Mark of the Deep

I initially wasn't going to write a review for Mark of the Deep because I found it to be a pretty middling experience. I got the impression that the developers genuinely tried their best to make a good game, and I don't particularly enjoy disparaging that effort. However, there is a bug that has been reported for months that makes the attack button perform a roll instead. The only way I've found to stop it from happening is to pause the game, and it happens regularly enough to become a persistent annoyance. This needs to be fixed, and I think players should know about it before purchasing the game. Unfortunately, even putting that bug aside, I found the game to be incredibly lacking. [h2]Exploration and Navigation[/h2] I like the art style. Everything is generally easy to read visually, and the game has a distinct aesthetic. The problem is that the environments themselves lack memorable landmarks and can start to feel very samey, which becomes especially problematic when you're expected to return to previous areas. There is also no map. This is a particularly strange omission because the game has a fairly interconnected world and expects the player to remember where they've be…

If I ever hold the A (Roll) button for slightly too long, the game puts me in some weird toggled state where hitting the X (Attack) button also makes me roll. This toggle does not turn off unless I do a short tap of the A button, after which, the Attack button functions normally again. this killed me more times than i care to recall. it became so frustrating that i stopped playing. there is a forum post with the issue with a dev acklowledging it but so far no patch

I really appreciate this game! The game Death's Door is a good comparison, but Mark of the Deep isn't as good- and a mix of tunic but again not as good and not nearly as polished or deep. It has a decent amount more of jank and note as good of a world, but combat and exploration in an isometric combat game is very similar. A solid recommend from me.

Fairly standard action isometric game that doesn't do enough to differentiate itself amongst its peers.

Mark of the Deep feels like a game that could benefit substantially from another round of development. Additionally, my playtime for completing the entire game was around eleven hours, but due to issues such as Steam Cloud save anomalies, my playtime was not correctly recognized by Steam. The most immediate issue is the attack button bug that causes the player to roll instead. The fact that this has been reported for months without being fixed is extremely frustrating, particularly because it occurs regularly enough to actively interfere with playing the game. Beyond that, I think the game needs a balance pass. Enemy health needs to come down, combat needs more interesting openings, and the boss runbacks should be reconsidered. A map would also substantially improve the exploration experience and make returning to the game after an extended break much less frustrating. I don't have much faith that the game will receive all of these changes, which is unfortunate because I think there is a decent foundation here. I like the art direction, and there are ideas worth building on, but in its current state, I can't recommend Mark of the Deep. At minimum, wait for the attack/roll bug t…

I liked the game for the most part. The fighting was good. The level design was sometimes a bit annoying