Song of the Deep has one of the best and captivating stories I’ve seen in a while. Set in an extravagant undersea world Song of the Deep’s story is full of danger, wonder, and hope. However Song of the Deep isn’t a book, it’s a game and the gameplay doesn’t attempt to take any risks. Instead tedious combat and sometimes frustrating gameplay can lead to vexing moments. If you’re able to look past these upsetting moments you’ll find Song of the Deep offers a captivating world and an entrancing narrative.

Song of the Deep stars Merryn, a courageous young girl about to undertake a dangerous journey to save her father. After a vivid dream of her father trapped under the sea Merryn builds a small submarine to venture into the deep ocean in search for him. Merryn will meet new allies, deadly creatures, and learn that the stories her father told her weren’t simple fairy tales.

The story isn’t original but the way it is presented gives Song of the Deep its own distinctive experience. The narrative is told as if it was a graphic novel, with a narrator explaining the inner thoughts and feelings of Merryn accompanied with artwork. The colorful pictures and strong voice-acting help immerse the player as the events transpire. Little bursts of information are slowly revealed, introducing important elements at a regular pace instead of watered-down expositions. As the story progressed I always knew what was happening, what I needed to do, and never felt lost.

The detailed open 2D world will have Merryn traveling to several locations, each with unique challenges to overcome. Like other Metroidvania games Merryn will collect items along the way to help her defeat enemies and unlock previously inaccessible paths. These include torpedoes, searchlights, and grappling hook to name a few.

The grappling hook not only serves a tool to latch onto objects but your primary weapon. With it Merryn can launch quick jabs with the powerful hook. While powerful everything in Merryn’s arsenal is upgradable. Over the course of the journey you’ll collect treasure, a hermit crab, who collects shiny objects, will take these rare items off your hands in exchange for upgrades to your submarine. These range from more power for your weapons or defensive abilities such as increase health regeneration from pickups. 

Combat can become repetitive since you’ll end up facing about the same creatures over and over again, with slight variations in their color and damage intake. Usually you’ll end up spamming missiles and your grappling hook until the enemy dies. Health and ammo pickups are generous, enough so that dying becomes a rarity unless faced with a one-hit kill situation. Checkpoints are frequent and load times are set to a few seconds, so if you do happen to die you won’t have to wait long before respawning.

Merryn’s journey encompasses more puzzles and exploration than fighting. Puzzles within Song of the Deep range from simple to moderately difficult, most of them requiring you to flip switches, escort bombs, and rearranging lights. Most of them have obvious solutions but require patience to complete such as timing explosions correctly or navigating bombs through a series of obstacles.

You can complete Song of the Deep in about 8-12 hours. Obtaining about 200+ treasures across the 12 areas will easily add 4 hours of game time for those looking to obtain every achievement/trophy. Thankfully the map is detailed with all the locations of the hidden treasure, with each area color coded.

Looking pass the average combat system Song of the Deep delivers a solid experience. Merryn’s journey to save her father while exploring sunken ships, finding hidden treasure, and uncovering lost cities overshadows a lot of the issues.The sense of wonder and excitement of diving deeper into the ocean as tranquil music plays in the background helped me forget about firing missiles are the same generic enemies over and over. Overall Song of the Deep is an epicundersea odyssey.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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