Here is a very emotional game presented by French indie developer Parallel Studios. It’s a game featuring a huge sea and a small human who drowns out his sorrow in the vastness.
Under the Waves is a narrative-driven adventure game that unravels the story of Stan, a diver struggling with the pain of loss, through the beautiful and majestic waters of the North Sea. It is also part of Spotlight by Quantic Dream, an indie game published by Quantic Dream.
A Play Day at Summer Game Fest gave us a preview of a demo of this beautiful, solitary game. And really impressively, I was able to experience the game in ‘Korean’ through the option right on the spot.
There were many games scheduled to support Korean at the Play Day site, but this was surprising enough as most demos only had an English version. As soon as I asked “Your game is going to support Korean, can I play it in Korean?”, the answer was “Yes!” very readily. And what’s even more surprising is that the quality of the translation is excellent.
In the case of games where the story is the center, it is a matter of course, but it is not an exaggeration to say that the quality of translation determines the degree of immersion. Under the Wave is also the center of the game, which is the part where the narrative and story are eventually solved, so the high degree of translation perfection can be seen as a great advantage.
The game itself is very calming and quiet. Each day is made up of chapters, and each day is given free time with a new mission. In the demo, I was able to play through Chapter 1, the first day. It seems to belong to a tutorial that tells you how to play the basics.
Personally, I thought it captured the center well between adventure and story. It’s not just reading or listening to the story, it’s because the adventure side is provided enough, such as exploring the huge deep sea through ‘missions’ and using what you get in the process.
Unlike similar games that provide simple controls, Under the Waves offers a variety of controls. In order to complete the mission, you need to scan or create objects around you, and in the process, check the oxygen level decreases while diving.
In order to get inside the submarine sunken under the deep sea, you have to go through all the steps to progress through the story, such as acquiring old mines, opening doors, and depressurizing.
Well, it’s clear that it’s a healing game, but it feels like you have to lead the process of healing yourself. And that process makes the game dynamic. Obviously, it deals with the lonely protagonist Stan going down to the bottom of the huge sea, but it is not static at all.
Above all, the biggest advantage and feature of this game is the huge sea. Sometimes blue, sometimes black, and sometimes beautiful and frightening, the sea is magnificent enough to make you stare at it in a daze. This magnificence creates synergy with the music produced by the development team.
And this vast ocean is not just beautiful. The ‘garbage’ floating in the sea makes you feel uncomfortable throughout the game. Even the oxygen sticks you use to live create plastic.
This is where the cool part of the game comes in. Just as it doesn’t just show the story, Under the Waves encourages players to act directly in this situation. By retrieving the floating trash and using it to create items such as new oxygen sticks.
In fact, Parallel Studios and Quantic Dream are partnering with Surfrider Foundation Europ, which supports ocean conservation. It’s doing one of the cool things games can do. As the issue of environmental pollution, including marine pollution, is serious recently, the game provides an opportunity to think about these issues again.
Under the Waves, a French indie game that captures the elements of adventure with a huge sea, a beautiful but sad story, and great sound, will be released on August 29th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Even the translation is perfect, so if you like beautiful games, why don’t you give it a try?
