Song of the Deep - Adventures of a child prodigy

When I first saw this game, the first thing that came to my mind was, this is Aquaria, Its both set in an underwater world with the ruins of ancient sea dwelling civilizations with great music and visuals. They are also both metroidvanias. However if you're expecting the game to be equal or better than Aquaria then you'll be disappointed. That doesn't mean the game is bad, its just not as complex as the game it was based on. This game was made by the creators of Ratchet & Clank, and Spyro the Dragon. They were inspired by Aquaria to make a game with a heroine that the developer's daughter could relate to and what came out of it was this game.

Lets start with the story. The game begins with you, Merryn, a 12 year old girl whose fisherman father has gone missing one day and you had a vision where he was trapped under the sea. Using your skills, you build a submarine from scratch and then dive under the sea to find ancient civilizations with mechanical cities and constructs that surpasses the ones on land. First of all, they wanted a character little girls can relate to but what the fuck is this. I don't know about you, but when I was 12 years old I wasn't able to build submarines. Nor do I know what Tyne reactors do and how they will shoot a torpedo of pure energy at enemy fish and how if I trade shiny coins with a giant blushing hermit crab he will give me parts where I can install helix rockets to my submarine or electrical grappling hooks. Ok fine maybe the game is a little unrealistic but that doesn't hurt the game in any way. The story has a narrator and she narrates everything that happens, as well as give clues on what to do next and she does it in the style of a children's book along with colourful drawings. However, the story is short and has many plot holes. Like how does Merryn know what the name of the areas are? How does she know who the Merrow or Fomori are? And how does she know a giant sonar tower under the sea was used by the Fomori to hunt Merrows? We are going to just accept the fact the Merryn magically knows everything? Outside of that the story is enjoyable enough but its short and purposely left vague and unanswered with hints of a potential sequel if enough demand.

The game is played as a 2d sidescroller with full exploration of the world with blocked off areas that require upgrades. These usually contain optional upgrades and if you follow the story will end up skipping these. However, I find them to be the best parts of the game because they usually involve puzzles of some kind. To explore the world, you have a grappling hook you can grab onto things with on your submarine. It can also be used as a weapon along with 3 different torpedos and a sonar explosion. Combat compared to Aquaria is more fun but at the same time, more boring because the game only has five different enemies and two bosses. Jellyfish, angler fish, urchins, crabs, nautilus are the five enemies you'll meet. There's also the red reaper squids but we don't get to fight them. Instead they are immortal, move stupidly fast, and one kill you when they get near. You don't even get to dodge they just gravitational pull you towards them, freeze your controls, then you watch them kill you in one hit. The worst part is an area where you have to escape a hoard of them by dodging wood spikes, opening a gate by pulling it with your grappling hook, sea anemones, shoot down two lava walls and a ice wall, navigate through two circles of water currents, and lastly a short burst before you reach the exit. The time they give you is so specific that one mistake, one bump, one error will get you instant killed. Worst part is they spawn magically through the walls so even if you outrun the previous ones, the new ones will spawn infront of you and kill you instantly with no way to dodge because of its gravitational pull and control freezing. Bosses however are super easy and you don't even attack them with your weapons.

In conclusion, the game isn't terrible but its definitely not very good. Its passable at best and frustrating at worst. If you've played Aquaria and likes metroidvanias and enjoy the ocean setting, then go ahead and try it. If you haven't played Aquaria, play it instead. If you don't like metroidvanias why are you even considering this game. I would wait for a sale to get the game otherwise just pick up Aquaria for a superior game for a cheaper price.