BAROTRAUMA Impressions for Steam

Situating players well below the ocean’s surface and posing a multiplicity of crises for players to rectify, Daedelic Entertainment’s new 2D multiplayer resource management game, Barotrauma, certainly lives up to the phenomenon that it is eponymously named for. The roguelike strategy game throws everything in its arsenal at players to evoke in their characters the severest symptoms of barotrauma, which refers to injuries caused by increased air or water pressure and can be induced by events such as deep-sea exploration. When coupling this fact with the game’s sophisticated control  system and multiplayer dynamics, Barotrauma makes players work hard to avoid utter perdition.  

At its core, Barotrauma is a game about staying alive while exploring the depths of the frozen ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Earth has become uninhabitable, and the search has begun to find locations in which human habitation could be possible. Players are tasked with researching the viability of a human colony in Europa’s seas, although they will face serious impediments as they attempt to do so. Problems as mundane as food shortages are not the only type of obstacle that players will encounter as they move their ship across the nodes that constitute constituent elements of Europa’s map; players will need to contend with antagonistic creatures and, because the core game is multiplayer, fellow crew members who decide to turn rogue. 

However, before even commencing with multiplayer mode, players will need to engage in a training mode to learn the game’s controls. Barotrauma has a somewhat steep learning curve that players new to games of its genre will need to overcome, although those who have played titles such as Faster Than Light and Submarine Station 13 will feel right at home. Those who partake of the submarine simulator for up to 16 players will need to learn how to fix various elements of the submarine that break, craft tools and weapons, create drugs, and more before heading off into Europa’s seas, which are never exactly the same thanks to an auto-generating map.

Players will experience Barotrauma from a side-on perspective filled with the various chambers of the game’s submarine setting. In terms of actual gameplay, players will need to satisfy one of the essential functions on-board their expedition’s submarine by working as a submarine captain, engineer, mechanic, medic, or security officer. Each job comes with its own set up responsibilities, but every individual is reliant on all the other members of their team completing their own tasks to succeed.

Players will need to accomplish various goals on each of Europa’s nodes, which include killing certain alien creatures and excavating ruins. However, keeping their submarines in action can prove exceedingly difficult should they be matched in multiplayer with other players hellbent on wreaking havoc.

Barotrauma ultimately leaves a lot of space for events to turn sour quickly and permeates a grim, atmospheric aura wholly apposite to its setting. However, due to the fact that the submarine simulator only allows players access to items that can realistically be found in a submarine, the range of potential actions a player can take may at times feel encumbered. Overall, though, Daedelic Entertainment realized its vision in Barotrauma, which is worth playing if one has an interest in underwater adventures under a sci-fi guise. 

Check Out the Barotrauma Feature Trailer:

Early access is just the beginning for Barotrauma. The game will continuously be updated and expanded with new content, features and improvements in partnership with the game’s community.

Barotraumais available for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam Early Access.