Oft’ am I struck by the fact that video game homes belonging to characters in the depths of despair are nicer that all of the homes I’ve lived in myself. Granted, I’m a thirty-something in a country with a years-long housing crisis, so even the Baker House in Resident Evil 7 is of “I think I could just about afford that one day” status. But it comes to something when a 70s depresso-capsule at the bottom of the sea has more square footage and storage space than I do.
Under The Waves (which got patched today, and not before time because I’ve had one fatal error crash per play session since it came out last week so far) is about a deep sea diver called Stan, who is living and working at the bottom of a big wet metaphor for grief. You will know this because a) its Steam page says this up front, and b) it’s not super subtle (this game is published by Quantic Dream). But, as newsman Edwin pointed out to me today, when was the last time the sea wasn’t a metaphor for grief? It’s never a metaphor for enjoying a nice raspberry ripple ice cream. And despite Stan making reference to “what [he’s] been through” half an hour in, I think it does a great job with its chthonic sadness. You float about in your tiny little sub in a great misty darkness, listen to the extremely melancholy music, and you start thinking about sad stuff in your own life. But you get into Stan’s capsule living area and you think “this guy has a carpet and a book nook, what the hell?”
