Submersed 2: The Hive – Playstation 5 Review

The original Submersed left a sour taste in my mouth. As one of those ultra-cheap survival horror efforts, it felt basic and rigid in its execution. Main Loop have returned with Submersed 2: The Hive as a more comprehensive attempt that does improve on the first game’s offerings. It is still rough around every edge but the forward progress makes that a little easier to handle.

If I didn’t have the original to draw a direct comparison to, this review might have been more scathing. The story remains water-themed with the Attwater corporation getting up to some suspicious experiments once again. That unleashes a nasty parasite onto one of their facilities and our protagonist awakes with only escape in their mind.

She’s not completely alone with Ritchie, a masked man giving her a lay of the land. He is your main source of objectives and it’s nice to not be relying on your own intuition. He’s an oddball character who refers to himself in the third-person but is ultimately on your side. Other snippets of story are fed through tape recordings and written computer logs. There’s a lot here but the big beats are covered. I’m not sure the game needed to go much deeper, given that it’s a short, linear experience.

As a survival horror title, you’re largely stuck to a first-person perspective sneaking your way around metal corridors. There are three main sites to the facility, each reachable through underwater excursions. Whether indoors or under the ocean, you must be wary of one predator. Infected humans wander about at set times and provide very little threat. Our girl’s not the most robust but the enemy routines are easy to mess with.

Early on you are taught the power of misdirection. You can set off alarms to draw attention away from you. In the latter stages, noise-makers can be cobbled together from components. I dealt with most of my problems through violence. Melee combat is very basic with options for simple strikes and a block. Manoeuvring around foes feels easy. The movement speed on offer is greater than them so strafing around to a blind spot feels like a viable way to win fights. As does simply crouching, taking you out of their limited range.

It’s a little dumb but there’s at least some visual and audio feedback when they’re roaming about. You hear their gurgles and footsteps so you’re always aware of their presence. Under the water, your main threat is a great white shark. That guy was the bane of my existence in the first game but these sections now feel more manageable. The diving suit has a sonar capable of indicating how much distance is between you and the apex predator. Suit power is limited but you have charging spots en route to objectives. There’s also hiding areas to wait in whilst danger subsides.

It’s rudimentary but the improved feedback makes the shark feel more like an obstacle that can be avoided. Its movement doesn’t feel random and the windows of opportunity feel wide enough. Navigating between sites is straight-forward and they are well sign-posted. Despite that, I did find myself a little lost when on the sea floor. Some areas look similar enough for me to be turned around.

Healing yourself is where you inventory comes into play. You have a limited number of slots but I never found it detrimental in my playthrough. Medicine can be collected but it needs to be loaded into a syringe to be administered. For the sake of space, I’d have those syringes primed for whenever I needed them. Even with my compulsion to pick up everything, I never worried about a full inventory. There’s enough space to prevent hard choices.

I certainly neglected things like the noise-makers but I did at least have the chance to use the flare gun. It’s not a weapon that’s effective everywhere, typically being useful to blow up explosive barrels. In what is probably the game’s only boss fight, this becomes the only conceivable way to damage them. Even then, your movement completely outpaces the lumbering brute so I rarely felt threatened. In key encounters, ammo was readily available. Running out never seemed like a possibility.

Saving is a manual process but, despite the game implying otherwise, they aren’t limited. There’s plenty of spot to save and they can be a short time apart. It only became a nuisance near the end but there is some small backtracking required. I was also surprised how often the game would reveal shortcuts. The indoor areas feel small but these extra avenues do allow for more routes to outwit patrols.

The presentation is incredibly rough around the edges. Whilst they’ve now graduated to a native Playstation 5 experience, the building blocks seem very stock. Ritchie’s model and animations look gangly and a little inhuman. The voice performances of the main duo are absolutely fine but the whole product lacks a more considered polish. It’s a small team but I’ve seen situations where textures in the distance fail to load and some noticeable seams between them.

I think the lighting is most improved and you do get some gloomy atmosphere from the underwater walkabouts. It’s decidedly less grey than Submersed which I greatly appreciate. The soundtrack offers a tense ambience and the environments have a smoky appearance. It’s not pretty but it does show a workplace after an immediate disaster. It mostly holds together. I do think activating doors in a hurry can be a little fiddly but I had nothing break on me.

Within the context of the series, Submersed 2: The Hive improves on the foundations of the first game. The stealth is rudimentary and basic, but you are given tools to deceive a primitive set of enemies. I never felt I needed them but they were at least offered. It’s still a game with a severe lack of polish but the voice acting and soundtrack felt solid. I still don’t think it’s a good game but there’s some forward progress on show.