Strange Ocean

Video: https://youtu.be/qeIx9_1r-js Strange Ocean is a weird fever dream of an experience. It's such a weird experience I sit here wondering how to properly explain the experience I had in the 1.5 hours I played. You're Captain Marina, a jubilant young girl who sets out on a strange sea in order to fight the world's deadliest foes of the ocean. Dolphins. I mean, that could be the story. I imagine Marina has never seen the ocean, and this is her fever dream of what it would be like to be travelling the ocean. In reality she's likely suffering from some literal fever induced dream, a la some kind of twisted Twilight Zone episode. But, maybe that's me trying to make sense of it all. It's pure chaos. The game has you in a boat. A boat that jumps, and uh.. Travels over the ocean, which is basically a water snake. Or one of those alien water life form things from The Abyss. Controls aren't really awkward, so I think the tag for that is a tad misleading. The controls consist of speeding up, slowing down, shooting, and jumping. It's not really that strange, it's just somewhat hard to manage those few controls when there's so much chaos going on around you. Each stage has a subset of levels, with a choose your own path kind of journey. I liked that. It gives you some options. I do think the levels feel mostly the same throughout the game, though some of the boss fights do feel a bit more unique. Shooting dolphins, sharks, enemy ships, snow men, frogs, and more enemies is fairly entertaining. It can be difficult to line things up with the aiming... But, it works, and it's one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. The level design feels somewhat repetitive as you play. Which is an odd thing to say because it also feels rather random, a concoction of random ideas and squiggly lines. I guess it's just that the chaos carries over into most levels, so it feels as if you're in a type of perpetual race to find some semblance of sanity. The later stages ramp up the chaos quite a bit. To be absurdly blunt, I did not finish the game. The chaos of trying to complete the later stages and confusion as to what I was even being damaged by at times kind of abruptly brought the whole experience to an end. I admire what's been done in the game, and I truly think it's truly unique amongst all of the games you could have bought on the 5th of August, 2024. But, for a guy that has thousands of unplayed games awaiting their own opportunity I have to know when to walk away from an experience. And for me the Snow Way Through stage was it for me. I do want to point out that the Shipyard is full of all kinds of various unlocks for you to grab. It will give you a huge assortment of customizations you can do for your ship. I wish it had something that increased stats of the ship for folks like me that get shot by random things all the time and can't figure it out from the chaos. Easy mode helps, but not quite enough. But that's not the point. You can unlock all sorts of things and make a ship that's truly a visage of chaos like the rest of the game. So in closing, and I know this was probably longer than anyone might expect, it's a delightfully weird game. It's obviously a work of passion and an attempt to make something that'll truly stand out as something you don't see all the time. Kudos to the developer for the talent and hard work put into making the game. I might walk away without finishing it, but that 1.5 hours I spent fighting sharks, dodging sharks, and unexpect snowmen was certainly a collection of moments I was happy to experience.

Is Strange Ocean as weird as its name suggests? Yes, absolutely. Is it fun? Yes, oddly. I feel like this is a game that will unfortunately slip under the radar for many people, which is a real shame as it's a very unique premise and pretty well executed. The MS Paint style graphics and homemade-sounding effects are charming and add to the fever dream-like style of the game. Captain Marina is cute and amusingly animated, and her presence at the side of the screen adds another layer of madness to gameplay. All in all, it's worth a try, especially considering it costs about the same as a fancy coffee in a dreary chain cafe. I don't know if I see myself putting tens of hours into the game, but who knows? To the Dev: Great work. It's easy to see how much you enjoyed making this game. I hope it gets more attention. Consider promoting it a little online, maybe on Reddit subs like r/IndieGaming and r/IndieDev to try and get some traction!

Frankly it's tragic that this game has not received the recognition it deserves it's gameplay and visuals are very unique and despite being very tough at times i have had a lot of fun playing this game while i have enjoyed this game it does have some drawbacks like the map menu being kinda confusing to navigate and the upgrade screen being unreadable on my display as i write this review i have not finished the game but i do plan to some day good luck on your game dev journey and may your games get the love they deserve ^w^

おススメ度：★★★☆☆(3/5) PVの異様な雰囲気に足を止めてしまったあなたであれば 十分に満足できる謎ゲームです 殊の外難易度が高くて ボリュームも十分すぎるくらいありました 安いのでね、気になったら遊んだらいいと思います！

A unique take for an on-rails shooter.