IN OTHER WATERS Review for Nintendo Switch

Developer Jump Over The Age and publisher Fellow Traveller present In Other Waters, a slick, story-driven Sci-Fi exploration game taking place on an alien planet. A scientist named Ellery Vas conducts an investigation on the aquatic life on a foreign planet and the disappearance of her coworker and friend, Minae. The player is an AI inhabiting a dive suit to help Ellery navigate and survive this mysterious planet.

The game’s aesthetic reflects the AI’s perspective through smart design. Its surprisingly zen game loop also articulates themes of connection, while contrasting the story’s isolated tone. The player navigates the world through a radar, processing the environment through scans, collections, and establishing connections to travel nodes.

Survival on this planet is dictated by resource management. This is an entertaining decision because it conflicts with the player’s incentive to collect samples. When in the world, your backpack can only hold nine samples, yet your surveys are lengthy enough that you must be careful to monitor your power and oxygen levels. If either of the two run out, it’s game over. As you navigate the world, you find yourself conflicted between using your collected samples to replenish your power or oxygen, and logging your samples in the lab’s manifest.

Logging the sample’s in the ship’s manifest fills out the world’s ecosystem and establishes connections between the flora and fauna the player discovers. The player unlocks in-depth studies on the bizarre ecosystem along with beautiful sketches of alien life as they explore the world. These entries bring life into the various organisms you encounter in your travels, and paints the ecosystem as a breathing, speaking network.

The story is delivered primarily through text, as Ellery Vas interprets the world through language as the AI can only see abstractions through its sensors. Sometimes Ellery speaks to the AI directly, venting and confiding her own wonder at unusual life forms, and her growing concern to find Minae. The text oscillates between academia, poetic description, and bare loneliness.

            One highlight of the game for me was exploring a decrepit facility deep in the ocean, too far down for light to travel. The water was not oxygenated so I was constantly running out of air, which is stressful when you are trying to scan and read descriptions of the facility. I could have hustled through the facility until the game gave me permission to fast travel to my lab, but I was intrigued by what happened to the previous researchers, and what secrets they were trying to keep on this planet. While the game gives you the option to bring extra samples from lab, which can be used to interact with the environment, solve puzzles, or recharge your batteries, I never really found the need to carry anything extra because even as my resources decline, I would usually find enough samples to advance to the next area.

The last sauce in this recipe for a quarantine-well-spent is the sound. The music is atmospheric and the sound effects pop instead of drowning in a litany of noise. It carries a crucial depth that keeps the aesthetics of In Other Waters from falling flat.

            In Other Waters comes to the Sci-Fi genre, arms open, with a sense of wonder. Its gameplay is therapeutic. Despite the disparity between our perception and that of an AI, its aesthetic and narrative makes for wonderful immersion. I give In Other Waters a 9/10.

Check Out the In Other Waters Trailer:

In Other Waters is available for PC and Nintendo Switch. For more information, please visit: https://fellowtraveller.games/games/in-other-waters/