SAMUDRA LadiesGamers

SAMUDRA Review

Game: SAMUDRA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie, Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Khayalan Arts
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $12.99 | UK £10.29 | EU € 8,09
Release Date: September 29th, 2021

Review code used, with many thanks to Novy PR

SAMUDRA is a surreal 2D puzzle adventure game with a theme of environmental awareness. The game has been developed by Khayalan Arts from Indonesia.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Trip lands on the ocean floor

Surface-Dwellers

Picture this. In the not-so-distant future, the world has been completely swallowed up by a toxic flood caused by climate change. Nearly all animals are extinct. Most resources are scarce, and there are only a few safe places left on the surface of the earth. An earth that is occupied by the remaining Surface-Dwellers, who require a breathing apparatus to be able to endure the earth’s toxic atmosphere. But now the Surface-Dwellers have decided to look to the ocean for the resources that they need and are missing on earth.

A Surface-Dweller named Trip, who is a young child, helplessly sinks to the bottom of the sea. Away from civilization and all he has known. Trip must go on an underwater journey across the ocean floor. He is on a journey to discover the truth about why the Surface-Dwellers allowed pollution to run rampant on Earth.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Watch you don’t get swallowed!

 Sea of Pollution

Along the way, he faces many perils such as horrific pollution and bewildering underwater creatures on the way to the surface.

In SAMUDRA, you take on that role of Trip, who looks about 10 or 12 years old to me. Trip wanders the ocean floor dressed in his surface clothes of shorts, jumper and shoes, with an old fashioned diving helmet on his head to help him breathe.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Strange signs in the sea

Story without Words

SAMUDRA’s story is told without dialogue or written word. The visuals, mood, creatures, and sounds all set the scene in the game. Trip will have to overcome some trails such as escaping from some rather unfriendly fish or dodging the pinching claws of a few crabs.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
A puzzle to complete

The puzzles aren’t overly difficult in SAMUDRA. Most of them involve Trip’s surroundings and you being observant of his environment. I liked the puzzles in the game for the most part, though I wasn’t too keen on Trip being chased by fish, as he doesn’t particularly move too fast and he kept getting caught. But overall the puzzles will get those little grey cells working in your brain.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Trip and his light

Discarded Rubbish

While playing SAMUDRA you’ll explore a heavily polluted underwater world. An ocean littered with the discarded rubbish of all kinds. Washing machines that fall and stop Trip in his tracks, plastic bags floating in the water that you will mistakenly think are a shoal of fish and fishing nets that trap sea creatures. All of these things are a stark reminder of what we are doing to the environment.

Without giving the story away, as that should be discovered by you, as Trip continues his adventures he will encounter underwater creatures to uncover the truth about surface-dwellers actions. Actions that inevitably caused the deep-sea world to become so polluted.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Removing the net

Visuals and Controls

The surreal look of SAMUDRA has been hand-drawn and it is a gorgeous looking game. I’d advise wearing headphones while playing so you can soak up the atmosphere. You can see the ripple of the ocean’s current in the graphics of the game while playing, it looks very realistic.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Some fish are friendly

The music was one of the highlights of the game for me, and captures you as soon you start the game. The animations of the underwater creatures and the design of the characters go very well with the puzzle-solving.

SAMUDRA has full controller support, though all you use is one single button and the joystick. If you prefer keyboards controls, they are available. The arrow keys direct Trip and the space bar to interact with puzzles. It couldn’t be simpler. Other than the game crashing on me once while I played, it ran smoothly after that.

SAMUDRA LadiesGamers
Free the sea creature

Conclusion

SAMUDRA Is a story about hitting rock-bottom (the ocean floor) and Trip’s long laborious expedition back to the surface. It is also a story about the deep ocean and the damage pollution does to it. Which carries a warning that we all must heed if we intend to stay on this planet.

You can do your bit for the environment by purchasing the game as profits from the game’s sales will partially fund a year-round collaboration with the Indonesian Environmental Activist Circle to reduce plastic usage in Indonesia by 70% in 2025.

Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up   Two thumbs up

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *