Under The Waves review – down where it's wetter

Published by the makers of Detroit: Become Human, but thankfully not written by them, this is one of the best story-based games of the year.

There are innumerable books, films, and video games set deep under the sea, and it’s fair to say that life beneath the waves has a distinctly different flavour depending on which property is depicting it. That means Ariel’s purview in The Little Mermaid makes for quite a contrast to, say, Jason Statham’s character Jonas in The Meg 2 or Michael Biehn’s ruthless Navy SEAL from The Abyss.

Games are, if anything, even more varied in their approach to subaquatic living. Where ABZÛ is an easy-going, Journey-like adventure, Bioshock is the polar opposite. While Subnautica and its sequel have you exploring, but also building and maintaining intricate underwater structures. Although it shares their deep sea setting, Under The Waves isn’t quite like any of these games.

Set in a retro-futuristic reimagining of the 1970s, where there are Internet-connected amber-screen computers and undersea drones, you’re Stan Moray, a diver with a deep-seated emotional trauma from his recent past. Heading to the seabed for his solo work posting, he’s there to earn his keep but also to enjoy the space and solitude.

On the seabed you’re completely alone. The only voice you regularly hear, other than Stan’s self-narration, is that of Tim, your surface-based controller who gets in touch with work-related reminders. That sense of isolation, with human companionship over the radio, has more in common with Firewatch than it does other underwater games. It also shares that game’s somewhat melancholy emotional resonance, although quite a lot more happens in Under The Waves.

Stan works for UniTrench, a fictitious North Sea fossil fuel drilling company with an all too realistic lack of environmental concern. While you’re busy fixing oil leaks and picking up plastic bottles and other flotsam from the ocean floor, your employer is polluting on a monumental scale. With frequent nods to real world eco-NGO, the Surfrider Foundation, Under the Waves includes copious information about its aims and work.

A bit like building a game around the strict rules of a licensed IP, crafting a story around a message, no matter how noble the cause, can lead to problems. Under the Waves’ environmental campaigning is a bit heavy-handed, although its focus on seaborne pollution doesn’t entirely subvert its themes, which are as much about processing sorrow as cleaning up oil spills.

And it doesn’t take long to show you why Stan’s grieving. Its other plot devices, which appear to be pointing towards some sort of dalliance with the supernatural, never go anywhere. Maybe that’s just as well given how many other games use survival horror elements to create tension, which Under the Waves delivers through claustrophobic underwater spaces and a gradually dwindling oxygen supply.

Taking to the seas in a mini-sub, which you frequently disembark to collect floating rubbish for crafting; to interact with Jo, your pet seal; or to pick your way around confined interiors, exploring the ocean depths is just as relaxing as Stan hoped. Everything moves slowly and deliberately underwater and your sub comes with infinite oxygen, even if it does need occasional repairs and refuelling.

Piloting your sub works well in open water, but swimming and walking around more cramped interiors highlights the mild clunkiness of its controls. Exploring feels good though, a quick sonar ping showing you the contours of the seabed, along with local resources and points of interest. It makes tasks that involve finding and fixing things a great deal less frustrating than they otherwise would be, although you will still sometimes find individual crafting materials hard to locate.

Those materials – mostly rubbish you collect but also algae and other naturally occurring flora – can be made into useful items, decorations for your living quarters, and upgrades for your equipment. You rarely come close to running out of anything, making the crafting system overgenerous rather than entirely superfluous. You’ll also find stickers you can use to decorate your wetsuit; an outfit that Stan not only wears for work, but also sleeps in.

The gentle pace of jobs for UniTrench, and Stan’s lowkey, halting verbal interactions with his controller, and more intermittent conversations with his wife, make for a pleasing if slightly downbeat experience. Under the Waves is probably at its strongest when you’re simply pottering about the seafloor fixing broken equipment, using your waterproof Polaroid camera to take snaps of sea life, and tidying up plastic waste.

Things are less rosy when your tasks take you to more confined spaces, where it’s clear the developer’s main concern isn’t the action so much as the emotions continually boiling away just under the surface. Stan’s clearly not in a good way mentally, even if he’s not at all keen to discuss that with Tim or to think things through for himself. Instead, he’s come to the ocean floor to forget for a while.

From its Ridley Scott-inspired slow rotating fans, and scuffed up, industrial-looking interiors, to playful interactions with Jo the seal, Under the Waves uses the solitude of its setting to explore the way humans deal with personal tragedy. It creates an excellent ambience and sense of place, even if its gameplay can sometimes get bogged down by its mechanical shortcomings.

Under The Waves review summary

In Short: A story about loneliness and grief, set in a retro-futuristic 1970s and told from the perspective of a deepsea diver, which is less interested in action than creating the right atmosphere.

Pros: Emotionally resonant with well-drawn characters, whose minimalistic dialogue is used to great effect. Scooting around the open world in a mini-submarine feels genuinely relaxing.

Cons: Slightly clumsy controls. The crafting system can feel a little inessential and trying to find an underwater cave to harvest geodes is an hour we’ll never get back.

Score: 7/10

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Quantic Dream
Developer: Parallel Studio
Release Date: 28th August 2023
Age Rating: 16

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