Under the Water Depths

Before you play this game, know that there isn't really any direction. You're just supposed to go into an abyss and search for stuff. In my short amount of time playing this prototype, I did not have fun. There is just so much blank space, and you're way too slow. Also, there is a flashlight mechanic which I never fully understood, so I ran of of battery and had to use sonar for like 10 minutes. In the end, I never even found the fish that attacks you as it was shown in the trailer, and will not be coming back to do so. FINAL RATING: 3.5 / 10

"Under the Water Depths" is a student project self-published on Steam Direct. It's from Barcelona Institute of Technology in Spain. This is the result of an academic exercise for students. It's not a full, complete game in the way professionally developed products are. While it has more quality than most amateur games, it's not a complete gaming experience. Student projects have limited value for gamers because they're not fully developed games, just barely functional demos that show the students progress. Steam is not a place for for-profit colleges to dump student homework assignments... and having thousands of these is not good for gamers. The students made a rather poorly presented adventure game where you explore an ocean trench with a flashlight and a sonarr to warn you about critters coming to get you. The quality is abysmal, even for a student project. It's unpolished and feels incomplete. If you're looking for this kind of game, maybe try Abzu or Beyond Blue. In terms of visuals, this features fairly low quality low poly 3D graphics which will deter a lot of gamers, understandably. Gaming is a visual medium, and while some developers struggle with creating high quality visuals, failing to do so is a disservice to gamers. It's very difficult to recommend bad looking games. Let's talk about pricing and the actual value this has for gamers. It would be unethical for students to try charge money for their homework assignments, so you don't have to pay any money for this. But you'd still have to spend your time downloading this, and "time is money", as they say. There's the other problem, too... as a student project, this wasn't made for gamers. There's no requirement for them to polish and balance the game properly, all they need is something to show the faculty so they can get their grade and move on. Let's once more ask... why is that good for gamers? It's obviously not delivering a solid product. Yet here it is, on the store page, and here you are, reading my review for a student demo that's going to waste your time. While genuine amateur developers who made real products get ignored because they have to compete with this stuff. In some ways, this deluge of student projects on Steam is harmful to everyone. Even as a free game, this couldn't find an audience. With a peak of [b]only 2 players[/b], it's clear the Steam community took one look and walked away. They literally couldn't pay people to spend time playing this. Given that this free student project won't count toward your game collection or add any achievements, and because it's not really a full game and more of a homework assignment, it's not a worthwhile download.