Under the Sea

by Heike Borchers

Fantasy
2019

Return to the game's main page

Member Reviews

5 star:
(1)
4 star:
(7)
3 star:
(6)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 4
Write a review


1-4 of 4


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Delightful, September 14, 2020

While there are a couple of spots where precise wording in commands can be a little frustrating, this game on the whole is absolutely lovely. It's a small game with straight-forward puzzles that are fun to solve. It contains adorable NPCs, amusing writing, and cute hidden touches. It is clear that it was written by someone who loves nature and the ocean and being in the ocean.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Delightful, brief seascape exploration, June 4, 2020
by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: sanguine

Explore a thriving underwater coral reef in search of treasure, so you can report back to your local Adventurer's Society!

The imagery in this game feels like a summer's day, all bright colours and friendly characters. Some underwater adventures are characterised by peril; Santa Tortosa is punctuated with wonder. The logging was a particular highlight for me, and provided a fun added bit of flavour text.

Verb handling is, as always, a tricky beast. How much is an artefact of Inform 7 is not for me to question! However, item states can be unpredictable, and I found unreasonable resistance with the jar. That said, the puzzles are generally straightforward.

Under the Sea is a short game - I took about 15 mins - but is a prime example of a straightforward, cheerful puzzle game.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Friendly and fun underwater adventure, December 27, 2019
by Stian
Related reviews: IFComp 2019

A friendly and fun underwater game with a good spirit, which should be as suitable for children as it was for me. For the half-seasoned adventurer I am it took about 15-20 minutes to complete without hints. The puzzles were all very logical, though the syntax was at times a bit strict.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A mid-length light and carefree parser game under the ocean, October 4, 2019
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This game is pleasant, and has a simple map and friendly, talking animals.

You are exploring an island and its surrounding reef, looking for treasure. Along the way, you solve some riddles and help out some new friends.

It's all very pleasant, and it boasts numerous testers, but I feel like the design has some issues. Some puzzles (like Morse code) work great.

But others have trouble. One that comes to mind is the shovel. When we use it, we're asked where we want to use it. It turns out the answer has the form DIG PREPOSITION NOUN. This is a really big space to get the answer right in. Do you dig NEXT TO THE SEA? IN FRONT OF THE TRUNK? When you open up the parser to three-word puzzles, it makes things more difficult.

This happened later for me with the flat stone. You need to use one thing with another thing to affect a third thing. There are just so many ways of typing it, and I had to turn to the walkthrough.

There were a few other things that were similarly open-ended (like the riddle), and so I kind of bounced off that portion of the game and didn't become invested.

Overall, I found this fun, with wonderful imagery.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


1-4 of 4 | Return to game's main page