An atmospheric underwater horror game | Death in the Water 2 - First Impressions

Imagine a deep sea survival game like Subnautica, which is basically an underwater version of The Forest. Remove all the base building, crafting, focus on the shooter aspect, make it darker with lovecraftian elements and you get Death in the Water 2.

Death in the Water 2 starts slow and uninteresting. The introductory plot exposition is just unstimulating white lines of text displayed at your screen to read; no visuals, no narration. This goes on far too long, like a minute or two. Afterwards, there is a tutorial segment that I would say is not the best example of gameplay to get a player hooked on, you just are ordered to kill 10 hard-to-find fishes and hard-to-find treasure chests.

The gameplay loop largely stays the same, it consists of starting a mission in a much more passive exploration phase, in which you are trying to find treasure chests scattered in the area in order to afford upgrading your gear. Along the way you will also see other harmless creatures that populate the area. Then, the wave shooter element begins where you are attacked by a variety of sea creatures and you’d have to fight them.  Complete it to proceed to the next mission, rinse and repeat.

The combat is more methodical, your weapon is not an agent of destruction. It reloads slowly and does not always one shot the enemy. Your oxygen and ammo are limited, and you’d have to find and loot supply drops scattered along the sea surface. You cannot surface above the water as well to find reprieve. So far this gameplay loop is all there is, without much variation.

Death in the Water 2's graphics and sound design are phenomenal and impressive considering this was just made by two people. They really captured the underwater aesthetic and feeling exceptionally well. It's dark and scary, just like real-life but still light enough for it to accommodate the gameplay. The environments are also well designed; visually, they look realistic and believable as an underwater landscape; Mechanically, they are dynamic enough to provide a decent arena for the player to battle with the sea creatures.

So far, the atmosphere of this game is intense, scary, and immersive. The gameplay feels smooth mechanically with well designed animations especially for the sea creatures. However, the main gameplay loop leaves much to be desired with a repetitive and uninteresting experience.

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!