Under the Waves - Review

Stan is a professional diver, who three years ago had his life irrevocably changed. Struggling to deal with his grief, he has taken to a heavily isolated mission in the North Sea. Yet even in the darkest depths, and without another soul around, Stan cannot simply escape his past. 

Under the Waves is a daunting yet peaceful journey under the sea, exploring themes around grief, PTSD and mental illness. You play as Stan, a diver who is returning to work after a long hiatus, disappearing deep below the ocean. Unable to fully deal with the loss of his daughter Pearl, Stan has entered into a self-imposed solitude. Finding himself living with nothing more than his submersible, the sea-life and the voice of a long time friend. However, grief is very much like the oil that UniTrench is drilling up, and it gunks up all aspects of Stan’s waking life. 

There’s an array of stories occurring throughout Under the Waves, and it does a tremendous job of weaving them all together. Stan has taken a job with an oil mining conglomerate, as a way of escaping his reality. Yet in doing so, he finds himself unable to simply just exist. Attaching humanity and reality to J0, a flashy seal who visits you regularly. Even going as far as finding and communicating with his submersible, Moon. UniTrench are a dirty company, and the belief of the developers around preservation of the ocean is clear. You are uncovering and exposing problems of UniTrench from within, whilst slowly descending into your own PTSD-induced madness. 

Under the Waves does something surprising for a title that touts itself as an interactive narrative. It has a tremendous amount of focus on making an enjoyable game. Taking the basics of a Subnautica-esque underwater world, without the danger of massive sea creatures, and coupling it with a basic crafting system. The gameplay isn’t groundbreaking, but it weaves the overall narrative and background of the game into the gameplay. You collect scraps of metal, electronics and plastic as your scour the ocean. Finding old world collectibles, stickers and blueprints. Stan often comments on the fact that he is cleaning the ocean, and that it saddens him to see all this rubbish thrown down there. 

The game is backed by the Surfrider Foundation Europe, an organization who has been fighting for the protection of the ocean and its users since the 90’s. Whilst the majority of the story is focused on Stan’s grief and solitude, there is also a push for the user to simply acknowledge what the gameplay is. An acknowledgment of the destruction that has happened to our oceans. Particularly with a massive event occurring halfway through the story, we are shown the damage that humanity is inflicting upon the ocean and its inhabitants. It is thus important to acknowledge that the game works on many levels, and the choice of the ocean is incredibly deliberate. It acts as a great location for solitude and isolation, and also allows the devs to push a message that means a lot to them. 

Yet there is even deeper symbolic meanings hidden under the surface. The ocean is almost a representation of Stan’s mental state. Whilst it is full of wonder and widespread, life-changing events can completely alter the ecosystem. The spilling of oil into the sea, is like the grief that he refuses to deal with. The trauma he cannot accept fills his brain with darkness. A darkness that is like oil. Stan, like the inhabitants of the sea, is innocent in the greater scenario. Yet, whereas the sea creatures are unable to change their environment, Stan can. Stan is forced to face and deal with this all. It cannot be understated how nuanced and effective the storytelling is because of this from the direct, indirect and even gameplay elements. 

There is little pieces of humanity littered throughout the game too, that make it wildly more in-depth than it needed to be. A rhythm minigame with a guitar, a boxing minigame if you find a punching bag in your searching. Little additions of life throughout the life pod to make it feel like Stan is actually living in it, and not just pretending to be. You can even pull faces in the mirror, and I have no shame in saying I spent a solid fifteen minutes distorting his face across my playthrough to get a good laugh. Trust me, you’ll need the laughs. You can even take pictures of the myriad underwater life, and get to befriend a seal called J0 (pronounced Joe)!  

That isn’t to say the game isn’t without flaw. An unfortunate decision of including a pseudo open world exploration environment, means that you’ll be in your submersible a lot. The exploration device called Moon, controls just like you would expect of a 1960’s hunk of metal in thick water. It’s floaty, the controls are inverted similarly to flight controls. You can choose to use either first person, third person or further out third person for viewpoint. The first person viewpoint is horrifically disorienting, and the close in third person is only really useful in a few niche situations. The problem here is that the camera moves independently of the submersible. This means most of the time, Moon is not centred on the screen. This becomes incredibly infuriating in tighter quarter situations, or when you are attempting to look in a certain direction.  

You’ll often find yourself smashing into objects and feeling completely out of control. There is a strafe mode that allows for more minute movement, turning the camera into left and right, whilst making the movement an up and down feature. This is only ever useful in very tight quarters, and is almost impossible to use accurately in first person. It’s admirable to include a travel device, and something that makes traversing the area more enjoyable. Yet with it controlling like a lubricated stick in jelly, it is more infuriating than enjoyable. 

Under the Waves is an incredible piece of art. A beautifully crafted story, that has many layers to it. It incorporates real-life issues into a narrative that explores the ideas both consciously and subconsciously. The game tugs at the heart strings, and breaks up the moments of pain with segments of pleasure and humanity. The crafting, exploration and gameplay elements are light, but they exist and add depth to the game that is severely lacking in many interactive narrative experiences. Under the Waves is a tremendous eight hour experience, and is one that any fan of the ocean, powerful stories and/or simple crafting experiences should look at picking up.    

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Quantic Dream

The Pros

+Gorgeous narrative design

+Gameplay loop is relaxing

+Making faces far too enjoyable

The Cons

-Submersible controls poorly

-Camera is a challenge

-Waypoints can be misleading