What if Subnautica was more laid-back and story-driven? Under the Waves is the powerful answer

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SHOULD I PLAY UNDER THE WAVES?

Play it. Under the Waves is a beautiful sci-fi game about sea exploration. It’s similar to Subnautica in the sense where you explore a vast ocean and find resources to build stuff to keep you going, but it doesn’t have any dangerous creatures or challenging missions. Instead, this narrative-driven adventure has players tackling sensitive topics like grief and isolation, while uncovering mysteries and performing tasks for a greedy oil conglomerate.

TIME PLAYED

I played Under the Waves for four hours. I reached day fourteen in the storyline and completed over a dozen missions, with each one taking anywhere from ten to thirty minutes to finish.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT  UNDER THE WAVES?

• A tale of grief and mystery. Under the Waves tackles some pretty sensitive material like grief, loneliness, and self-obsession. Protagonist Stan is an underwater explorer rummaging through the wreckage of his life after losing someone he loved. Getting to explore Stan’s story emotions completely moved me.

• Exploring a deep, mysterious ocean. The idea that there’s a whole other world out there beneath the ocean surface that we’ve barely even discovered has always both scared and intrigued me. I was in bliss while exploring Under the Waves’ take on that vast, mysterious world. Seeing whales swim by or seals flap through the currents while navigating dark crevices and large underwater facilities was one hell of an experience.

• Ethereal music. The background music in Under the Waves genuinely improved the effectiveness of the narrative. Without the elegant classical music score, this story wouldn’t have hit as hard as it did.

• An appealing view. Under The Waves features a retro, sci-fi visual style with cool and warm hues across the environment. The level of detail in this game is outstanding, and almost everything looks stunning. 

WHAT SUCKS IN  UNDER THE WAVES?

• Animation. Probably the only actual issue I ever encountered was the animation, specifically in cutscenes. The game looks good but it has a problem with dialogue and mouth movements being unsynced in a way that looks awkward.

• It might be a bit disorientating. I occasionally felt a little dizzy while playing Under the Waves. It wasn’t too intense for me, but if you get motion sickness regularly, you may struggle during scenes where the screen tilts from left to right.

💬 Will you play Under The Waves or are you going to skip it? Let me know down in the comments!