SAMUDRA

As someone who lives in a sh*thole country vulnerable to climate change this game really impacted me. What an impressive idea and what a great implementation! I really enjoyed this game. Perfect music, beautiful art style and amazing gameplay. This game touches at the heart and importance of the need for environmental awareness. The moral of the game is that one person can change the environment for the better, so we have all can contribute something. The game presents the grim reality of ocean pollution, and how all these bags, glasses, disposable straws and other trash contaminate and spoil an otherwise pure space. The mystical music at the start matched so well with the intriguing content, the overwhelming plastic waste and its impact. The game is a beauty. The hand-drawn illustrations give the game a storybook feel, combined with the surreal moments of rescuing a giant sea mermaid or escaping from a massive deep-sea creature. There are so many little touches in the game’s different environments. Plastic bags diffuse into the water, masquerading as jellyfish with a soft glow. Gloves and surgical masks float around you, living alongside the fish in this deeply polluted ocean. The soundtrack too is at times gentle, other times ominous, but always fitting. Story beats progress at a brisk pace, with the complete absence of dialogue. Instead of dialogue, we get conversations in the form of thought bubbles or cute, animated images that give us an idea of what’s really happening. It’s a style that mostly works, lending itself to a gentle experience. It’s certainly more accessible too. Ultimately, the game doesn’t exist for the gameplay at all really. It functions as an engaging experience, but sadly, something to admire rather than interact with. The game is full of Indonesian Folklore where reality and folklore combine and work in unison to create something unique, some fantastic. For example the Mermaid is a legendary creature in our world and in Samudra this legend is brought to life in a realistic manner. In the fantastic world of Samudra the lure of the Viper Fish is the mermaid and those who see it think they see a mermaid but in fact this is just a bait with which the fish is trying to capture its prey. There are many neat little tidbits like this throughout the game. All in all, Samudra is a fun experience and clearly a lot of thought and care was put into the game, and while that’s not always enough, Samudra is good enough for me recommend it for its cheap price, specially on a sale. What are you waiting for?! Let's save the planet, protect the environment and human life together! 7/10

Ein einfaches Sidescrolling-Adenture mit schöner Grafik. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304278247 [b]Geschichte und Gameplay[/b] In der düster-märchenhaft gehaltenen Geschichte spielen wir ein Kind, das in die Tiefsee hinab fällt (praktischer weise mit einem altertümlichen Taucherhelm) und von dort aus mit unserer Hilfe einen Weg an die Oberfläche sucht, der reichhaltig mit Hindernissen, rätselhaften Maschinen und Anlagen, übel wollenden Gegnern, menschlichem Müll und sonst allerlei Dingen gespickt ist. Dahingegen besteht die Aufgabe des Spielers zumeist nur darin, zu laufen und ab und an eine Aktion (per gleichbleibender einziger Taste) auszuführen. Dies kann dann ein Objekt schieben, ein brennbares (unter Wasser?) Objekt abfackeln, sich verstecken oder das Kind schlicht (QTE-mäßig) reagieren lassen. Für letzteres erscheint meist eine Art Luftblase mit Ausrufezeichen. Eine solche Luftblase wird aber auch für alle anderen Mitteilungen verwendet. Etwas irritierend ist, dass man manchmal die o.g. Taste drücken muss, damit es weiter geht, manchmal nicht. Es gibt noch ein paar Rätsel, die nicht allzu schwer sind. Allerdings bin ich nach ca. 2/3 des Spieles an ein solches geraten, das einfach nicht funktionieren wollte, weil sich das Objekt nicht dorthin bugsieren ließ, wo es offenbar hin sollte. Ich habe jedenfalls in einer Lösung nachgeschaut und ja, dort ging es, bei mir nicht. Ich habe es dann auch nicht recht viel länger ausprobiert (man könnte am letzten Checkpoint starten, wo man auch landet, wenn man mal stirbt, was durchaus ab und an vorkommt), denn ich war bis dahin - leider muss ich sagen - von dem Spiel schon recht gelangweilt. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304284769 Wie viele andere Rezensenten ähnlich anmerkten, ist das Spiel wirklich hübsch anzuschauen und das Gameplay wäre ja, wenn auch nicht anspruchsvoll so doch wenigstens in seiner einfachen Form vorhanden, aber es ist halt sehr schlicht und sich wiederholend. Zugegeben dies ist bei vielen Spielen dieser Sorte so, aber dann fehlt mir auch noch etwas anderes, nämlich eine gute Antwort auf die Frage, was hier eigentlich abläuft. Denn außer dass es furchtbar knuddelig gemacht ist und irgendwie wohl darauf aufmerksam machen will, dass die Menschen die Meere (und allgemein die Umwelt) zerstören, ist es doch eher eine bunte Mischung aus allerlei und nichts. Denn wenn dies das Thema ist, warum werden wir dann mehrmals von einem Raubfisch gejagt (um das Gameplay fliehe vor einem Gegner, wie in der alten C64er-Zeit einzubauen) oder begegnen Michael-Ende-artige Märchenfiguren, die was genau uns sagen wollen? Irgendwelche bösen oder geknechteten Arbeiter treffen wir auch, aber warum jagen sie uns teilweise? Ich sehe hier keine sinnige Geschichte sondern nur ein auf nett gemachtes Sammelsurium. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304277878 [b]Technik[/b] Technisch OK. Die Grafik ist sicherlich das Highlight. Wirklich schön, teilweise hervorragend gestaltete Figuren und auch gut gemachte Hintergründe. Der Sound ist auch ganz gut. Die Musik prima (etwas Geschmackssache sicher). Geredet wird nicht. Die Steuerung per Controller denkbar einfach. Mit Tastatur sicherlich ähnlich. [b]Sonstiges[/b] Ich habe etwa 2h gespielt, ehe ich es abgebrochen habe (da hing ich wo fest, vielleicht wäre ich nach mehreren Versuchen auch weiter gekommen, habe aber das Interesse verloren)- Es gibt viele Errungenschaften, auch viele optionale. Um alle zu erhalten, muss man sich wohl ziemlich anstrengen. [code][b]In Zahlen für mich persönlich ein Unterhaltungswert von 5/10.[/b][/code] Ein hübsch anzuschauender, aber etwas langweiliger Sidescroller, der offenbar nicht frei von bugähnlichen Situationen ist. [hr][/hr] [i]Dies ist mein subjektiver Spieleindruck. Für meine Wertung zählt, wie gut es mich unterhalten hat. Entsprechend der Daumen nach oben oder unten, abhängig davon, ob ich es einem ähnlich gesinnten Spieler weiterempfehle. Der Spieleindruck eines anderen Spielers kann aber durchaus stark davon abweichen.[/i]

[h1]Amanita meets Irrational meets Playdead in a game with some good ideas and a noble purpose, but which fails to be as beautifully deep as the sea it brings to the screen.[/h1] It makes me a little sad to leave a negative review for this game, because it tickes many interesting boxes and the premise seemed encouraging. Unfortunately, having reached the credits, I feel I can't do otherwise. In Samudra, the player takes on the role of a boy who has fallen into the depths of an abyss, and now seeks a way back to the surface by crossing a fantasy underwater world colonized by humans. The reasons and modalities of such colonization are partially revealed throughout the adventure, but a cause (or consequence) of human activity is evident from the start, namely environmental pollution. In Samudra's world, pollution has reached a point of no return, and waste has become an integral part of the ecosystem itself. The game's purpose of public outcry is quite clear, and I can say right away that the result is excellent from this point of view, well supported by the surrealist style chosen for the art direction. Gameplay-wise, Samudra plays as a 2D walking simulator, with some puzzles and chase sequences along the way. Its nature is reflected in the control scheme: the only available commands are the four directional moves, plus a "jack of all trades" button for any kind of interaction (jumping, picking items up, etc). There's no text to read, all dialogues consist of small stylized animations that are generally understandable. Such a very simplified structure allows the player to focus more on the events than the actual play. In addition, even though the game heavily relies on trial-and-error and quick-time events, I found the difficulty set on the easy side for the most part. So, it looks like there are all the ingredients for a nice narrative-focused indie game, right? Unfortunately, the interesting premise quickly falls apart due to the game's major Achilles heel: the execution. I don't know whether this was intended or not, but pretty much every interaction in the game suffers from unnecessary waiting times. During dialogues, the player is forced to wait seconds before proceeding to the next "line", which prevents quickly skipping them (not good for subsequent playthroughs). The same happens when interacting with the machines of the puzzles, with levers that are not immediately reusable. Somehow the chasing sequences are affected too by this sensation of unresponsiveness, so that I never felt 100% confident about the success of quick-time events during my playthroughs. Considering that the pace is inherently slow for this type of game, the game ends up feeling sluggish rather than just slow-paced. The story itself (the main aspect of the game) is not without its creaks: on the one hand, it's more than just a message about "awareness towards an eco-sustainable future", and contains several symbolic elements (e.g. the intro sequence); on the other hand, I would have preferred to delve a little deeper into some aspects of the lore, which instead remain only hinted at by the painting and pictograms scattered around the game world. Also, without spoiling too much, the "mystical" section of the adventure seemed out of focus to me compared to the rest of the story. As if that wasn't enough, the game is lacking from a technical point of view. Stats tracking is bugged, so much so that many achievements don't work at first try, and one is currently broken. The checkpoint system is not precise, and sometimes I've skipped or redone (luckily, short) sections due to incorrect loading between scenes (especially near puffers' areas). Incidentally, I happened to soft-lock the game twice by spamming the interaction button to finish dialogues as quickly as possible. The menu is bare-bones, with no settings at all for resolution or music/effects volume, and the mouse is not supported for navigating it. In conclusion, Samudra is by no means a bad game, and I appreciated the idea behind it, the game world, the art direction, and the message it wants to convey. However, keyboard in hand, even though it tries to immerse the player in its fascinating dystopian world, the final execution often compromises the very immersion that the game wants to leverage. Unfortunately, there is little hope for an update, but if that were to happen I would be happy to change my review.

While I really do appreciate the message of Samudra, it just is not fun. The controls are clunky and gameplay is bar bones and boring. The art and sound are the high quite nice though. I just can not recommend Samudra.

Art's great. Other reviewers have pointed out the flaws and there's not much to add. Idk if the animation scene is harder to break into than the indie game scene, but many of these types of "games" would do better as short movies.

Well that was one hell of a slog. The movement is very restricted(you can't even jump around to ease your boredom) and slow, yes I know the game takes place underwater but you can't deny the annoyance it gives. A ton of pointless stages requiring minimal interactions, and God, it goes on and on and on at a snail's pace. It feels like at least 3 times of its actual length. A third of the game doesn't even have a background track to accompany your dull journey. I experienced fair number of softlocks during my playthrough and the ending is depressing as ♥♥♥♥ so there's hardly any sense of reward. As the final cherry on top, achievements are broken. If you aimed for 100% from the very start collecting every collectible and avoiding every danger, too bad. No blue medal for you. The game also is(was?) supporting a group of activists, who had the goal of reducing Indonesian plastic usage to 70% level in 4 years(2021-2025). Well, as we're already past that period, how did the things go? Unfortunately and unsurprisingly they failed, as the plastic usage of Indonesia actually saw an increase not a decrease. And methinks they aimed at the wrong goal to begin with because the core pollution problem in Indonesia more lies with the how the waste is processed after they are collected, they are often just straight dumped to the environment. And in addition to the domestically produced waste until 2025 Indonesia imported hundreds thousands of tons of plastic trash from other countries for a quick buck. I have no doubt there were more pressing issues at the time than simply minimizing plastic usage. For the sake of awareness? I don't agree with that either. By this point the world is divided into two groups of people about this problem, with one half where the public is already completely desensitized to this sort of campaigns and the other half where the people are directly impacted by the consequences they don't need any wake up calls. So at the end what was the point of Samudra? Was it a good game by itself? Did it help to achieve something meaningful? Did it push the boundaries of artistic, musical or of any standard? If I were to be asked these questions I would reply no to all three of them. Not recommended.

[h2]Sinopsis[/h2] SAMUDRA (“Océano” en idioma sanscrito) es una aventura de puzles y supervivencia en 2D, que nos traslada a un futuro caótico, donde la Tierra ha sido devastada por el ser humano. La contaminación ha hecho que la superficie sea prácticamente inhabitable, obligando a la sociedad a vivir bajo el agua. Los océanos se han convertido en enormes vertederos y fábricas, mientras que la fauna ha sido esclavizada, obligada a servir al hombre. Nuestro protagonista es un niño (o niña) con escafandra que despierta en medio de la nada, su objetivo: frenar la destrucción y devolverle la legítima libertad a la vida marina. Sin embargo, el viaje no será fácil, plagado de peligros y desafíos que exigirán astucia, reflejos y valor. [h2]Jugabilidad / Apartado técnico[/h2] SAMUDRA se presenta como una aventura en scroll lateral 2D, donde nuestro objetivo será avanzar a través de diferentes zonas marinas maltratadas por el ser humano. Es un juego donde la historia se va desarrollando a base de imágenes y símbolos, sin necesidad de palabras. Nuestra principal y única herramienta será un pequeño farolillo que, además de iluminarnos el camino, nos servirá para activar mecanismos o interactuar con diferentes elementos del entorno, prendiéndoles fuego a los obstáculos para abrirnos paso o liberar objetos atrapados. El peligro estará presente constantemente, siendo imprescindibles la atención y los reflejos para saltar en el momento justo o evitar derrumbamientos y envestidas de criaturas marinas. Un elemento crucial de esta aventura serán los rompecabezas, los cuales podrán obstaculizarnos el camino u ocultar pequeñas recompensas en forma de coleccionables. Por si fuera poco, también podremos contar con fases de sigilo, donde tendremos que escabullirnos de los enemigos e intensas persecuciones, donde deberemos hacer gana de nuestra precisión para esquivar obstáculos sin ser atrapados. [h2]Valoración[/h2] SAMUDRA es uno de esos juegos de tu biblioteca que pasan sin llamar demasiado la atención. Es una aventura bastante decente, con varias mecánicas y detalles, pero con una historia poco novedosa, un apartado visual aprobado y una jugabilidad que se acaba sintiendo algo lenta y pesada. El hecho de combinar sigilo, persecuciones, secuencias de reflejos o rompecabezas le sienta bastante bien, rompe la monotonía y aporta variedad, pero se nota que SAMUDRA es un juego al que le falta algo más de tiempo en el horno para terminar de pulir ciertos detalles, como pequeños erros y mecánicas que no casan bien con el resultado final. En resumen, no es un juego memorable, tiene asperezas, pero se puede disfrutar y permitirnos echar un buen rato, con un toque oscuro y silencioso que recuerda (de lejos) a grandes obras como LIMBO o INSIDE. ✔️ [b]Positivo[/b]:[list] [*]Aventurilla que, a pesar de sus fallos, consigue entretener y llamar la atención del jugador. [*]Hace uso de diferentes mecánicas, ofreciendo secciones de sigilo, persecuciones, rompecabezas, juego de reflejos, etc. [*]Su apartado visual no es impresionante, pero tiene un toque bastante personal y oscuro que lo hacen atractivo. [/list] ❌ [b]Negativo[/b]:[list] [*]Necesita pulir varios aspectos, como por ejemplo pequeños errores que impiden completar algunos puzles o provocan muertes inesperadas, así como problemas para obtener ciertos logros. En Steam Deck es imprescindible usar la versión moderna de GE proton, de lo contrario no se pueden visualizar las cinemáticas. [*]La jugabilidad es lenta y pesada, algo que se nota especialmente en las persecuciones o en secuencias de reflejos, donde la agilidad del personaje se echa un poco en falta. [*]Aunque el juego no está mal, le falta algo de chispa a la historia, los gráficos y la jugabilidad. No esperes una experiencia memorable.[/list] 📢 [b]Idioma[/b]: Interfaz y subtítulos en español. ⌛ [b]Duración[/b]: 5-6 horas juego base/ 7-8 horas para 100%. 🎮 [b]Steam Deck[/b]: Se puede jugar sin problemas, pero es imprescindible cambiar a GE proton para poder visualizar las cinemáticas correctamente. Lo salvaría de las llamas! 👨‍🚒👍🔥 [h1]6’5/10[/h1] [quote]🚨 Si te ha gustado la reseña y quieres descubrir buenos juegos, sígueme en mi página de Mentor: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45092978/] Indies ON FIRE [/url]🚨[/quote]

One of the worst games I have ever played. It does not respect the player's time. The movement is too slow, and the checkpoint system makes you rewatch each and every theatrical scene whenever you die. The challenges are on the two extremes. They are either no brainer, no skill "push the button" walks, or you have to find the one and only solution and execute it perfectly or you will miss the solution so you have to do everything all over again. For the achievement hunters: The achievements are bugged, it does not recognise the challenge puzzles. There is a chapter selection once you finish the game but it does not indicate how many trashes you have left on each chapter. At the beginning my idea was like it was an overprized game but worth it if you could get it around 3 euros, but around the middle point my opinion shifted. It stayed consistent till the very end: Stay away from this game it does not worth your time!

Super clunky and slow. I can appreciate the art design and see the passion from the developer. I did not enjoy this, though. At one point I think I fell asleep with the controller in my hand.

Inconsistent. Buggy. Annoying. Boring. These were my thoughts throughout the game. Hold A or D, sometimes W or S to climb a ladder or maneuver on a fish, and use space to interact, these are all the controls. Game would often send you into a scene without explaining what you're supposed to do, for instance at the very beginning you are supposed to dodge a sliding container. It wasn't explained prior that you need to press space, and it wasn't explained prior that you can hide in the background scenery. If you die, sometimes you would respawn into a scene and despite doing everything correctly you would still fail and die again because the game decided to release the monster sooner than your cutscene ended. Interacting too fast with an object often canceled my interaction with it causing another unnecessary death. Situations where you needed to hide and maneuver, evading patrolling monsters in the background often included an annoying teleportation of the monster right to the gap where you are supposed to pass. While the art was nice, the decision to create a powerpoint presentation for the movement and some scenes was not to my liking. I thought my game was lagging when I experienced it at first. Audio would also often cut, and/or have annoying pops. If you're searching for a LIMBO, INSIDE or perhaps Little Nightmares experience from a game, this is not one of them.