A port of Sea of Solitude
Adventure through a beautiful and troubling world where nothing is as it seems, to confront and conquer your fears. Kay knows monsters. Monsters that you know, too. Loneliness, depression, and abandonment take on the form of frightening beasts and fantastical creatures in the award-winning Sea of Solitude, an action/adventure game revisited for the Nintendo Switch, now as The Director’s Cut.
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Sea of Solitude is a game that I would just describe as "okay". I can say I enjoyed the music and I liked the design of Kay, but the story failed to wow me at any particular point and the gameplay was basic and rough around the edges. Its not a terrible game and you could spend a day or two playing worse things, but its not one I would jump to recommend either.
From all accounts, this version of Sea of Solitude is better than the original game in a few different ways. I don't really have any context for that, but I liked what I played.
I played this game back in 2021, so apologies if my memories of this game are a bit murky. I'd like to dive into this game a bit more thoroughly, but that would require a second playthrough, the time investment of which this game does not deserve.
Sea of Solitude was the sort of game that, as someone who only has access to games on Switch and Mac for the time being, repeatedly taunted me from the corner of my eye for a couple of years before its eventual port to the Switch with this version of the game. In that time, I heard lots of good buzz surrounding it! The fuzzy impressions I got was that it was one of those narratively deep, gameplay-lite, emotionally rich experiences that indie games so love to attempt. While the phrase many might associate with this category would be "walking simulator", for this specific sub-category I tend towards "Journey-like. The sort of game that shoots for the ceiling, that you know for a fact will make you cry. So with this in mind, I followed up on the studio's socials, and patiently waited for a few years, knowing that eventually a good game would wash up at my feet.
When I finally booted it up for the first time, I was immediately met with about the harshest slap to the face an unassuming gamer like me could expect: The QUANTIC DREAM logo. I had just given $25 to David Cage and I didn't even know it. I later discovered the director is a "big fan" of his work. For a game so primarily about abuse it's a bizarre thing to read.
As someone who somewhat actively seeks out games that I think will make me cry, I can pretty quickly pick up on a particular tone where I can tell that this effect is something that the game really wants to achieve, but doesn't have too much experience or confidence in delivering it. Sea of Solitude wants to touch on quite a few heavy topics (divorce, bullying, and bad relationships to name a few!), and while these ostensibly seem to be drawn from personal experience from the game's writer, the final product, disappointingly does not hit a single one of these notes correctly when their times come.
It seems that its creators almost completely lacked the self-reflection to realize that, as it stands, the depictions of these subjects range from goofy to outright offensive. A giant lizard that represents the main character's father speaks in the most pedestrian voice imaginable about how unhappy he is with his completely adequate marriage and his shitty kids who he hates. A swarm of shadow-children chase you through a school and repeatedly call you a "sissy". I didn't cry. I laughed. The harder this game thought it was hitting me with its deepest moments, the harder I kept laughing.
Of course, it goes without saying that this is the sort of stuff that doesn't deserve to be laughed at, but Sea of Solitude's execution is so wildly mishandled it didn't really leave me with any other possibly appropriate human reaction. I felt like I was experiencing something about as nuanced as the ABC direct-to-TV film "Cyberbu//y", if not worse.
What I find especially curious is that what I played is "The Director's Cut". After the original release, the developers rewrote the game's script, and this is supposedly the improved version of what they originally shipped. Jesus Christ! I shudder to imagine how much worse it was before if this is what they did with a few years of hindsight and the opportunity to redo some of their worst mistakes...
I'll end my review with one more slap in the face just as I had at the start. Did you know that the mother in this game is directly modelled after US Vice President Kamala Harris? I am not joking. Apparently the director is a "big fan" of her work as well, though what that could possibly mean aside from heinous cop shit I can't remotely imagine. For those looking for a game that explores the themes that Sea of Solitude does, you're not going to find it on the other side of anything starts with a Quantic Dream logo. When that day comes, shoot those guys $25 instead of these clowns.
Sea of Solitude was the sort of game that, as someone who only has access to games on Switch and Mac for the time being, repeatedly taunted me from the corner of my eye for a couple of years before its eventual port to the Switch with this version of the game. In that time, I heard lots of good buzz surrounding it! The fuzzy impressions I got was that it was one of those narratively deep, gameplay-lite, emotionally rich experiences that indie games so love to attempt. While the phrase many might associate with this category would be "walking simulator", for this specific sub-category I tend towards "Journey-like. The sort of game that shoots for the ceiling, that you know for a fact will make you cry. So with this in mind, I followed up on the studio's socials, and patiently waited for a few years, knowing that eventually a good game would wash up at my feet.
When I finally booted it up for the first time, I was immediately met with about the harshest slap to the face an unassuming gamer like me could expect: The QUANTIC DREAM logo. I had just given $25 to David Cage and I didn't even know it. I later discovered the director is a "big fan" of his work. For a game so primarily about abuse it's a bizarre thing to read.
As someone who somewhat actively seeks out games that I think will make me cry, I can pretty quickly pick up on a particular tone where I can tell that this effect is something that the game really wants to achieve, but doesn't have too much experience or confidence in delivering it. Sea of Solitude wants to touch on quite a few heavy topics (divorce, bullying, and bad relationships to name a few!), and while these ostensibly seem to be drawn from personal experience from the game's writer, the final product, disappointingly does not hit a single one of these notes correctly when their times come.
It seems that its creators almost completely lacked the self-reflection to realize that, as it stands, the depictions of these subjects range from goofy to outright offensive. A giant lizard that represents the main character's father speaks in the most pedestrian voice imaginable about how unhappy he is with his completely adequate marriage and his shitty kids who he hates. A swarm of shadow-children chase you through a school and repeatedly call you a "sissy". I didn't cry. I laughed. The harder this game thought it was hitting me with its deepest moments, the harder I kept laughing.
Of course, it goes without saying that this is the sort of stuff that doesn't deserve to be laughed at, but Sea of Solitude's execution is so wildly mishandled it didn't really leave me with any other possibly appropriate human reaction. I felt like I was experiencing something about as nuanced as the ABC direct-to-TV film "Cyberbu//y", if not worse.
What I find especially curious is that what I played is "The Director's Cut". After the original release, the developers rewrote the game's script, and this is supposedly the improved version of what they originally shipped. Jesus Christ! I shudder to imagine how much worse it was before if this is what they did with a few years of hindsight and the opportunity to redo some of their worst mistakes...
I'll end my review with one more slap in the face just as I had at the start. Did you know that the mother in this game is directly modelled after US Vice President Kamala Harris? I am not joking. Apparently the director is a "big fan" of her work as well, though what that could possibly mean aside from heinous cop shit I can't remotely imagine. For those looking for a game that explores the themes that Sea of Solitude does, you're not going to find it on the other side of anything starts with a Quantic Dream logo. When that day comes, shoot those guys $25 instead of these clowns.
I am SO conflicted on this game. And my thoughts are a mess. So imma just list some things I liked and some things I didn't... beginning with the latter.
Negative 1) I have never seen a single piece of media where chapter title cards seemed less appropriate. Every single time one popped up, I gasped in annoyance. The name of every chapter is cheesy at best and I think they want to convey a certain... epicness? Which does not fit the tone of the game at all.
Negative 2) I've also never seen a game that made me like it much less in the last five seconds of ingame footage. Seriously, the last five seconds before the ending (of course, with a chapter title card) made my rating at least half a star more negative, I think it kinda clashes with the vibe of everything that came before.
"Negative" 3) Also yea, gameplay-wise it's not terribly inventive, but it works. A little jank here and there, but it's fine.
Positive 1) I reaaally like the enviroment design and effect work in the game. Both are really well done!
Positive 2) I also eally like the German voice work. The voice acting in general is really good.
Positive 3) The second half of the game are wayyy better than the first half. They subverted some expectations and avoided some harmful tropes in the process (sadly not completely, but it's quite good in that aspect).
So yea, SOS is.. fine. It has some interesting ideas. It's kinda fitting that Quantic Dream handled the Directors Cut, as the worst elements of this game are the . This game is the best thing that godawful studio/publisher has associated with their name. Honestly... Quantic Dream did not deserve it.
Negative 1) I have never seen a single piece of media where chapter title cards seemed less appropriate. Every single time one popped up, I gasped in annoyance. The name of every chapter is cheesy at best and I think they want to convey a certain... epicness? Which does not fit the tone of the game at all.
Negative 2) I've also never seen a game that made me like it much less in the last five seconds of ingame footage. Seriously, the last five seconds before the ending (of course, with a chapter title card) made my rating at least half a star more negative, I think it kinda clashes with the vibe of everything that came before.
"Negative" 3) Also yea, gameplay-wise it's not terribly inventive, but it works. A little jank here and there, but it's fine.
Positive 1) I reaaally like the enviroment design and effect work in the game. Both are really well done!
Positive 2) I also eally like the German voice work. The voice acting in general is really good.
Positive 3) The second half of the game are wayyy better than the first half. They subverted some expectations and avoided some harmful tropes in the process (sadly not completely, but it's quite good in that aspect).
So yea, SOS is.. fine. It has some interesting ideas. It's kinda fitting that Quantic Dream handled the Directors Cut, as the worst elements of this game are the . This game is the best thing that godawful studio/publisher has associated with their name. Honestly... Quantic Dream did not deserve it.