Surface Depth- Steel Diver Review

Retrofitted with stunning, high-resolution subaquatic landscapes, and mini-games which exhibit the title’s gyroscopic control, the title displays the requisite showmanship required by a launch title. Unlike the majority of the 3DS’s inaugural library, the game’s main campaign feels fresh, delivering a pleasing combination of physics-based navigation with sporadic bursts of action. Yet, between Steel Diver‘s abridged length and curious supplements, the title ironically fails to deliver any sense of depth.

At the game’s helm is Mission Mode, which tasks sub commanders with maneuvering through treacherous, two dimensional undersea environments. Instead of having direct control of your boat, players move two sliders and a knob on the 3DS touch screen to alter the depth level, speed, and pitch of their sub. Like the antiquated Lunar Lander titles, gamers have to anticipate the effects of momentum; turning off a speeding sub’s engines won’t bring the vessel to an immediate halt. As such, gamers will be continually tweaking the responsive gauges, to avoid contact with the game’s walls, enemies, and irregular mines. Should a collision occur, Steel Diver‘s employs a clever mechanic, where players have to taps to patch a gushing water leak on the lower screen.

Although each of the game’s stages reward the memorizing of obstacles, a variable-volume ping forewarns players of imminent danger. Players can also initiate a cloak device to confuse inbound torpedoes, at the expense of depleting the sub’s constantly dwindling air supply. When the boat gets too battle-worn, prudent players will look for a place to surface, renewing both oxygen and the sub’s smashed hull. Through the first few levels, this will rarely be necessary- these stages offer only a marginal challenge.

By the time captains skulk the depths of the game’s fourth environment, the challenge level appreciatively increases. Here, the tension of Das Boot and U-571 is contextualized, as the persistent threat of scraping a barrier, boulder or boss cultivates a pleasingly tense experience. Yet, this enjoyment is woefully short-lived; Steel Diver was only seven stages, ending just as players acclimate to its edgy, methodic cadence. While players can explore levels with three different subs (each differing in maneuverability, size and firepower), and there is an offline leaderboard to track completion times, both devices seem like makeshift method to extend the title’s playtime.

In between the 2D expeditions, two other transitory diversions await player. After each stage, players are tasked with rotating their bodies to mimic the movements of a periscope operator, firing at enemy destroyers. Although players in prohibitive spaces can may use the stylus to control these segments, this control method isn’t as intuitive or enjoyable. Rounding out the cartridge is a Battlezone-inspired turn based competition, peppered with occasional mini-games when players vessels share the same hexagon. Regretfully, the game’s outcome is as reliant on luck as it is skill, rendered into little more than a unremarkable perk which likely won’t see multiple play sessions.

While Steel Diver should be commended for contributing a much needed dose of innovation into the 3DS’s sequel-centered launch lineup, the title’s brevity cannot be overlooked. Paying forty dollars for a handful of stages and few marginal additions cannot be advised. Despite Steel Diver‘s well-cultivated intensity, players would be better off awaiting either a price drop or more full-bodied sequel.