Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss

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Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a single player role playing game with drama and mystery themes. It was developed by Sarepta Studio and was released on August 1, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

Thalassa is a single player, first person psychological drama set in 1905. You play as Cam, a deep sea diver in a crew of adventurers and pioneers aboard Thalassa. As you prepare to raise a long-forgotten Spanish galleon from the ocean, what should be a great day for history takes a turn for the worst. Upon needing to take some time to heal from the event, you discover Thalassa has met a mysteri…

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Single-Player

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88%

Audience ScoreBased on 187 reviews

story86 positive mentions

optimization9 negative mentions

Compelling and emotional storytelling with well-written, relatable characters that explore themes of grief, loss, and survivor's guilt.
Immersive underwater environment and atmosphere, with beautiful art design, sound effects, voice acting, and music that enhance the mood and setting.
Engaging mystery-solving mechanic that encourages exploration and piecing together clues, creating a satisfying detective experience.

Very slow-paced gameplay and movement that can feel tedious, especially due to frequent backtracking and mandatory slow animations.
Technical issues including performance problems, frequent stuttering, glitches, and crashes that disrupt gameplay flow.
Certain design choices such as unskippable cutscenes, muted protagonist, sometimes unhelpful puzzle mechanics, and occasional immersion-breaking storytelling elements.

story
187 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
52%
2%
The story is widely praised for being deeply immersive, emotional, and beautifully crafted, with a tragic, mysterious narrative that unfolds gradually through exploration and investigation. While some find the pacing slow and clue-gathering occasionally tedious due to backtracking and item availability restrictions, the strong atmosphere, well-developed characters, and layered storytelling keep players engaged and invested. Overall, it’s a compelling, thoughtful mystery experience best appreciated by fans of narrative-driven walking simulators.
- “Devastating, beautiful, and the story keeps you hooked.”
- “The game weaves an excellent story slowly percolating small and seemingly incidental details until you have a full picture of what happened to the Thalassa.”
- “Absolutely amazing game, great graphics and sad but beautiful story, very thought provoking, great voice acting and you really get invested with the characters, some parts are intense and very mysterious but it all comes together at the end very well.”
- “You don't have to finish all mysteries to complete the story, but it's not hard to complete the vast majority of them, especially since you'll be forced to backtrack to areas you've already been to in order to pick up clues that were always there, but only become interactable at certain arbitrary points.”
- “Another thing I struggled with was the pacing; some parts of the story are very slow and not being able to skip or move while certain things were happening (like the wax rolls) which got annoying.”
- “After plot events happen, they enable existing objects as touchable ("I see that wrench, let me take it" "No! first, you must explore and solve puzzles to learn there's a wrench there!" "But I can see it!" "Too bad!").”
gameplay
40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
72%
8%
The gameplay in Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss primarily revolves around slow-paced exploration and mystery-solving mechanics akin to walking simulators, with minimal combat or complex mechanics. While the mystery deduction system is praised for its novelty and engagement, it can sometimes be frustrating due to unclear objectives and occasional mechanical quirks. Overall, the gameplay effectively supports the story and atmosphere but may feel repetitive or slow for those not fond of investigative exploration.
- “The mystery/deduction mechanic, which to me is the highlight of the game, also stumbles sometimes.”
- “I genuinely think the way they crafted the locations, sets, and how they connect, how the story and investigation flows adds so much to the vibe and atmosphere, it single handedly made me forgive the otherwise not so exciting gameplay elements and itch to complete the story and find out what happened.”
- “Game mechanics: 7/10 (while the game's controls are fine for what they are, I would have to say that sometimes it is a chore to figure out where items are. With the game's standard difficulty, you pretty much have to shove your nose against an item to see the sparklies that tells you it's interactable, and even if you lower the difficulty, sometimes the camera angles have to be perfect for you to see the sparklies in a room and then they disappear as you walk up to it until you again shove your nose against it. Also, the game downright forbids you to pick up obvious interactable items. I once saw a key laying on the floor and I was 110% certain it was relevant, but nope, the game would not let me pick it up until 2 hours later in the story).”
- “For me, this was just another boring walking simulator whose writing and narrative didn't make up for the lack of gameplay and glacial pacing.”
- “The game mechanics are slow and can be glitchy.”
- “It's a decent game, so for adventure and investigation genre fans, grab it on sale, for anyone else, especially those with no patience for slow gameplay, avoid.”
graphics
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
35%
10%
The game's graphics are generally praised for their beautiful, atmospheric underwater visuals, detailed environments, and artistic style reminiscent of Firewatch. However, performance issues such as stuttering and poor optimization on higher settings are frequently reported, though lowering graphics settings often resolves these problems without significant loss of visual quality. Overall, the graphics effectively enhance the immersive and mysterious narrative experience despite some technical flaws.
- “The visuals were stunning, having that underwater feel exactly; the narrative was well done.”
- “The graphics and underwater sounds were amazing, and really made me feel like I was in the game.”
- “The art is gorgeous, and the subdued colours and somewhat hazy graphics did a great job of making me feel like I was truly underwater.”
- “The graphics are poorly optimized, this game uses as many resources as BG3.”
- “Constant micro-stuttering no matter graphics setting.”
- “Areas failing to load and taking up to 1 minute to load in on low graphics.”
emotional
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a deeply emotional and intimate narrative that resonates strongly with players, often eliciting tears and heartfelt reactions. Its compelling storytelling, immersive atmosphere, and well-performed voice acting create a hauntingly beautiful experience, though some find aspects slow or overly sentimental. Overall, it offers a memorable, emotionally impactful journey suited for those who appreciate heartfelt, mystery-driven tales.
- “If you are looking for a mystery story, a really good emotional beat, and superb atmosphere, then this is a fantastic 5-10 hours to spend.”
- “Heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful, I couldn't stop thinking about it once I was finished.”
- “Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a touching psychological drama with an emotional narrative and some engaging mechanics.”
atmosphere
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
35%
11%
The game is widely praised for its compelling and immersive atmosphere, characterized by stunning visuals, fitting soundtrack, and well-crafted environments that evoke a tense yet emotional tone. Its slow pacing enhances the weight of heavy themes and mystery, creating a rewarding experience for players who appreciate exploration and storytelling. While some note occasional gameplay tedium or technical issues, the strong atmospheric design consistently stands out as a highlight.
- “I genuinely think the way they crafted the locations, sets, and how they connect, how the story and investigation flows adds so much to the vibe and atmosphere, it single handedly made me forgive the otherwise not so exciting gameplay elements and itch to complete the story and find out what happened.”
- “Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a compelling and atmospheric experience that rewards patience and curiosity.”
- “The visual design is stunning, the soundtrack is appropriately atmospheric, and the gameplay is deeply immersive.”
- “Great voice acting; good atmosphere, long repetitive animated sequences, and certain strange anomalies (e.g., ladder dropping down so fast underwater? Where are the dead bodies? How can you breathe for so long under water?).”
- “And with the game’s stutters and audio problems, the modest underwater atmosphere is compromised.”
- “I really like the atmosphere even though it lacks life (people); there are fishes and crabs going around, making it less horror-ish.”
music
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
36%
21%
The music is generally praised for its serene, minimalistic, and atmospheric qualities, effectively enhancing the game's immersive and emotional experience. While some note that the soundtrack is limited in variety, its quality and integration with ambient sounds stand out, contributing significantly to the game's beautiful and poignant atmosphere.
- “This game was beautiful, with pleasant music and a lot of backstory behind each character.”
- “The visual design is stunning, the soundtrack is appropriately atmospheric, and the gameplay is deeply immersive.”
- “It is heartbreaking especially with the amazing soundtrack that reminded me of Hans Zimmer's time at times, and the voice acting that just hits the exact spot and note to make you cry.”
- “The animations are slow and methodical, the walking is slow, the music and environment is serene.”
- “[*] music is quite minimalistic.”
- “I know this is probably a finished product anyway, but it can really benefit from adding more soundtracks, refining animations, fixing glitches, and possibly adding more details to make it a better experience overall.”
optimization
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
29%
64%
The game suffers from poor optimization, particularly related to Unreal Engine 5, causing frequent stutters and frame drops even on high-end hardware. Performance improves with lowered graphics settings, but persistent micro-stuttering and lag remain an issue, detracting from the overall experience. Many players hope for future fixes to address these problems.
- “Aside from the typical awful Unreal Engine 5 optimization that results in constant stutters even on higher-end machines, this game's biggest sin is just how unnecessarily slow everything is.”
- “Game ran poorly on ultra settings (not a hardware issue). FPS were fine when standing still or walking straight, but turning caused FPS drops and stuttering. Lowering the graphics to high solved the issue entirely with no noticeable difference in graphical fidelity.”
- “Constant micro-stuttering no matter the graphics setting.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game experiences occasional lag and some significant bugs requiring restarts, impacting overall stability. However, there are no severe crashes or major glitches that make it completely unplayable. Further refinements and bug fixes would improve the experience.
- “Buggy and broken.”
- “Seriously buggy, causing major restarts from the beginning of the game.”
- “The game lags a little on my desktop, though I didn't encounter full glitches that made it unplayable.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is marked by tedious and repetitive tasks, particularly with animations like opening folders, and frequent backtracking that can feel monotonous. However, this is somewhat expected given the walking simulator genre, and the engaging story and atmosphere help offset these grind-related frustrations.
- “Overall I enjoyed the game for its story and atmosphere, but playing it could sometimes be tedious.”
- “The aforementioned backtracking can get a bit tedious if you do as I did and try to go back each time something new unlocks rather than progressing until the game takes you back there.”
- “Keep in mind the walking and backtracking can be tedious, but that's par for the course in a walking sim.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers a solid story-driven experience but has relatively low replayability due to minimal gameplay mechanics. While multiple endings and an optional achievement encourage at least one replay, it’s unlikely players will revisit the game extensively. Overall, replay value is limited, especially given current performance issues.
- “Overall: 8/10 (solid experience, though one that has somewhat low replayability. This is a story-heavy game with minimal game mechanics, so it's one of those things that you'll probably only play once. There are multiple endings, but it's easy to imagine what the other ending(s) would be, and one optional achievement that would very likely require a replay of the whole game if you didn't realize it was a thing for achievement hunters out there.)”
- “Being as how the game has little to no replay value, I chose to stop playing as of now in hopes that the performance issues get fixed.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is praised for its authentic regional accents and the voice actors' dedicated performances, which effectively convey the NPCs' emotions through well-crafted dialogues.

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11h Median play time

11h Average play time

11-11h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a role playing game with drama and mystery themes.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 11 hours playing Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss was released on August 1, 2024.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss was developed by Sarepta Studio.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a single player game.

Similar games include Call of the Sea, The Painscreek Killings, Paradise Lost, Marie's Room, Deliver Us The Moon and others.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss

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