Let's be real here, Under The Waves isn't one of gaming's greats. At best, it could be described as a mediocre experience with interesting things to say that it largely fails to deliver on, asking the player to meet it on levels that it seldom manage to reciprocate. At worst, it's a muddled game, bringing three hours of ideas to a ten hour experience.

It's not that Under The Waves has nothing to say, it's simply that it feels undeservedly expectant of the player without much reason. It's clear that you are meant to feel certain ways towards certain characters, but it never lays the groundwork to allow you to feel any sort of affection or even antipathy for that matter. A couple of examples of this are that there's a seal in the game which you are clearly supposed to feel affection towards. Having closed the door on the platinum however, I was never encouraged to interact with it in any way. It's described as a local celebrity at the beginning of the game, only for this to be the last time it's mentioned for about eight hours. Conversely, there's also an AI character that is seemingly supposed to represent the vapid, uninterested, anti-employee corporation, the face to a faceless antagonist if you will. The trouble is, that after a brief interaction at the beginning of the game, the conversation is so bland that I never went back to it. What should have been a constantly chirping background noise consistently underlining how morally bankrupt your employer is, was relegated to a corner where it was all to easy to ignore and forget about. And that's a real a shame honestly, because this sense of being easy to put in the corner and ignore is the one that I suspect most players will be left with after their time with Under The Waves.

It would be all too easy to sit here and type our screeds of criticism about narrative threads that are never tied together, about unearned emotional touchpoints and puzzles that feel egregiously stretched out, for reasons that remain a mystery, but I just can't muster up the enthusiasm to care enough about it that I want to pick it apart. If you want a game to veg out to and turn your brain off for a few hours to grind out an easy platinum trophy, this is an absolutely fine one of those. If like me, you have recent grief in your life and you were hoping to find some perspective, then sadly this isn't it. The one effective moment in the game comes at the end when it discusses the circularity of life, but honestly, it's not worth it. Go outside and remember the fun you had with your loved ones because based on the conclusion of the story, the main character learns nothing from their journey in Under The Waves, so why would you?

https://coopworlds.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/thoughts-under-the-waves/

Under the Waves

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This game is middle of the road for me. The controls for KB+M are a bit wonky (Subnautica did a better job with the dive mechanics, both as the player and submarine), but the story is intriguing. I was hoping to finish this on stream but life kept getting in the way, and at this point I need to move on from it. I hope to try and finish this off stream.

Under The Waves est une expérience narrative sous-marine poétique, portée par une ambiance chill et contemplative. Visuellement immersif, le jeu mise avant tout sur l’émotion, la solitude et la nature, avec une bande-son apaisante et bien intégrée, qui accompagne parfaitement les moments d’introspection.

Le scénario est bien écrit, touchant et symbolique, mais parfois trop appuyé sur les mêmes thèmes — notamment la mort — ce qui finit par rendre certains passages un peu lourds ou redondants.

Côté gameplay, j’ai eu plus de mal. Le rythme est volontairement lent, ce qui peut renforcer l’immersion pour certains, mais qui devient parfois frustrant quand on enchaîne les tâches ou les déplacements. Il y a peu de tension réelle : quasiment aucun danger, peu de risques de mourir, ce qui rend le tout très linéaire malgré un univers intriguant.

Cela dit, Under The Waves réussit à créer une atmosphère unique, entre la beauté de l’exploration marine et une narration émotionnelle. Il plaira à ceux qui recherchent un jeu calme, introspectif, plus axé sur le message que sur l’action.