more worth playing.

Nyans
Nyans

Beautiful and fun game with a rewarding item/treasure system and good progression.
Good mix of puzzle solving, stressful bullet dodging and calm parts of exploration.
Took me 21 hours to complete with all but 3 treasures, without hunting for achievements. Physics where clumsy at times but gets better with upgrades.

Decap1tator
Decap1tator

If you like metroidvania style games then you will enjoy this. Tons of collectables, power ups, and a huge map.

KelpTheGreat
KelpTheGreat

It's like a cross between Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and Aquaria. It's gorgeous, both in art and sound; the plot is interesting and the characters likable; the exploration, puzzles, and hidden areas plentiful; the upgrades useful and fun to use; in short, this game gets a high recommendation from me.

Skywind
Skywind

While having an underwater adventure metroidvania concept is interesting, the gameplay ended up a bit dull. This is especially true when it came to upgrades. It runs off a currency type of thing which I am personally not a fan of inside games. Most of the upgrades except the mobility and melee upgrades proved to be quite useless as well.

The hardest difficulty doesn't seem to add much to the game, especially after you got some OP power ups later in the game such as the charge up melee attack. I ended up using that attack literally the entire game and that's all I needed.

Back tracking just got you additional coins for you to buy said mostly useless upgrades.

I found the first few hours or even five hours to be fun then I quickly got bored with the combat, puzzles, and everything. The boss fights were lackluster - I was hoping it would have been a little bit more bullet hell. The last boss especially was a disappointment. It was just an enemy summoning boss in which I just spammed my charge up attack and spammed basic missles to win.

There's an older under water metroidvania game called Aquaria, though I haven't played it so I can't judge as to which one is better.

I was also not a fan of the map basically marking where you were supposed to go taking away the metroidvania aspect. There were a few points in the game where I got all the "X"s before it was marked, but for the most part, it marked it on the map.

The game took 10 hours before I frequently whenever possible tried to explore other places in the world not marked with X until I got bored and then just followed the X.

There were mechanics about the game you had to figure out and some secrets to find, but the only reward are coins or hp upgrade or energy upgrade which are boring. The map marked with the location of each collectible item also made item collecting boring because by the end it just came down to if you had the upgrade or not then go to each part of the map to collect it.

Overall, would not recommend.

Rizky Biznu
Rizky Biznu

It's pretty good although i wasn't expecting the fairy tale vibe but something a little bit darker. Still, it's a pretty solid and fresh metroidvania. Controlling a submarine really makes it feel different from most of the metroidvanias out there.

zelgadis
zelgadis

An absolutely charming piece! The game's atmosphere is just wonderful. The game is mostly quite easy with a few frustratingly difficult bits. Gameplay is good, but the keyboard + mouse controls are just horrible. So grab a controller instead. I tried both and stuck with controller, and that's from someone who almost always prefers keyboard + mouse over a controller. Bugs are very rare and not game breaking. This is how you make a great game, devs! I would certainly give it 5 stars out of five if there were stars. I certainly do recommend this game to anyone who would like a relaxing undersea adventure spiced up with a little sidescrolling shooter.

DarkGamerSnek
DarkGamerSnek

It is a beautiful game with a nice art style, and a gripping story. Gameplay is basic but its still fun. Insomniac can do no wrong

Dion Starfire
Dion Starfire

The gameplay is relaxing (like almost all water-based games) without being too slow or boring. Graphics are as good as you'd expect from a modern side-scroller. The story powerups are useful for more than just accessing new areas and fit nicely with the story (no useless keys or obviously bolted-on gates).

My only issue with the game is the little girl going to save her daddy (and outdo him in the process) theme. It gives this otherwise great game a very obvious FOR CHILDREN feel.

Snax the Hungriest Cat
Snax the Hungr…

this game is dope,... underwater metroidvania

Acquire
Acquire

The song was a bit too deep for me.

Evil Ryan
Evil Ryan

A gorgeous and unique metroidvania set in an intriguing underwater world. Interesting combat and perfect exploration and puzzle elements.

Dracasis
Dracasis

SotD is a nice game. I enjoyed the visuals and a lot of the puzzles were quite fun. Controls were solid and the story was [mostly] enjoyable. If the game looks at all interesting to you, I would certainly recommend giving it a buy but if you're on the fence, there are some points below to consider:

I think my biggest issue with the game was the hints system. It's on by default and I feel any game that has a need to remind their players of esoteric rarely used controls or 'something you probably forgot about' has an inherent design problem. I considered turning them off twice but both times I realized, if the hint wasn’t there, it probably would have taken me 5-10 minutes to remember 'oh right, I can do that can't I?' so, unfortunately, I left them on. If you're the type of person that likes "ah-ha!" moments, then I'd recommend playing with the hints system off.

Next is the narration. I don’t at all mind the story but the background narrator feels a bit out of place once you're in the game. It's read in past tense like a storybook usually about the actions you're doing right then and you're told what your character is thinking and feeling. It would be like finishing a dungeon in Zelda and having a narrator start talking about the exhaustion and fright Link had during his struggle to overcome the mighty boss monster. It might be accurate for the story the developers want to tell but it constantly broke my immersion in the world by being drawn out of the world and being told what I should be feeling and experiencing. I would often wait for the narrator to finish and have that thought in my mind like 'cool, now I'm going to get back to MY experience'.

Additionally, some of the world building is a little wonky. The depths are a pretty mystical place but, for the most part, adhere to their own rules which makes it immersive and believable. There are, however, a few points at which they break their own consistency and they are rather jarring. Without being spoilery; there is a point where your character reaches their lowest point and you are whisked away to try and collect yourself. It feels like a great point to add some depth (har har) to the game but one puzzle later and, within 5 minutes, you're back to 100%. Additionally the main obstacle in the game, despite having shown immense and frankly overwhelming power through the game, was an intense disappointment during their final confrontation. I beat the sequence thinking "…wait, that’s it…?". The game isn’t about destruction or combat (though it has both) so the end resolution I had no problem with, just the encounter itself left me wanting something far more substantial considering the buildup it had been given.

Last point was the map. The game has a collect-a-thon aspect to it and, while I have no problem with that at all, the fact that the map shows you where every collectable item is defeats a lot of the value and reward of searching out collectable objectives. Add to the fact that the game already has a way to highlight hidden paths means collecting the 1000 or so items became more of a chore than a reward. You already don’t need all of the items to fully max out your ship so it isn’t even rewarding to get the last 30% of items that are available.

It's still a good game and, at about 15 hours of game play for a single ~80% run, it's worth even full price if the game intrigues you at all. I would recommend trying to play the game on advanced difficulty as well since you can change the difficulty at any point and 'intermediate' mode didn’t really feel threatening at any point.

lempachris
lempachris

A good metroidvania game with some fun puzzles and light action. The game needed more bosses and perhaps a little more replayability, but overall was enjoyable.

whoozle
whoozle

solid metroidvania, nice visuals.

DazeOfWar
DazeOfWar

Song of the Deep was a fun metroidvania style game. You play as Mera looking for her dad in ocean. You have a small sub you can upgrade to become more powerful. Some upgrades will let you get into areas you previously couldn't access like other games of this style. It was a cute little story of a daughter and her father and the world she discovers under the ocean. Insomniac did a great job with this game and it is well worth playing.

Zephirius
Zephirius

A couple of minutes ago I completed everything in the game. All items, all treasures, all upgrades, all achievements. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed this Metroidvania style underwater adventure and really hope a part two is in the making!

Tomiply
Tomiply

Song of the Deep is a decent game, but it does have some issues. First of all, I experiences a lot of minor bugs and annoyances. Nothing gamebreaking, but still. Combat gets very repetitive and is hardly a challenge at all. Exploring and puzzles is fun, but it's not mind blowing in any way. If you're a huge fan of Metroidvanias, I say get it during a sale.

Porko Rosso
Porko Rosso

TL;DR - Boring, plenty of better metroidvanias out there.

Good example of why you need platforming in a metroidvania. Movement here feels slow and unsatisfying as you just drift around in a pretty but unremarkable world. Power-ups amount to just slightly better ways of killing enemies, otherwise they're just glorified keys. Puzzles aren't interesting either and mostly focus on moving stuff around which highlights the boring movement.

soyespo
soyespo

I wish there were more games like this one. Just fun on top of fun smothered in fun. I enjoyed it. Get it on sale, what a bargain! Beautiful fun puzzles.

Bazaar_Bizarre
Bazaar_Bizarre

*My reviews do consider the significance of gameplay, story, music, etc. before I assign a score (e.g. walking simulators don't have much emphasis on gameplay, but I wouldn't let that reflect negatively on the individual game being reviewed).

===[Audience]=== ☑Kids ☑Everyone ☐Casual players ☐Pro players

===[Graphics]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Gameplay]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Story]=== ☐Bad ☑OK ☐Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Music/Sound]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Price/quality]=== ☐Full price ☑Wait for sale ☐Don't do it

===[Requirements]=== ☐Minimum ☑Average ☐High end

===[Difficulty]=== ☐Very Easy ☑Easy ☐Medium ☐Hard ☐Very Hard

===[Game Time/Length]=== ☐Very Short ( 0 - 2 hours) ☐Short ( 2 - 8 hours) ☑Average ( 8 - 12 hours) ☐Long ( 12+ hours) ☐Endless

===[Bugs]=== ☐Game Breaking ☑Many Bugs ☐Few Bugs ☐Nothing

===[Others]=== ☑Single-player ☑Achievements ☑Trading Cards

===[Additional Comments]===

Summary

Song of the Deep is an ocean themed metroidvania game developed by Insomniac Games. You play as a teenage girl named Merryn who is searching for her fisherman father that went missing. Merryn builds a submarine on her own and goes searching for him in the depths of the ocean. It's basically a coming of age story about environmentalism; Searching for her father represents Merryn overcoming adversity and becoming a brave woman (think Spirited Away), and along the way she tries to help the peaceful sea creatures she encounters that are being destroyed by an aggressive invader (the Fomori). The game also features an Irish narrator and incorporates Irish mythology. While exploring you encounter a pretty small cast of characters (Swish, a baby sea serpent; the Queen Leviathan, a large sea serpent and potentially Swish's mother; Cara, a merrow; a mechanical seahorse; a hermit crab merchant; and Rimorosa, a Kraken-esque monster ) in a variety of deep sea areas. The map is rather large (there are vortexes you can use to teleport from location to location), and there are lots of power-ups (including the ability to leave your submarine and attack things with a knife, Magnetic Claw, Tyne Torpedos, Magma Bombs, Ice Shot, sonar, and boost ) and treasures to collect. You can use the treasure you collect to purchase upgrades from a merchant NPC. There are three difficulty options to choose from (beginner, intermediate, and advanced); I chose to play on intermediate. This game is directed towards children (what with the child protagonist, child-like illustrations in cut-scenes, and simple story), but is enjoyable for adults as well.

Thoughts

The visuals are probably the best part of this game. The environments are extremely varied; you get to explore all sorts of things, like coral reefs, sunken ships, underwater cities, and pitch black trenches (the trench areas in particular were pretty neat and intense). There are bunches of adorable creatures swimming around in the background that I wish I could interact with (unfortunately, the majority of the most interesting animals are just 2D art in the background). The cut-scenes in the game are done in a cute picture book style that lends itself nicely to the general child-like feel of the game. I do wish that the enemies in the game were more varied in appearance instead of just being the same four or five types recolored to indicate a higher level of difficulty, and I was really let down by the first boss being a giant spider, because it's such a boring video game trope. There are limitless amazing animals in the ocean to take inspiration from, and it seemed weird and uninspired to go with a spider (though, I might give it a break if the fight itself was more exciting) . The final boss is beautiful looking, but it's also a pretty boring fight.

The gameplay itself is a bit disappointing. Exploring the world for the first time is fun, but the amount of backtracking you end up doing (I know, this is a staple of the metroidvania genre) gets a little old, and it honestly made me feel like I'd be better off not exploring until I had all of the power-ups. It's extremely annoying to go off in an optional area and discover that every single collectible is unobtainable. Also, once I got all of the upgrades I didn't really feel any incentive to actually continue collecting treasure (there is nothing to do with the extra currency, and it's not remarkably fun to collect) so I didn't 100% the game. Some of the collectibles were actually annoying to get, like the ones where you have to feed clams. The combat is very simple (I regret not starting on the advanced difficulty), as is the platforming (I actually didn't realize this was directed towards children. Turns out, the creator of the game wanted to create a game for his daughter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_Deep), but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The repetitive nature of the combat certainly is a bad thing, though, (you fight basically the same four or five enemy types the whole game) and none of the bosses have deep combat. Almost all of the combat consists of stun-locking enemies and following up with a claw attack, and when you fight bosses you basically just grab and throw back projectiles. The vortexes you use to teleport around felt generous enough, but I did find myself wishing that I could swim faster/use turbo longer.

The story was also super disappointing. The narrative feels like a Jules Verne novel but for children, and because of that it's really lacking in substance. Almost all of the writing is straight up exposition. The story is very cliche (daughter embarks on journey to save her dad, experiences conflict, wants to give up, pushes forward, eventually saves the dad, and happy ever after ), the themes are ham-fisted (there are several times when the narrator specifically talks about how immoral it is to destroy nature), and the foreshadowing is ridiculously obvious (as you are collecting the parts to repair the Deeplight the narrator straight up tells you something bad is going to happen every time you grab a piece ). I also didn't quite understand the point of a coming-of-age story where the protagonist is capable of creating an entire functioning submarine that she proceeds to modify with torpedos and magma bombs etc. on her own at the beginning of the game . Marryn was already independent before the journey to save her father, so Marryn never really develops as a character, and the events that occur throughout the game don't seem meaningful. One last thing I didn't care for was the tendency of side characters to randomly show up just for the purpose of doing one thing to push the narrative along; None of them really felt like they were their own independent characters.

The music and sound design are definitely both major positives; I really enjoyed the calming music and ambient sounds in this game, and the more intense music was good, too. I didn't think the narrator was remarkably interesting, but she wasn't bad either.

If you take a look in the forums or at other reviews I'm sure you will see people mention the amount of bugs in this game. There are quite a few bugs that I experienced in my one playthough (of about eight hours), but none of them were game breaking. Off of the top of my head I recall coins in the environment that swam through that couldn't be picked up, visual glitches where objects weren't frozen in appearance when they should have been, light beams that never appeared on screen but still damaged me, and the camera not properly panning with the sub.

I definitely recommend this game if you are looking for a casual metroidvania, or a deep sea game (it's my personal favorite setting, and it's a niche one at that). It takes between eight to ten hours to 100% and is approachable by anyone.

Ron
Ron

A fairly cute metroidvania (mostly metroid). The story is meant to be kind of touching I guess, but it didn't do much for me. The setting is beautifully rendered and feels very suitably nautical. Music is okay at best, mostly background ambience. The gameplay is decent, and I felt that they did an above-average job for a game of this type with 360 degree freedom, which I generally don't like as much as ones where your protagonist has legs and must jump. The progress gating was very literal, with gates that you need specific powerups to get through, and a few areas where you need increased thrust which, after the initial powerup, you can just buy with currency. The puzzle-solving is mostly fun but not very difficult. There was only one that I failed to complete, and that was mostly down to frustration, rather than difficulty figuring out what to do.

Overall, I took my time, did lots of backtracking and checking to see if I could get through previously locked areas whenever I got a new powerup, and got 20 hours out of it with 100% achievements. Not a bad ROI, in my opinion, but it's got basically no replay value.

Justavian
Justavian

Wow, this was a real surprise for me. I began this game thinking that it would be a kids game that would be overly simplistic - maybe something that would hold my attention for a couple of short hours. But really, it is an incredibly well put together game, and while it's true that it is pretty forgiving, it's certainly not "just a kids game".

If you like metroidvania games, i think you'll like this. It is a beautiful looking game that is fun to explore. There are some puzzles, and there's some combat - but the real joy is the exploration. I like that the story wasn't too obtrusive (i'm the kind of person who fast forwards through all dialog and cutscenes whenever possible), but was enough to give the game a setting and explain the character's motivations.

Give it a shot - the beginning will seem very easy, but it gets a little tougher as you go. If you're at all tired of the standard metroidvania with double jump and dash etc, this will be a welcome change.

Nab
Nab

From the creators of Ratchet & Clank (which has nothing to do with this game), Song of the Deep is a metroidvania (lots of upgrades, lots of collectibles, lots of secrets, never unfair) -style action-adventure game following a young girl’s (most of the time a submarine, though she can disembark after some time at will) quest into the unknown to find her missing father (every game needs a mcguffin). It combines underwater (with adequately floaty controls) discovery (of beautiful locales), skill (both coordination and actual brains), and suspense (a few tolerable escape sequences and lots of fun combat) with a powerful story (which is complete, but invites sequels).

Different take on metroidvania with the submarine. Amazing voice-over narrative. very beautiful locales

Disney
Disney

The controls are not good. Seriously bad. Actively awful. The controls are poorly thought out, poorly laid out, and are quite possibly the worst game controls I have ever experienced. You will experience unending frustration, not because the game is difficult but because the controls are the worst controls you will ever experience.

It is not a good game. You should not buy it.

But if you must buy it, it is beautiful.

Lumps
Lumps

The only thing great about this game is the setting. Otherwise everything is a solid 5/10. It's basically just a long string of increasingly frustrating and tedious (in other words, not fun) puzzles. It's not even really metroidvania--all you get is a grapple hook and the same gun in multiple shades of colors.

I don't know. The whole time I play this game, it makes me want to stop playing it and play something more fun. I'd pass unless it just looks amazing to you or it's on a good sale and you don't mind quitting games that aren't interesting if you get bored. This one REALLY over stayed it's welcome in my opinion. I still got 2 levels to go, and it's really hard to bring myself to play.

LaVanguard
LaVanguard

Has somewhat an Aquarian feeling to it. Pretty good metroidvania with interesting mechanics.

Ge0force
Ge0force

Wonderful Metroidvania. I hope we'll see more of Insomniac's games on pc in the future!

[DMT]
[DMT]

6/10 (Neither recommend nor not recommend) - better to buy it on sale.
Just solid adventure-metroidvania - one-time game, will not re-play it for sure. Graphics, music and story are good. Map is big enough. Some areas were interesting (like the deepest one).
But:
- Controls are bad and should have been better configured.
- Simple puzzles.
- Strange and useless scaling of Merryn in some places (zooms in so much that you don't see dangerous areas outside the visible screen).
- Some routes become unreachable and it's absolutely not visible on the map.

Artifact217
Artifact217

This is a very nice and surprisingly long Metroidvania game. The level design is beautiful and there is always something new around every corner.

IdleThumbz
IdleThumbz

Beautiful Metroidvania that was a joy to play and fully complete :)

Suspicious Ewok
Suspicious Ewok

    • Very good soundtrack
    • Beautiful game
    • Solid Metroidvania game

nero.tatti
nero.tatti

A fun, underwater metroidvania with plenty of brain-wracking puzzles to solve.
A bit simpler than Aquaria, has some small bugs, but an overall enjoyable experience.

maestro
maestro

Those with thalassophobia might want carefully consider the purchase of this game.

It's rather obvious from the promotional materials that this game features a lot of deep underwater exploration, though from what I could tell (I haven't progressed in the game far enough to be able to get out of the sub yet), oxygen and/or drowning doesn't really play a role in the game, and the game does not appear to use thalassophobia as a horror device. There's spooky locales such as sunken ships, but they don't seem to be designed with horror in mind.

If anything, the game feels a lot like you're flying a spaceship if you ignore all of the undersea artwork, in terms of mechanics.

But at any rate, barring that...

GRAPHICS: 9/10: Stunning artwork. Lots of nice lighting effects, the pixel art for this game is amazing, and lots of hand-drawn backgrounds, and also storytelling is done through hand-crafted art as well. This is a very beautiful game.

SOUND: 8/10: I found myself enjoying the music that I heard, the sound effects seem pretty spot on, though I've yet to encounter any earworms that stuck with me after I turned the game off, but perhaps that could change. What I did hear sounded nice enough.

CONTROLS: 8/10: I played this with Mouse and Keyboard, which is what I would recommend anybody do, as it features a lot of aiming controls. A mouse is simply going to be better for a game like this, where the crosshair controls everything you do, from movement to combat. It might take a little getting used to, that you only have 1 movement key and you have to point in the direction you want to go, but I found myself quickly getting used to it. The sub doesn't stop on a dime and it does drift some, so you will want to predict changes in your acceleration with that in mind. It starts to become natural rather quickly.

SYSTEM: 7/10: It ran great on my PC, I did not experience any issues, though I will dock 1 point here for lack of maximized windowed mode. So many games do this anymore, that it really is a sour note when I buy a game, and it looks and feels great, but yet again, I can't make the game take up the whole desktop and let the windows taskbar showing. I run a few different programs that display notifications via taskbar, and I need to see when activity happens in those programs, things like discord and a telnet-like client. Sometimes I don't hear discord's blip, and the telnet-like client flashes the taskbar button when something happens.

OVERALL: 8/10: For the price, this seems like quite a nice little experience if you like exploration heavy games. There is some combat here too, to break up the exploration a little, as well as a little collectable side of things, and also progression in the form of upgrading your sub with the currency you find laying around the game world which encourages you to seek out things you can collect. I also liked the metroidvania aspects, so if you like metroidvania games, you should enjoy this one too, assuming you're not thalassophobic.

No_CLU
No_CLU

Metroidvania style game with nice narrated story.

Game not hard and fun working out how to use weapons & access secrets.

Down side, a little short game time.

Zincoshine
Zincoshine

I recommend this but with a strong caveat. This is a very slow and relaxing metroidvania. If you're looking for fast paced gameplay you're going to get bored fast. Regardless, this is recommended for anyone who has played Aquaria and wants more, regardless of any caveats.

KiwiOverlord
KiwiOverlord

10 hour review: Beautiful game. A $2 funko pop from Half Price Books brought me to this game and I'm so glad it did. This game is beautiful. The music, story, and art are all balanced wonderfully into an artistic masterpiece of a game. The play style is enjoyable and the enemies are well balanced.
Gameplay is centered on puzzles, piloting your sub, and combat sequences. It is challenging but not too stressful. Overall amazing.

TheBeak
TheBeak

From what I can recall some of the Ratchet and Clank team were involved with Song of the Deep and this submariner's Metroidvania chronicle definitely whips up a varied pace between frenetic action, tranquil exploration and taught timed-puzzle solving. On the toughest difficulty expect it to put up a decent fight and it's taken a fair amount of torpedoes to the hull for having very touchy movement controls (I can attest to this using my regular key/mouse commando set-up). Yet, Song of the Deep, if you choose to master its quirks and upgrade your sub to a mini war-machine, there's a grand adventure to be had here.

In Song you play as a young seafarer's daughter Merryn who lost her father in an ocean of peril. He might be dead and he might still be somewhere lost among the waves. It's your job to find him. The story is simple but told gorgeously via the breathtaking sunken environments as well as cartoonish/comic book cut scenes that really add some kind of altered children's book aesthetics to an already scenic and well-drawn adventure. Everything animates well from the monsters/bosses, to your submarine and the machine-laden puzzle elements that you must solve to find dear ol' Captain Dad.

Like all games modeled after this particular era of NES/SNES/Genesis grand pilgrimages certain areas will be inaccessible until you find the right gear for your mechanical fish of which there's a great variety of weapons, armor and progression items. Health and hull upgrades will be your key to surviving the tougher challenges on Hard and even then you'll definitely take some damage and probably die at least some as a few of the puzzling sections can damage and kill you if you aren't quick enough. There's a hermit crab that can stock you up on certain gear and you'll even be able to shrink yourself as well as travel on the ocean floor outside your protective ship. These types of games can live and die on item variety and I'm happy to report Song gets this part right.

The other part of these types of games is being rewarded by unique looking locations and bosses the further you get. Locale-wise, you'll always have your eyes drawn to some exciting and appropriately begotten underwater ruins. What bosses there are fantastic and sinister looking but there's very, very few and it would have been nice to have all the sailing and minion mayhem juxtaposed with some larger than life baddie beatdowns. It doesn't hurt the score a ton but I found myself wishing for more arch enemies than I got. As you explore you'll be further enraptured by a melodic soundtrack that doesn't quite beat out Aquaria or the Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human but is perfectly solid in its own right.

One of the biggest gripes about the game has been its controls and it's a fair assessment. They took awhile for me to get fluid and master with my fathead paying the price from even low level corridor guards until I got the rhythm down. Everything feels very rhythmic to this game which especially comes into play with the timed puzzles where you must activate something (sometimes traps) that you have to pass juking, jiving and speed boosting or else you'll either get killed or have to start over. A few of these made me want to take out my frustrations on the Everlast bag or a good, mean bottle of whiskey but I eventually got good.

Suckers for underwater action (and I am one through or through, it's a cool setting and I'm a huge fan of old adventure movies/novels like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, etc.) that want classic gameplay filtered into something modern should at the very least check this one out. I had a blast with Song of the Deep though ye be warned landlubbers. You're either gonna love or hate the controls...or hate them enough to get better and still enjoy n' complete the game. It's certainly worth a look on sale if nothing else.

Ed Rock
Ed Rock

Very good Metroidvania. Great art style, story and music. Ignore the people complaining about broken puzzles. They got stuck and couldnt figure it out. I had some occasions when I reached a point and felt completely lost on how to complete a puzzle but a YouTube walk-thru helped every time.

Citpoc
Citpoc

Do you like Metroidvanias but perhaps want to kick those socks off and just be casual for a while?
Then I'd recommend this one for you!

It's a quite short game with a pretty straightforward gameplay with some puzzlesolving thrown in, the overall mechanics
are easy to learn aswell and also doesn't require that much effort to master.

Story is nice, keeps you curious and plot points aren't far apart so you always feel you're making some kind of progress, be it upgrades for your sub or just plot advancement.

All in all It's a cute, short and well made little game perfect to just relax to.

zegzag
zegzag

pc crashed during a cutscene near the end so my save file got corrupted can i get some Fs in the chat?
cool relaxing game tho

Make Loaf Not War
Make Loaf Not War

Art is good
Only thing I would complain is that fucking puzzle that require extremly good timing, make me wanna smash my keyboard and use the hack just to skip it

OCD Skifer
OCD Skifer

a delightful little Aquatic platformer that any fan of platformers would likely love. You have to upgrade your ship, and make it better at what it does to clear out the areas of the full map. Honestly, a good game for any platformer fan, or anybody that wants incredibly calming music, Relaxed game play, and a fun story.

rating: 4 out of 5

Pablo Pegaso
Pablo Pegaso

It seems like an good, decent game, it kinda hard at start cause the game does not tell you what to do and its kinda frustrating cause you tend to explore, the vast map a lot and you don't have the required tools to get past certain objects.. It took me about 3 hours before I started get into it. Overall I like it. So far the bosses and fighting underwater has been really fun and the graphics are just so sweet

lowkey
lowkey

Neat little Metroidvania, very casual and very easy though, even on the medium difficulty. Last boss was a major disappointment but overall it was fun to play through. Puzzles were good, exploration is interesting enough, but the combat leaves a lot to be desired as it's very repetitive and easy. You're given a lot of tools to do different things with your various torpedoes but there's no good reason to use any of it as the game is just simply too easy for it to matter. If you like puzzles/exploration this is worth a look, not so much if you're interested in fun/interesting combat though.

Story is also just OK but the narrator is a very good voice actor, so that kind of makes up for it. I would absolutely recommend this game to someone who is a very casual gamer and/or new to the Metroidvania genre. Even someone who isn't a gamer at all could probably get through this and have a good amount of fun doing so. Total play time was about 11 hours but I spent a good amount of time backtracking and picking up almost every item.

lefiath
lefiath

It's a decent game, the controls take some time getting used to, but it becomes pretty fun, I must admit, especially after you unlock more abilities. The game is appealing, and there is decent amount of content, especially if you like to explore.

As I kept going, the game grew on me on some aspects, but some smaller issues became more apparent - what's the deal with the crazy camera? It loves to zoom in and out in places randomly, I guess to be cinematic, but it's incredibly annoying. Please, whoever came up with this, understand that taking control away from something like this just messes with the player. Just let me play the game and be consistent, don't change things randomly on me!

There are some smaller bugs, you can often get stuck when you play just as the girl, which is inexcusable, and I wish the grabbing mechanisms wasn't busted - way too often it feels random and buggy, doing strange things, grabbing stuff I didn't want to, even if I'm aiming and highligting something else! It can be unpredictable and awful.

corbo
corbo

A gem.
Not flawless, but addictive, entertaining, and spectacular.

The art is sumptuous. Certainly beats looking at and listening to your aquarium.
Most effervescent world you'll find in a long time.
Nice little tragedy being told. Meanwhile, the mood stays up thanks to the buoyancy of the protagonist.

The platforming is occasionally difficult.
The combat never is. In particular, the game's boss fights are short enough that they don't become the boring grindfests you'll find in most other titles.
The sub itself is a joy to maneuver. And to upgrade.

Worst flaw for me? The respawns. Some of us don't enjoy redoing the same fights a thousand times, easy or not. Besides, their loot sinks the economy, causing all upgrades to be bought way too early.

VynnDaris
VynnDaris

I'm not usually one for the Metroidvania style, but this one I like!

If you like undersea games, this is one that ought to be in your library. Good story, great atmosphere and gameplay, and lots of secrets and puzzles. Very well-rounded.

JoBo
JoBo

I love Metroidvanias and I played almost all of them that are on Steam. This one might not be masterpiece but really brings in some fresh air to the genre. Exploration is fun and combat and Puzzles are quiet unique compared to the Traditional 2D Platform Metroidvanias. Atmosphere is also great. Give it a try!

MMMrph
MMMrph

Overly-long combat, crap puzzles, and a wank narration.

CM
CM

very good subnautic themed metroidvania.
artstyle is fitting and fantastic. story is small scaled but nice to follow.
controls with gamepad are very good and allow you to play with the proper flow. :)
later in game you get now abilities to solve more complex puzzles.
all over the game is not to hard and even fun to replay it later (which I did on PS4).

vadhrnt
vadhrnt

Very nice metroidvania with a nice story, great music and very neat and beautiful art style.
A bit short though, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.

salehtundra
salehtundra

A pretty good metroidvania in a setting you usually don't see them in. Worth a but if you like the genre.

PepsiCoke
PepsiCoke

It is fun, the controls felt good, and the atmosphere and music for most spots felt great and well placed. The only spot I didn't like was the end. It was the deepest spot in the game but it was (for the most part) as bright as the surface. The buildup was anticlimactic and the reapers weren't creepy anymore because you could see them unlike the abyss. But besides that, the puzzles were super fun throughout the game and I had a blast playing.

Cinero
Cinero

+ Charming
+ Solid metroidvania
+ The pleasure of different game mechanics because underwater
+ Steampunk
+ Very forgiving (dying even has an in-game lore explanation)
- Some segments feel experimental or proof-of-concept, and some bosses are undercooked. I hope they make a sequel or something similar.
++ I'm a father of daughters, so a daughter trying to save her father is big feels

Patryk.Jedi
Patryk.Jedi

ECCO The Dolphin Vibes. Fun Game.

g6imxwjj
g6imxwjj

Beautiful graphics and Relaxing sounds... I love it!

manuelx98
manuelx98

Fantastic gameplay, cute story, great music and art direction, I really loved it. Also a great metroidvania with a perfect difficulty balance. A little short maybe? But for a metroidvania I think it's the right lenght, not too long, not too short. Highly recommended.

Wishpala
Wishpala

Sweet metroidvania game with a soothing narration, neat puzzles and beautiful underwater places to explore.

Solid Turtle
Solid Turtle

Метроидвания от студии, которая подарила нам Ratchet & Clank. Работа напоминает одну инди-игру под названием Aquaria. Если судить по отзывам, то игра не сыскала большой популярности. Но в коллекцию пойдет.