I have always had an interest in sharks, be it Shark Week, shark movies or the giant shark skeleton they have at my local museum. Sharks in video games though have never really worked, but with Depth, I had a great deal of hope. While you can play this game on your own, Depth is a game that is really intended to be played with others.
How to Download Depth
You can download the game from Steam. Click on the Download button at the end of the review. And if you like sharks like me, check out also our review of a really big shark movie – The Meg.
The Game Review
The idea of the game is that you are pitting men against a shark! There is a team of four divers and they are looking for treasure, all the while two sharks want them for lunch! Clearly, multiplayer games such as Left 4 Dead are a huge inspiration for what we have here and that is not a bad thing.
When you are playing as the humans you are moving along with your AI buggy type thing. You are looking for treasure that you can use to upgrade and get new gear. All the while you are doing this, the two sharks are stalking you and want you dead. It is very hard to explain, but Depth, when you are playing as humans, is a very tense game.
You move rather sluggishly which is supposed to make you feel like you are underwater. You need to move together, watch each other’s backs and keep an eye on the abyss! Seeing a shark or just a silhouette in the distance swim by is truly scary stuff. You may think that the tight quarters you are in will keep you safe, but that is not the case at all.
The divers are not 100 percent defenseless. They do have weapons starting with basic stuff like spearguns and working up to semi-automatic weapons. You have this very handy sonar type thing which you must use to try and give you at the very least an idea where the sharks could be coming from.
Playing as a diver is done in the first person, but playing as a shark is 3rd person. There are different species of shark that you can play as which is cool. Playing as the shark is really fun as you have to stalk the divers and strike at the right moment. You can smash into the areas they are in to break in and grab one, before trying to eat them.
Playing as a shark is much faster than a diver, but I like to take my time. I found that making the divers freak out and get nervous made it easier to grab one. The way you win is by taking away all the divers spawns. Or if you are the diver, you can escort your “payload” to the extraction point and you can win that way.
As well as the divers being able to get upgrades. Sharks can also “upgrade” too as they can get new predatory upgrades which allow them to see further, go faster and other cool stuff. The game only has one game mode which is a real disappointment. So, when you have played a few matches you have seen all the game has to offer.
Playing on your own with bots is not all that much fun. The AI no matter if it is the sharks or the divers is very predictable. Playing with friends is an absolute blast and a ton of fun. The matchmaking is not the best and I feel that is because the game does not have the largest player base.
Overall, Depth is a pretty fun game. It has a fantastic atmosphere thanks to the tension, moody visuals, and haunting soundtrack. Playing with friends is a genuinely great time and I feel with some extra game modes and maybe some kind of single-player mode, this could be a must buy.
