When’s the last time you remember playing a game with good underwater controls? Ecco the Dolphin, maybe? It’s incredibly rare that a game gets the appropriately floaty feel of aquatic movement right, and thus frustrating underwater sections are a common problem that dates all the way back to the original Super Mario Bros. And despite taking place entirely underwater, Insomniac’s Song of the Deep’s

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A painterly look and melancholy Celtic music are every bit as effective and enjoyable in the opening minutes as they are at the end of the eight-hour adventure. Characters, backgrounds, and animations remind me like a cross between Child of Light and Ori and the Blind Forest in a really beautiful way. There are some slight performance hiccups, specifically when you cross a save point, but it was nothing major enough to harm the overall style.

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Going deeper and deeper into the ocean in your submarine and seeing the strange mythological beasts that reside there continually drove me forward in eager anticipation of what new locale or creature would appear next. From the ruins of ancient forgotten kingdoms, to the spooky nest of a giant spider beast, the inter-connected world is full of interesting places to explore. This ties in well with its Metroidvania roots -- unlocking new abilities like being able to leave the sub and swim through tiny doorways made me always want to retrace my steps and see what new secrets they could unlock. And this exploration pays off in the form of giving you experience to level up.

“ ...the inter-connected world is full of interesting places to explore.

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But as I said, having played from beginning to end, I never grew to enjoy how the act of movement feels in Song of the Deep. When mobs of enemies surround you, some of them firing projectiles while others surround themselves in a harmful electric barrier, you need tight controls and precise shooting to make it out alive, and here the submarine feels too sluggish in acceleration to avoid enemies that seem to be operating under different rules. Some can even pass through level geometry. I never quite felt the same level of prowess as I do in any of the great land-based platformers, which led to a solid amount of deaths that left me feeling like they weren’t entirely my fault. Checkpoints are plentiful, so it never set my progress back too far, but it was still a frustration.