Depth Dwellers (1994)
TriSoft · 2025 · Action, FPS, Shooter, 1990's, Singleplayer
PC
Positive92% · 13 📈 Making a comeback 100%
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About Depth Dwellers (1994)
This is a re-release of the 1994 game "Depth Dwellers," presented without any modifications or updates. TriSoft was originally founded by a family member, and our new entity, TriSoft Legacy, plans to recreate and further develop the game at a future date. The game includes an embedded order form that should not be used, as the information is no long valid. For controls, refer to the help guide in the game by pressing F10. Pressing Alt-F4 will not exit the game during play.
The Game
Depth Dwellers drops you into the heart of Ora’s labyrinthine tunnels, where you’ll battle to free the Depth Dwellers from the Ri’s iron grip. Armed with an arsenal of futuristic weapons and the combat skills you perfected alongside Princess Aurora, you’ll face off against Ri enforcers, automated drones, and the harsh realities of a world under siege. Explore the glowing, Zendle-lit caverns, uncover hidden secrets about the mineral’s power, and rally the Depth Dwellers in a desperate stand against their oppressors. This 1994 classic combines fast-paced, first-person action with a compelling narrative, immersing you in a universe where every battle matters.With its atmospheric design, intense gameplay, and a story that blends personal stakes with galactic consequences, Depth Dwellers places you in the boots of a hero thrust into a cosmic struggle. The tunnels await, the Ri advance, and the fate of worlds hangs in the balance—your adventure begins now.Key Features:- Pulse-Pounding Sci-Fi Action: Dive into an epic adventure that puts you in the middle of a desperate fight for survival.
- Blazing Combat Gameplay: Wield cutting-edge weapons and test your skills in frenetic battles against ruthless enemies.
- Labyrinthine Exploration: Discover the hidden depths of Ora’s glowing tunnels, packed with secrets and surprises.
- Cosmic Conflict: Stand against the Ri's advancing forces to protect Ora and alter the fate of the solar system.
The Story
Welcome to Depth Dwellers, a 1994 sci-fi action game that immerses you in a richly detailed universe on the brink of annihilation. You play as the son of Earth’s ambassador, a young hero whose life has been shaped by the haunting beauty and deep sorrows of the planet Ora. Your first visit to this alien world remains vivid in your memory: the shimmering blue of the mineral Zendle, a substance so striking it seemed to leap from the planet’s surface into your ship, casting everything in its melancholic glow. This mineral defines Ora’s landscape and mirrors the plight of its inhabitants, the Depth Dwellers—a once-proud people driven underground by centuries of brutal conflict with the neighboring planet, Riase. Adapted to their subterranean existence, the Depth Dwellers bear the physical scars of their exile: oversized, luminous eyes that gleam with the quiet despair of a life spent beneath the surface, far from the sunlit skies they once knew.Your father, a renowned diplomat famed for turning even the most ruthless enemies into allies, was dispatched by Earth to negotiate peace between the Depth Dwellers and the relentless Ri. The Council of the Depth Dwellers sought his expertise to end the war that had ravaged their world. But the Ri are a force of destruction, their home planet Riase a testament to their greed. Once a verdant paradise of sprawling gardens and fertile valleys, Riase now lies desolate—its resources plundered without thought for the future, its surface a cracked, windswept graveyard of dust and ruin. Driven by desperation and ambition, the Ri have set their sights on Ora, determined to seize its Zendle at any cost, even if it means exterminating every last Depth Dweller.The Ri’s hunger for Zendle stems from its newly discovered potential: a key component in a revolutionary weapons system that could cement their dominance over not just Ora, but all nine planets in their solar system. To fuel this war machine, they’ve enslaved the Depth Dwellers, forcing them to toil in the dark tunnels, mining the very resource that could spell their doom. Amid this escalating crisis, your time on Ora is marked by your deep connection with Princess Aurora, the fiery and resolute daughter of the Depth Dwellers’ leadership. What began as childhood games during diplomatic events blossomed into a partnership forged in shared ideals and rigorous training. Together, you spent countless hours mastering an array of weapons—from energy blades to projectile launchers—and honing combat techniques, as Aurora fiercely advocated for her people to resist the RiThe turning point comes on your final night together. In a moment of raw vulnerability, Aurora confides in you: she and a group of rebels have intercepted messages between the Ri’s mining operations and their leaders on Riase. The transmissions reveal a chilling escalation—the Ri no longer seek merely to subjugate Ora; they aim to conquer the entire solar system, wielding Zendle as their ultimate weapon. As her tear-filled eyes reflect the anguish of her people and the horrors awaiting countless others, you hold her close, the weight of the impending struggle settling over you both. Aurora and her allies are ready to act, and the fight for survival begins.What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Very good revival of a very obscure old game6 found this helpful
If you know Depth Dwellers by its reputation, well it's not entirely without merit. It's especially true when you compare it to its contemporaries. But, we're no longer in the 1990s. We can look back at this game for what it is rather than what else was out. It becomes something a bit more in that context. First, I'd like to address the technical part. This is emulated with DOSBox Staging, an improved continuation of the original DOSBox. You're getting full screen by default but it's no longer a 320x240 sized box taking over your monitor like with most of the old DOSBox configured games. It's more like a borderless window experience and you can capture and release your mouse cursor with just a middle mouse wheel click; handy for multimonitor bouncing. And going to windowed mode with Alt+Enter also leaves you with a decent sized window rather than the aforementioned small box. It also has the benefit of Staging's CRT filter that auto adjusts to the screen size. If you like CRT filters, you may like this. If you don't, it's not very pronounced or obnoxious like some scanline filters are so it's easy to look past. Onto the game itself. As of the time of this review, they've managed …3 found this helpful
I'm so shocked to even see this on here. I was looking for the source code of this game for fun, and wow what a surprise! Yeah, this was an instant buy for me, but mainly for the nostalgia and the novelty of having Depth Dwellers in my Steam library. I must have been three years old when I first played this, the shareware version, on a CDROM titled "The Imagination Station". It had the Doom shareware episode on it, which was the actual reason my dad bought it. But it also contained this gem, along with a few other demos. It's a real product of its time -- and as a kid I remember enjoying it a lot -- but probably because it involved using the computer more than anything and it was a first person game. It's a terrible game by today's standards, and even back then it was not good compared to what else was out around that time -- but it is an interesting look at history. It had textured floors and ceilings, and even support for stereoscopic graphics, supporting even a few different vendors. That was really rare, even among the big budget titles. To hear the developers are still kicking around and even considering writing a sequel, man, we really are in the most chaotic timeli…2 found this helpful
I think this might be the worst fps I've ever played, but it's an interesting relic of its time. You collect keys to open a brown door that stands between you and the exit to the next level. There are like twenty secrets in every level and it's not very difficult to beat, but it's not exactly thrilling.2 found this helpful
This game is very good1 found this helpful
This new updated engine makes playing the game a lot softer. The controls are better and you can turn the music on and off during gameplay. You're looking at a very niche piece of FPS history. Both a sign of it's times in terms of tech, and a look at how the industry was trying to evolve when it first became popular. For 2€, give it a shot. It's culture.
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
