Drowning Review (Switch)

Drowning on Switch Review

As all films don’t need to be big blockbusters and can have other artistic endeavors, so do video games. Not all video games have to be fun or full of action, they can try to touch you emotionally. Drowning ambitiously tries to be more art/relaxation piece then a classic game. Does it accomplish what it sets out to do? Yes. Does it do it well, no.

Drowning is basically a thought piece or poem about growing up with depression. It types it’s story to you as you walk through a continuous darkening woods. It’s a good metaphor that is works while emotionally, if it could get you emotionally invested. Yet I spent the half hour of this game slowing reading what was being typed in front of me as I walked through a low poly woods. I believe this whole thing could have been improved by a voice actor, that way I could at least hear the emotion of his voice. Video games are a multimedia experience, video, sound and text can draw you into the emotions in the story being told. Drowning only has slight forest sounds and the clicking of the typing as it appears before you. It takes what could be an involved experience and makes it just happen to the player instead.

The actual writing confuses from the very beginning. The writer personifies his depression as a “you” or a person he is talking to. They don’t establish this though. So for the first ten minutes of this tale, I assumed the writer had a really shitty friend. When the writer states that he no longer had any friends, I was like “wait what about this shitty friend you keep talking to?” Then I realized what was going on. Yet even finding out what was going on doesn’t help the writing.

When the majority of your Game is writing, that every player who owns your game can’t skip or run through, you better make sure it is great writing. Sorry not here in Drowning. It read like a high school lit magazine poem. I encountered many spelling mistakes and worst of all, the story is boring. I don’t feel connected to the writer, I barely feel bad for the main character and the 30 minutes it took to tell the story, it couldn’t end fast enough. I feel like I really felt those thirty minutes.

Ok, while the writing isn’t great but at least you get a nice walk through a low poly woods. Except the creators of this game can’t seem to get that right ether. I’m a fan of low poly graphics, that is why I was most excited for this part of the game. Yet the game is not very good looking, the grass clips through the ground at times, trees pop in and out and the worst visual glitch was when you move the camera around, the mountains in the background shrink and move from the camera. Yes you read that right, the mountains move like a 1998 PC game. (clip below of what I am talking about)

Like I would have enjoyed a nice stroll through the woods but I was bombarded with a bad story/writing and a glitchy background. I find this game kind of hard to recommend. I really hope this game helped the writer through his depression but I don’t see it touching it’s readers in the same way. If you are one of those guys that collects bad titles on switch, then this might be a nice add to the collection. Yet other then that, save your money and read a good book outside in the woods in real life.

2 out of 10

GoG Break Down:

Console: Nintendo Switch

Price Paid: I received a key from the Dev

Hours played: one really long half an hour

Recommend for: People who love poorly written lit or people who collect bad Switch Games

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