Depths of Sanity

I bought this game some time back as I like vague unsettling Lovecratftian horror and boy did this game not dissappoint. The sense of exploring the unknown is great. You're constantly discovering new areas, abilities, weapons, secrets, and strange creatures lurking in the darkness. The different underwater biomes are surprisingly varied, and the game's interconnected world gives you plenty of reasons to revisit places as you gain new abilities. The 360-degree underwater movement takes a little getting used to though. The Lovecraftian and psychological-horror elements are another major highlight. There's a real feeling of isolation and unease as you descend deeper into the ocean, and the story does a great job of gradually revealing what's actually happening without giving everything away. Overall, Depths of Sanity is a hidden gem for anyone who enjoys Metroidvanias, exploration and atmospheric horror. It may not have the budget or polish of some of the genre's bigger names, but it has something arguably more important: personality.

What a gem of a game! I felt like a kid again, exploring this atmospheric underwater world and combining weapons and abilities to go deeper and deeper... It's motivating and challenging in the right to take it to the very end.

Just finished my first playthrough (I take my time :)). The story is not groundbreaking but still enjoyable - a nice, short Lovecraft-inspired narrative. The game is not particularly difficult, but some puzzles took time (turtles and long bubble streams be damned). Love the graphics, love the gradual descent into madness of everyone involved, including the title screen. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this. While it seems to be a technically well-made game with elaborate game design, there's just not much fun to have. After 6 hours, I really don't have any motivation to continue. The movement is too slow and squishy, the abilities and upgrades are super boring, fighting enemies is tedious, and the graphics are too ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to generate enough atmosphere. Overall, the best word to describe my experience is: Boring.

Most of the negative reviews here are talking about the movement and controls, but to me that isn't really the biggest issue (although yes, it is bad), because that could honestly be managed, if not by patience then there are difficulty options. The biggest problem to me is the game is just utterly dull. Even in an game that is going for "dread" vibes (which I do like) games are still supposed to be enjoyable to engage with and this one isn't. Moving around the world just is not enjoyable for me. I see no potential for combat to develop and maybe exploration would, but it's so boring I just can't bring myself to continue.

As other reviewers have said, the submarine feels sluggish and unpleasant to control. I had to switch to a mouse and keyboard because controller support wasn't working and made the controls even more unbearable. This doesn't feel good to play, which is a shame because the premise is very interesting, but there is no way I'm playing a whole metroidvania that feels this bad to play.