Submerged
Submerged is a third-person combat-free game in which you explore a mysterious flooded city and discover the beauty of desolation in vast outdoor environments. You take on the role of Miku, a young girl who has brought her wounded brother to the city in their small fishing boat. Navigate the flooded city streets by boat, scale the drowned buildings, and use your telescope to scour the city for the supplies needed to save your dying sibling. As you explore the city at your own pace, you encounter the habitat that flourishes in this colorful place and discover hidden objects that piece together the story of a broken world and a broken family.
What it feels like
Beauty found in desolation and the wistful sadness of a broken world and broken family pervades the emotional register. Self-paced exploration without combat creates a calm, unhurried peace where the player can simply be present. The game invites reflection on the flooded world, the story's pieces, and themes of loss and connection.
What it's about
The bond between Miku and her wounded brother, and saving him, anchors the entire narrative and emotional core. A collapsed civilization's flooded ruins with nature reclaiming the world evokes post-apocalyptic atmosphere. The central drive to find supplies to save a dying sibling frames survival as the urgent narrative goal.
How it plays
Scaling drowned buildings and navigating vertical spaces via climbing and parkour is a core traversal challenge. Scaling drowned buildings and fluid movement through the vertical environment reflects parkour-style traversal. Exploring and discovering supplies, using a telescope to scour the city, and piecing together story elements involve environmental problem-solving.
How it looks and sounds
The game is presented as third-person with the camera following Miku through the environment. The colorful flooded habitat and nature flourishing in the city feature saturated, bold color as core to the aesthetic. Hand-painted or illustrative art evoking traditional media creates the game's visual identity and beauty.
How it's structured
The game is explicitly designed as a single-player experience with no multiplayer component. A large continuous flooded city is explorable in a non-linear, player-chosen order at their own pace. The flooded city is a deliberately authored environment by designers, not procedurally generated.
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