Jo-Mei’s and EA Originals Sea of Solitude contains an ocean of soul, but soul isn’t the only thing required to create a complete gaming experience.
Sea of Solitude drops you into the world of Kay, a young adult experiencing depression. Her state of mind is projected as a lonely ocean and the issues she encounters are corrupted, cryptic monsters. Kay struggles to navigate these dark waters. But by sailing through them, searching for light, Kay attempts to find herself along the way.
Immediately, I was impressed with the incredible world Sea of Solitude displays. Beautiful uses of color and the contrast of darkness amongst the comforting light never failed to make my heart pound away. And it was this riveting scenery that the player was allowed to explore. The player is given the feeling of a wide open world, finding the adventure for themselves as they follow their flare.
Decorating this ocean is an array of adventure and conflict, but at Sea of Solitude’s heart, it is a story based game. Complementing that, the gameplay is kept simple and intuitive. The only controls you are given at the start of the game are how to board your boat and how to light your flare. These simple directions allow you to delve into Kay’s story. When traversing the waters, Kay’s demon stalks her prey and you hurry away to the next floating platform. When Kay fights through the shadows of her brother’s bullies, you discover you can vaporize them by igniting your flare onto light sources. The game respects the idea that the player can find out what to do without a tutorial. It’s this minimalistic approach that allows greater focus on the story.
Before playing, I found I was skeptical of Sea of Solitude’s intended narrative. It’s not often that games are capable of telling a realistic story of mental illness and its battles. But I was pleasantly surprised at the quality story before me. Sea of Solitude tells an honest story. The player can feel how much the developers care about the subject and their dedication towards a realistic depiction. Kay and her monsters are exaggerated in many ways, but with this subject, its framing is just enough.
Despite all the praise I have for the game, Sea of Solitude lacks many things in arguably the most important quality: gameplay. And it’s the gameplay that fails to start for nearly a full chapter. Sea of Solitude is more novel than game. Even genres like visual novels have immediate player valuable decisions in the form of interactive dialogue trees. And although I enjoyed the apparent vastness of Kay’s ocean, challenges and decisions did not appear for several chapters.
Gameplay in Sea of Solitude almost felt like a second thought. The intuitive gameplay only felt so easy to figure out because it lacked much depth. Puzzles were simplistic and uninspired. Enemies like the spectres encountered on the final chapters seemed as if they were pulled from old games on the PS2. Most challenges were basic platforming mechanics. When Kay climbs her father’s tower, you immediately know how to circumvent the challenge by waiting for the heat vents to pause. Out of all the encounters, I was only ever impressed by the creativity of Kay fighting her brother’s bullies. The flare, which was seemingly just a reworked quest compass, turned into a weapon. The player pondered ideas like darkness and light in terms of utility. The whole set of chapters felt like an entirely new gaming experience. But this ingenuity only caused my disappointment as all the other mechanics were made with a cookie cutter.
Overall, Sea of Solitude felt like a true product of passion. However, when working on a passion project, it is easy to forget an amount of convention that is required to help the game stand on its own. If Jo-Mei Games put a bit more resources and ingenuity towards gameplay mechanics, Sea of Solitude would have been a masterpiece. Since it was lacking qualities in its namesake as a game, it missed so much of its potential. Which is why I was led to rate Sea of Solitude:
7/10
Check Out the Sea of Solitude Trailer:
Sea of Solitude is rated T for Teen by the ESRB. It is available now for $19.99 on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PC via Origin. The full game is also available to download for Origin Access Premier subscribers.
For more information on Sea of Solitude, head to www.seaofsolitude.com and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
PlayStation 4 Review
My name is Devon Huge. I'm passionate about writing, art, games, and lists that are one item too long.
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