Song of the Deep is a metroidvania game developed by Insomniac Games, the ones behind the Spyro, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance series. The game is a smaller title that takes place underwater. As the player, you control Merryn in her submarine in a sidescrolling adventure. The controls starts out simple with only an extending claw but during your adventure, you'll gain more abilities such as firing torpedoes and being able to get into narrower passages.
As a metroidvania title, be prepared to have a lot of areas blocked off when you first pass through an area. Once you gain abilities in the later portions of the game, you'll be able to clear those obstacles and gain the treasures within. Thankfully, with the in-game map, backtracking isn't confusing or hard, and if you just play through the story, there's minimal backtracking so it doesn't feel repetitive.
Insomniac Games nailed down the controls through since while the submarine still has the floaty feel, it's easy to maneuver and quite precise. While exploration is the main focus, there are plenty of dangers in the sea. Enemies will frequently appear and combat at first is fairly annoying since your own form of attack is the extending claw which has limited range. Soon enough though, you'll be able to upgrade your weapons and dispatching enemies is much easier and doesn't seem to tie you down as much. Scattered through the environment are treasures which once you accumulate enough, you can trade for upgrades to make your adventure easier. These upgrades range from longer boosts in speed and stronger attacks.
The game is 2D and has a nice art direction but compared to a few other games, it isn't something spectacular or truly eye-catching. The story follows Merryn on a journey to find her father who did not return from the seas. She has a vision that he is trapped at the depths of the ocean and she builds a submarine to set out and find him. Soon enough, she finds pieces of her father's ship but believes that he is still alive. The world of Song of the Deep has mythical creatures and gigantic systems of caves and underwater structures which makes it interesting to explore.
We constantly get narrations during gameplay or storybook type scenes to flesh out the events. The game uses save points but they are frequent and thanks to warp points, you can zip from various predetermined areas quickly. Story progression and the treasures are usually locked behind puzzles. These puzzles are easy at first but they eventually get a bit harder... to execute. Most of the time, you either need to get access to levers for opening gates, finding blocks to open gates, or pushing balls... to open gates. You will quickly figure out how to solve the puzzle and the camera will helpfully pan out to give you the view of the whole puzzle.
Unfortunately, as the game goes on, it tends to rely more and more heavily on timed elements for the puzzles, which is annoying to say the least. There is also a chase scene where it feels a bit cheap due to enemies that instantly kill you and perhaps the most infuriating part was the controls. You needed to shoot a gate and then use your claw to break it, however, it doesn't lend well to doing it in a rush and the aiming can be a bit off. The developers had to patch it which makes it much easier but is still a pain.
For a game that is most enjoyable on exploration, it forces you into tedious combat with waves of enemies. It is not fun at all especially when later on, it pits you against stupid enemies where the water currents are constantly pushing you away, or that the enemy cannot be damaged unless you throw bombs back at it but it keeps pushing the bombs out. At the same time, you're fighting against the controls as the enemies pushes you away from it and it make for a frustrating and cheap experience. It is these situations that sour the whole game experience.
This is a short game taking only around 5 to 7 hours to finish. It'll take another few hours if you want to get every single piece of treasure and upgrade (although it is not worth it as some are really annoying due to fighting the physics of the game). Overall, Song of the Deep is a peaceful and (at first) calming experience. The story is subdued but has enough charm to keep you going. The exploration aspect is great and going back to areas with new abilities to unlock those treasures you were forced to miss was addictive. Song of the Deep is recommended for a short, less serious metroidvania title.
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