Hey guys! It’s another fantastic Saturday with yours truly here to give you the low down on the latest game. This one is called In Other Waters.
Going into this game, I thought it would more a simulator type, ya know? I didn’t expect it to have much of a story I was very happy to find out that I was wrong.
So when you first open up the game you have this beautiful opening and you think you’re going to have this fluid transition of storytelling. Then you get hit with this abrupt interruption of what you think is a glitch. I panicked at first thinking my computer screwed up after it’s update. I was relieved to find it was part of the game, more excited that it thickened the plot right off the bat.
You get a message on the screen that reads something along the lines of “not much time left,” “Can’t lose everything” and “I’m sorry.” Kudos to developer Jump Over The Age for breaking the third wall in a very good way! In addition to the glitches, you also get a note that says that your Sensorium mode has been disabled. Not sure what that is, but it sounds critical, so I’m wondering, “was my character left for dead?” Full of questions, I boot up the system.
The controls for In Other Waters are interesting and well payed out. You have your Utility, Scan topography, Heading, Power, Oxygen and Depth to control. All the sudden, the suit seems to have activated and it turns out you’re the pilot of a machine that has an internal dialog. In fact, you happen to be a xenobiologist named Ellery Vas, and your job is to safely pilot the suit you’re in to its destination to pick up spore samples and locate new ones. You are also desperately searching for your missing mentor, who disappeared into the vast ocean of planet Gliese 677Cc.
However the suit’s AI has locked out of half controls, and doesn’t really like the fact that you don’t talk to him. What?!? I had to laugh at getting into a situation like this. Anyway, In Other Waters is really an immersive game I tell you. Turns out that Gliese 677Cc is teeming with alien life in its waters. Your scientist partner, who is talking to you, is collecting data as you are scanning the samples and swimming through this alien ocean.
Apparently, you have this whole planet yourself, which is kind of a relaxing thought. And its apparently a pretty untouched world, at least from the surface, so a nice break from our more polluted home. The gameplay is basically like a point and click adventure, with some puzzle elements. The puzzles are pretty easy to solve, and mostly involve taking readings and samples and then doing things with them. And while the game does a good job of making it seem like a fully open world, the fact is that it’s a lot more closed than that. You can only travel to various nodes, which are basically like levels. So you are kind of closed in, but it doesn’t seem like that, so great job to the developers on that.
So I’m going to be honest here about one element, the controls are a pain in the rear. I was expecting to be in an underwater world exploring and perhaps even doing some platforming type gaming. But I spent most of my time learning how to navigate through the controls on what looks like a radar or sonar screen. I’m a bit disappointed in that. I guess I was looking forward to something with deep blue waters and bright schools of fish to explore. But the storyline is pretty good, and I suppose the minimalist graphics keeps the focus on the plot.
While In Other Waters is a good, contemplative kind of game, the lack of any deep gameplay elements means that many gamers will likely get a little bored just moving around the sonar screen. I enjoyed my time with this one, but unless you are really scientific minded and like exploring for exploring’s sake, you will probably lose interest in this one long before you reach the deepest depths of Gliese 677Cc.
Curious about what else Modern Gamer does in her spare time? Check out woodlingsart.com and patreon.com/Shurale for more info.