Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores, but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, all whilst including some lengthy gameplay, to give you, the reader, the chance to form your own impressions and views while reading and watching.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering Deep Beyond by developer Avix Games:
Deep Beyond (Nintendo Switch)
Deep Beyond is a first-person adventure game developed by Avix Games and published by Purple Play. Players take control of Lilly, a Deep Sea Diver and explorer, who is searching for her father who had disappeared due to mysterious circumstances. Lilly isn’t alone on her quest though as she is accompanied by her faithful and loving dog Chester.
During one inmersion to the depths, Lilly returns to her boat to find that it has been wrecked. Someone had been aboard and was rummaging through the draws and cupboards trying to find something. Lilly looks for frantically around for Chester and is relieved to see that he is unharmed. However, the intruder was still on the boat when Lilly returned and was lying in wait to knock her out. Upon coming to, Lilly discovers that her diving equipment has also been wrecked and will have to go back to her childhood home to replace her equipment with that of her father’s old equipment.
When returning home Lilly learns that her father was heavily involved with some nefarious characters, who may have been behind his disappearance, as well as the attack on the boat. Lilly’s focus on finding her father only intensifies further with a strong desire to discover what he was involved in that made him unable to return home.
So, lets talk gameplay. Deep Beyond will have players exploring both land and the sea depths looking for clues and items that will help Lilly on her journey. While for the most part, you will be walking from Point A to Point B, there are a number of puzzles for you to solve, with some being a bit more intricate than others and will require you to interact with certain objects in order to move them. For example, on one of Lilly’s dives, you will need to move some plane debris in order to access an out of reach area. On land, you will need to move the interior parts of a lighthouse so that the stars coordinate with that on a map. Some puzzles are not explained so you will need to exercise the old grey matter in order to progress through each area of the game.
When on land, Chester the dog is on hand to help from time to time to indicate where you need to go. If you are a bit lost with what to do, sometimes its pays off to follow Chester as he can point you in the right direction. There are moments though where your faithful pup can’t go with you like when going into the top floor of an abandoned family home but it won’t be too long until you are reunited again.
One thing I do appreciate is that Deep Beyond features full voice acting for all the characters in the game. Seeing as the game is very story driven, it does help a lot to give Lilly more personality and depth as she converses with other characters and narrates details that provide a better understanding of what happened before that has all lead up to what is happening now in the game.
Deep Beyond is a immersive tale to say the least with quite a gripping story that encourages you to keep going and find out just what happened to Lilly’s father. The movement controls are both the same on land and in water and while I would have preferred some difference between the two, especially when Lilly is on her dives, she is wearing a cumbersome diving helmet and boots which, would make her move much slower underwater. That said, it would definitely slow down the pace of the game and I understand why the developers chose not to do that.
If you enjoy games that have a decent story and interesting puzzles, then Deep Beyond may be one for you to keep an eye on.
Game Specifications:
Developer: Avix Games
Publisher: Purple Play
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Adventure, Puzzle, Action
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: September 13, 2024
Price: $9.99
File Size: 614 MB
Nintendo.com Listing
