The scanner doesn’t simply do everything, but it does ensure you’re at least headed in the right direction. When Stan heads out to fix the oxygen issues, you’ll have to trace the route of several pipes, noting the broken ones based on their red bulbs. You’ll still have to pay attention though, a little like Firewatch. Stan is equipped with a scanner, making it infinitely easier to decode instructions from Tim and other objectives. Like Prey or the more recent Deathloop, the anachronistic combination, somehow works. While the ocean floor is attractive and interesting, the man-made features have a retro-futuristic design, like an alternate future that’s… in the past. (Parallel Studio have partnered with Surfrider Foundation Europe to support its ocean preservation aims.) Throughout the game there will be machines and crafting blueprints so you’ll be able to make your own items (like more oxygen sticks) from plastic, metal and other materials found floating or left on the ocean floor. These can be collected and converted into plastic. In a nod to the reality of ocean waste, spent oxygen sticks will float where you leave them. While you’re able to walk around your oxygenated living quarters, most of the game is spent in the ocean, either diving with a limited amount of oxygen (which can be replenished using oxygen sticks) or while steering your own deep-sea vehicle, which can cover ground quicker and help conserve oxygen. (And, of course, Stan gets his own hallucination moments very soon after.) Tim even added that a previous worker failed to flag his headaches, and by the time the rest of the dive team, the worker had started hallucinating. He reveals that the living pod’s oxygen mix is out of whack, likely explaining the sore head. Stan seems unsettled and twitchy in bed (and facially twitchy in general – hopefully his face will settle down with more time in development).Īt the start of the demo, Stan wakes with a piercing headache and picks up a call from what I assume is an offshore coworker called Tim. He appears to be grieving the loss of his daughter, but it’s only lightly touched on during these opening parts of the game. ![]() My demo started on the third day of his placement at an underwater living pod, but I know (from the game’s synopsis) that he’s down there quite literally to get away from it all. ![]() And he doesn’t seem to be in a good place. ![]() While I might have been relaxed, I also felt a little unsettled.įirst announced at last year’s Gamescom, in Under the Waves you play as Stan. Diving deeper and deeper into the inky blue, chasing a jettisoned shipping container as it bounced off rocks, spilling soft toys and revealing a mysteriously abandoned submarine hidden deeper still. Between the cheers and jeers from Crash Team Rumble players (possibly employees) nearby, I was diving. Parallel Studio’s Under the Waves is a calming game.
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