Best of November 2022

Ep. 11 - Hidden Deep

A feeling of dread and being trapped down below the ocean with something unspeakable, scary and a little bit disgusting: That is Hidden Deep. 

You are sent down to the depths below the Ocean to retrieve resources, uncover the reasons behind interrupted mining operations and rescue fellow crew members, who were also sent down there, to do ‘the job’, but never returned. Your contact up above the sea level gives you a new job for each of the missions of Hidden Deep via Radio Command, they work rather well as an atmospheric quest giver. 

Most of the time though, you are on your own, exploring the mining facility and whatever lurks below, accompanied by a very fitting soundtrack and great sound design. The game lets you in relatively easy on the first missions, but gets very challenging, very fast. It offers some difficulty settings that are essential to let the players decide how hardcore the experience becomes. Not so great at this point, are some of the controls (I played with Mouse and Keyboard). 

The rather janky controls in Hidden Deep’s wonky physics environment make for super hilarious moments that relieve the stress of working in the dark and scary deep. Getting squished by a truck, a box, an elevator, falling off random ledges, that is also a part of Hidden Deep. At least for now, with hopes of the early access phase clearing at least some of the glitches and control shenanigans up before release, because they ultimately ruin all the amazing tension and atmospheric build-up that this game pulls off so impressively. There is talk of co-op, although not for the main campaign as far as I could find out.

While this game is still in early access today (May 2023), it already offers a decent amount of content to explore and enjoy adventures in. Give it a try if you are feeling brave and do not mind the potential for silly things mentioned above.

PS: I do not recommend buying early access titles in general, but would rather have you put interesting games onto your wishlist's.