Published by EastAsiaSoft for a measly $5, Submarine Survivor offers tremendous value. Sure, it is the next Vampire Survivors clone to come out this week, but this underwater survival simulator has a couple unique gimmicks to call its own.
Playing as an auto-shooting submarine, the player has the choice to complete a series of 5-minute survival stages in any randomly generated order. For example, one stage might task the player to survive while avoiding falling explosive barrels, swim through toxic hot spots, or even stay within a certain perimeter to gather collectables. While the overall gameplay never changes, you just constantly shoot the endless sea life, the change in sub objectives (pun intended) is appreciated. If you manage to clear enough of these bite sized areas, a final trial is granted. Fail and you need to start over from scratch. After a few stages, the difficulty always spikes to unfair levels so you will die. A lot.
Even though starting over upon death is inevitable, permanent upgrades makes the player slowly grow more powerful with each run. However, the key word here is “slowly.” Like, really, really slowly. Each defeated enemy can drop materials that can be used to upgrade dozens of submarine stats. Since each category, like simply increasing the amount of health, armor, pick up radius, speed, etc, causes such a slight upgrade, it isn’t noticeable until hours have been spent. Each category can be upgraded 100 times, growing in cost with each increment, so it will take days to reach max stats. This is where the value comes into play. For $5, there is a lot to unlock and upgrade here. Since there is always something to unlock or upgrade, the sense of satisfaction is constant. Sometimes, upgrades during gameplay can pop-up literally every few seconds, which can hinder/slow the excitement though.
As mindlessly entertaining as this survivor clone is, there are some blemishes that hold back the experience. The UI is cluttered and super complicated. There is so much information displayed on screen that it becomes headache inducing. Further, the player cannot even decipher all this information because you need to keep both eyes firmly on screen at all times, so you don’t get overrun by the onslaught of sea enemies. The text is also impossibly small to read and the breaking down of the collected materials mechanic is overly complex and without explanation. At times, it feels like there is too much game especially for something that is so action heavy.
Even with annoyances and flaws, Submarine Survivor is still an enjoyable game especially given the low price point. But again, for those on a budget looking for extensive value, this auto-shooting action survivor sim offers a lot by asking for so little.
SCORE: 7.5/10
Also Play: Dagger Froggy
Better Than: the seven other survivor games released this week
Wait For It: Taito to release their take on the Survivors formula using Space Invaders
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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