Song of the Deep Review

Weaving your way through underwater worlds fraught with danger and mystery is what’s on offer with Song of The Deep the first published title from the retail giant Gamestop’s Gametrust publishing arm. They are serious about publishing games but is Song of the Deep worthy of its swansong.

As a metroidvania style game you control Merryn who is on the lookout for her father’s ship as she awakes from a bad dream and looks to rescue him. In fact, I actually switched of from the story at the beginning as I was struck by how well presented the sea world was. What I can tell you though through my 5 hours of playing Song of the Deep is that the Irish narration is so smoothing to listen to and really immerses you in the world of the deep blue.

Merryn pilots a submarine through the depths and much of your time will be spent exploring and puzzle solving whilst occasionally picking up some treasure. To begin with Song of the Deep gives you a great overall feel for the design and movement on offer and although not too directive it gives you enough to get you going on your first couple of worldly hurdles to get past.

The controls feel great despite the game not really giving you that slick feeling that you may have experienced in games such as Ori & the blind Forrest or Rayman. These are odd comparisons I know but bear with me as what kept me hooked with a game such as Ori was its overall polish and character movement. With Song of the deep although the movement is adequate I always felt myself being reminded too often this is a game and there’s hard solid edges to the world. It became really jarring in this regard when attempting to solve some of the games puzzles that had you carrying explosive items around the map, simply put I found them and I hitting things I felt just simply weren’t there.

That aside the game is easy to pick up and play and offering an easy to understand map and gameplay controls it’s a game that all ages can pick up and enjoy. Helping you stay invested in the world as you explore is the in game currency that offers up an RPG element that enables players to upgrade their submarine in a variety of ways both helping you explore new hidden areas or making you tougher for your next encounter.

Enemy types are varied enough and offer up a typical format found in most adventure games. Some fights didn’t feel as great as they could have due to the nippy controls in the game often resulting in my aim of the claw firing wide. This does improve as you unlock new abilities and power yourself up for the tougher fights later in the game.

The sound in the game is great and the narration really makes the game deliver a great overall experience. The underwater sounds and effects really add to your exploration and the music is well presented and keeps to the pace of the game. However I couldn’t say the same for some of the other games mechanics, performance wise there are frame dips and times where I found myself battling the controls or some random jumping across the screen.

As for what’s in it for the achievement hunter there is a bit of a double edged sword here. For PlayStation fans there’s no platinum trophy and that’s a real shame as this game should have had such a prize for exploring this well-crafted world. For Xbox users there’s a small but rewarding list but nothing that will have you picking up the controller beyond the first play through.

Overall Song of the deep is a great change of pace for Insomniac games and will offer gamers a lovingly crafted world to explore with some soft toned narration to sooth you through the depths you’ll explore. Not a must buy but certainly one to consider if your after that Metroid fix.

This review of Song of the Deep was carried out on Xbox One and provided by Gamestrust publishing on behalf of Insomniac games.