In Other Waters

An enjoyable and immersive 6-8 hr adventure or so. The sound effects are great, the UI is clean and colorful, and there are detailed text descriptions of each place you travel to. If you have a vivid imagination, it is exciting to imagine what Vas is seeing. And after you 'complete' specimen collection on a species, you get to see her sketch of the creature / life-form. Many things in the game are never sketched and are left fully to the imagination. The downsides: - You need to read and use your imagination to enjoy the story - Linear, replay value is low - Movement is tedious, although you do get used to it - There is an interesting plot and a big 'reveal' that is initially very captivating, but ends up not being used as effectively as it could have been. After a series of quick end-game revelations, the game ends somewhat abruptly (I strongly suspect additional content was planned but they ran out of time etc). But that's OK, I created an extension for the ending with my imagination and I like the ending I imagined up.

The main character is a biologist that thinks fungus needs sunlight (photosynthesis) to grow. I'm serious, and the rest of the writing is almost as bad. Did I mention the environmental "message" that ignores the fact that we can grab the wildlife and use it as fuel, or that certain organisms can be used as improvised explosives to clear blocked passages? I wish I were joking. There are some good things. The basic story ideas are good (but never developed). I like the aesthetic, and the music and sound is pretty good. And that's about it. Skip this one, or watch it one youtube.

I really enjoyed this game. It was a bit hard at the beginning to get into it (a tutorial would have been nice), but the longer I played the more i "landed" on this alien planet. The graphics are very abstract, you have to make the images in your head - but since the writing is excellent, this works nicely. Recommended for people who like to read, love to explore and speculate about alien ecosystems.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into... But this is a superb text-base game

In Other Waters is very minimal on the UI -- after all, you represent an AI that operates a sophisticated diving suit, and the fun bit about that is that the story protagonist is trying to understand what is happening in the world just as much as you are. The game really shines in that aspect and makes a very good impression of you actually communicating to someone, which makes you forget about the minimalistic UI, the weird icons you see on the main screen and let yourself simply immerse yourself to a beautiful alien world. The story is not really anything new -- humans, true to their favourite combinaton of arrogance and stupidity, tapped into something they didn't fully understand and it backfired. The world you see is the result of that, but as you progress through the game, as you enjoy its beautiful soundtrack, as you learn the sad story of an unlucky alien world which our species stumbled upon and found something that could be turned into profit, and as you reach the story finale where you learn not only who you are, but also how lonely you are.. suddenly you see a ray of hope. I literally cried at that moment. I experienced emotions towards a bloody triangle and collection of dots! This was probably the most cathartic moment in a video game I've experienced for a long time. Honestly, this felt like reading a really good sci-fi novel. It is idealistic and some can say even cliché, but I haven't seen such a good game in quite a while. Do play it