It would not be wrong to assume that in the last two decades open-world genre is one of the most popular genres in video games. From Grand Theft  Auto 3 to recently released From Software’s Elden Ring the genre keeps telling us YES there is still room for innovation. Then comes Submerged Hidden Depths from the developers Uppercut Games which wants you to just explore rather than fighting or killing enemies.

Lack Luster Story Telling

The story of the game is simple you play as Miku who is on a journey with her younger sibling Taku in a post-apocalyptic global warming world which is submerged in water and the only thing that remains visible are tall buildings and your task is to save the world from the strange looking creature known as-The Mass. The game tries to show the love between the siblings as sometime Miku’s younger brother Taku will take her sister’s place by taking the command of boat or doing the exploration of building remains by himself.

Many games don’t do a full English dub they rather do their own language perfect examples of these games are Hollow Knight, Monster Hunter World and Yakuza 0. Submerged Hidden Depths tries to do the same. Although cutscenes do have some emotional moments yet they don’t feel impactful despite having some decent voice acting. Best example in that case is Yakuza 0 game doing a tremendous job in first hour of the game to set up the character of Kazuya Kiryu. Also shows  his relationship with his clan and his friend Akira Nishikiyama and that too despite having only Japanese dub. Now one can argue that this and effect of watching Anime in Japanese dubs; but another example of this can be Young Souls (The last game I reviewed for Gameffine) which didn’t had voice acting only texts despite that game did a great job at showing great chemistry between twins Jenn and Tristan. Submerged Hidden Depths tries to give emotional weight with its soundtrack  to the cutscenes but fails in capturing player’s heart.

Keep Exploring

Submerged hidden depths is not an action-adventure open world. You don’t have to worry about leveling up your stats; or think that an area is restricted because you aren’t leveled up enough. The game just wants you to explore sit back and relax while you are exploring the world with your brother Tuka while the amusing soundtrack of the game serenades your ear.

Gameplay is just simple you find things in the world collect them to progress through the story or solve some minor puzzles on the remaining buildings. The game also offers extra collectibles for the  completionist or to customize your character or relics to decorate your home. You are given a journal to keep track of your collectibles and a telescope which help you to find collectibles by marking the collectibles on your map which can help you if want to complete every aspect of the game.

The game has over 140 collectibles but you only need to place 10 seeds right in order to finish the main story. Talking about the difficulty of puzzles they are not super hard like some games for example Watch Dogs or Assassins Creed where sometimes puzzles require you to think hard. Submerged Hidden Depths does not require that level of thinking it only requires exploring to solve puzzle.

Also in the open world you can find the boat upgrades which can help increase speed of boat and can be helpful in traversing fast around the world.

SPARKLING WATER

The part where submerged shines most is its beautiful graphics with its beautiful water effects. Every area of the game is detailed and made with true love and passion and the music of the game perfectly blends in with the art style of the game. Music of the game is just pleasing to hear with as you discover new locations in the open world.

Every location in the game feels unique and different with fallen tall buildings ranging from hotels to industrial buildings. There are some locations in the game where you are at the top  and just do some sightseeing to have a view or open photo mode to take some screenshots. Game does a good job at not making open world feel empty with different creature inhabiting the world and a challenge to players to discover all the creatures similar to the Red Dead Redemption 2’s compendium system.

Although Submerged hidden depth has one big problem when it comes to technical side of things that is performance issues Submerged hidden depths suffers from a lot of frequent stutters and freezing however I did  not experience any crashes during my playthrough. Submerged feels like a Ubisoft games with only exploration and collectibles and no combat.

REAL TALK

Submerged Hidden Depths is a game which isn’t meant to be taken too serious. It’s just meant to be give players a relaxing gameplay of about 10 hours. If you want an open world game with no combat and only exploring and collecting things even then I would recommend you to wait for a sale .The game is currently priced at 700 INR on Steam and 710 INR on Epic Games. My recommendation would be to wait for a discount and see if you can get the game around 400 INR. Since game has also technical issues like stuttering and freezing. By the time goes on sale those issues should be patched out.

FINAL RATING: NOT RECOMMENDED