"Submerged: Hidden Depths" Review

Publisher:  Uppercut Games

Genre:  Adventure

Summary:  Siblings Taku and Miku explore a flooded city overgrown with a tainted black plant, attempting to heal it thanks to Miku's own connection to the plant Mass.

Gameplay:  As in the previous game, the game involves traveling via motorboat to various locations and then climbing through them, but there are some added elements of jumping, swinging, using elevators, and opening bridges.

Now the key element is moving mystical plant "Seeds", so these must also be transported to the right place within the building.  There are also sometimes rocks that must be moved to open bridges.  None of this is very difficult, however.

Sometimes the motorboat must be used to open gates or move bridges into place, but this isn't too complicated.  Motorboat upgrades again I found weren't too necessary since I found maneuvering through the city requiring more slowness and the map offered adequate fast travel.

In addition to secrets (which are thankfully translated if an entire segment is found), different styles for clothing, hair, or the boat (which, like the secrets, require numerous pieces to work, unfortunately); flowers (for decorating the home base); and relics (also decorate the home base) can be collected.

Style:  As with the last game, the flooded, ruined city is lovely to explored, and the various times of day and night and types of weather offer variety.  However, the mystical plant creates a more magical feel than the last game, as various plantimals shimmer away into light when approach, and flowers spring into existence when the magical seed is near.

The city also has new construction, as a tribal village inhabited the area earlier, which creates a different feel.  The black plant and plant remnants of people create somewhat of a horror aspect as well.

The music is again excellent, as is the sound design for plantimals and ruined structures.  The gorgeous ruins and water, flowers and biolumescent corals, are all very beautiful.  Miku and Taku occasionally speak while exploring; sometimes it's translated, and it's neat to see how it could be a future version of English.

Story:  Once again, the backstory of the siblings is explained clearly and the overall gist of the story was made sense, but I again found myself frustrated by having to search out secrets to find out the backstory of the city, which was if anything even more important.  

Likewise the additional collectibles were fun, but the frustration of not finding that last one to unlock almost outweighed having new options (the number of times I had eight out of nine pieces...)  I think I'd rather have one thing to find in more places, like the creatures.

Still, while there is more to explore, the game is, like its predecessor, a short but satisfying beautiful experience.