Deep Sixed
- February 12, 2018
- Little Red Dog Games
Get on SteamDeep Sixed is a narrative-driven space exploration game where you play as a disgraced spaceship pilot forced to work for an unscrupulous corporation. As you complete dangerous missions, you'll uncover a conspiracy that threatens the entire galaxy. Your choices and actions will impact the story and determine your ultimate fate.
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Reviews
- Deep Sixed offers a unique and engaging gameplay experience that combines frantic ship maintenance with a humorous narrative, making it both challenging and entertaining.
- The game features a well-designed manual that players can reference, enhancing the troubleshooting aspect and adding depth to the gameplay.
- Players appreciate the sense of accomplishment that comes from mastering the ship's systems and overcoming the chaos of constant malfunctions.
- The permadeath mechanic can be frustrating, as players must restart the game from the beginning after dying, often having to replay the same dialogue and missions multiple times.
- Some players find the controls clunky and the user interface unintuitive, leading to confusion during critical moments when quick actions are needed.
- The game can become tedious after repeated playthroughs, as players may feel they have seen most of the content and the lack of save options can lead to a sense of helplessness.
- story87 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 85 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as entertaining and filled with humor, providing a backdrop for the gameplay that involves maintaining a malfunctioning spaceship while completing missions. However, the repetitive nature of the missions, combined with permadeath mechanics and the inability to skip previously seen dialogues, detracts from the overall experience, making the narrative feel tedious over time. While some players appreciate the world-building and the quest for knowledge, many express frustration with the game's bugs and the lack of engaging story progression, leading to a mixed reception of its narrative elements.
“The world building - the narrative story - is why I really like this game.”
“That quest for knowledge about this interesting place is what motivates me to keep fixing all the problems.”
“A story that is filled with great voice acting and humor that I enjoyed very much.”
“I'm sorry, but stuff breaking all the time, the clunky controls, going through all the same missions again and again if you die, and no save option—how can this chore be fun for anyone?”
“The game's story is incredibly hard to complete without cheating, and less than 10% of owners obtained the achievement of making it halfway through.”
“This is a permadeath game with some minor scripted story elements, and after your first reset (and there will be many resets), any scripted story elements you've already seen become very irritating to skip.”
- gameplay25 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by unique mechanics and an immersive experience, focusing on repairing equipment and managing complex ship systems while completing missions. However, players note a lack of depth after a few hours, leading to tedium, and frustrations with the user interface. Despite these issues, the game appeals to those who enjoy mastering intricate processes and offers a challenging loop of survival and exploration, with ongoing developer support for improvements.
“Deep Sixed scratches a strange itch for unique mechanics and panicked flicking through a manual to solve problems.”
“Rarely have I seen a game with such unique mechanics that is also so immensely immersive.”
“The ship is impressively complex with lots of systems and different failure types -- electrical, mechanical, software -- and you spend a lot of time in the manual.”
“The second problem is that there really isn't that much gameplay there to begin with.”
“After maybe 2 hours, there are no longer any gameplay challenges left, and the tedium starts setting in.”
“The user interface and gameplay issues are just too frustrating for the price.”
- graphics13 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The game's graphics are characterized by a charming, cartoonish art style that complements its atmosphere, despite not reaching AAA quality. While some players find the visuals simple and serviceable, others appreciate the unique indie charm and immersive quality they bring to the experience. Overall, the graphics effectively convey the game's themes of chaos and absurdity, enhancing player engagement.
“The game has graphics that fit the atmosphere.”
“It has quality graphics that have the indie charm.”
“The graphics, just slightly on the comic-book side, add to the corporate, bureaucratic, and technological absurdity.”
“While the game is far from 4K crazy graphics that AAA developers are slowly working their ways towards.”
“If this game had AAA quality graphics, it would honestly feel different.”
“Simple graphics, simple game.”
- humor13 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is widely praised for its humor, blending absurdity with challenging gameplay that keeps players both entertained and frustrated. Reviewers highlight the clever writing, engaging voice acting, and a light-hearted tone that contrasts with the game's chaotic scenarios, making for a memorable experience filled with sarcasm and classic sci-fi references. Overall, the humor enhances the game's atmosphere and player engagement, reminiscent of classic titles while maintaining its unique identity.
“This game is hilarious, and it's fun trying to learn how to do all of the things you need to do in the game, and see all the layers of absurd complexity in even the most simple tasks.”
“The game has a good sense of humor about the hopelessness of the situation, and I enjoy the relationship that develops between the player character and the AI companion.”
“The emails you receive in-game are sometimes so funny and full of sarcasm :)”
- stability7 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 86 % negative mentions
The game's stability is generally solid, with high production values and minimal bugs reported, though players may experience occasional issues like a retrieval probe getting stuck. However, the frequent breakdowns and troubleshooting elements can lead to frustration, as failures often feel arbitrary and can disrupt gameplay. Overall, those who enjoy troubleshooting amidst action may find the experience engaging, despite the potential for system failures.
“Though Deep Sixed is a fairly solidly built product with high production values for its chosen medium, and is pretty much bug-free, I have encountered at least one real bug where the retrieval probe gets stuck.”
“When you're not trying to fend off hostile aliens, you're trying to fix all the breakdowns that occur every few minutes, and a comprehensive troubleshooting manual and a limited supply of spare parts are all that stands between you and certain death.”
“You don't fail because you don't manage to follow a complicated troubleshooting procedure, or keep up with cascading failures, or deal with multiple simultaneous issues - you fail because you simply fail a die roll when the game decides to crash the wrong system at the wrong time.”
“It also reminded me of troubleshooting a computer server, while being shot with laser blasts.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by a strong sense of tension and minimalistic yet effective graphics that enhance the experience. Players appreciate the blend of humor and suspense, as the uncertainty of potential malfunctions keeps them engaged and on edge, creating a compelling and immersive environment. Overall, the atmosphere successfully combines elements of panic and anticipation, making for an enjoyable experience.
“The game has graphics that fit the atmosphere.”
“There's a good sense of tension, and as others have pointed out, the game does well at creating atmosphere with just a few minimal ingredients.”
“As a beginner, not knowing everything gives the game a certain atmosphere of always being on the verge of wondering when the next malfunction or fight will be, and if you'll be able to handle it.”
“The atmosphere would be altered.”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- -20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game offers a solid replayability factor, initially driven by its rogue-like elements and the challenge of mastering various malfunctions. However, as players become more skilled, the replay value may diminish, though the upcoming addition of an endless mode is expected to enhance replayability by allowing players to challenge themselves and improve their high scores. Overall, the combination of gameplay mechanics and future updates contributes to a fun and engaging experience.
“The developers are also going to be adding an endless mode here in the very near future, that will give the game a little more replayability too.”
“The endless mode also provides more replayability to the game as you can challenge yourself to survive as long as you can as difficulty increases, and attempt to beat your own high scores.”
“Great game, simple premise of single-handedly running a constantly-breaking spaceship made into a very fun and replayable experience.”
“It has a rogue-like vibe in that you will die many times; the main difference is that I can see mastering the different malfunctions eventually making the game's replayability less significant once you have been through it a few times because you will know how to do everything.”
“The endless mode also provides more replayability to the game as you can challenge yourself to survive as long as you can as difficulty increases and attempt to beat your own high scores.”
“Now that I've finished the game, I can talk about story and replayability.”
- music3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for its captivating quality, creating a trance-like experience for players. Additionally, the overall audio, including voice acting, is noted to be excellent, enhancing the immersive gameplay.
“I was just in a trance by the fantastic music.”
“On top of the music, the audio throughout the game is great and the voice acting is fantastic!”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to have promising concepts, but it often devolves into a tedious and frustrating experience, heavily influenced by random number generation. Additionally, some tasks are intentionally designed to be monotonous, further detracting from the overall enjoyment.
“It's got some good ideas, but it quickly becomes tedious and frustrating, and victory is at the mercy of the random number generator.”
“Some of the tasks are deliberately tedious to begin with.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players report a deeply emotional experience, highlighting a strong connection between their own stakes and those of the main character, which enhances the overall satisfaction of completing the game without dying. The journey is described as both harrowing and rewarding, underscoring the game's ability to evoke intense feelings.
“I managed to beat the game on my first run (this is a bit of a misnomer, that just means I haven’t died a single time), and while the experience was harrowing, it was also an explosion of emotional satisfaction - my stakes and the main character’s stakes were equally high.”
