In Other Waters is a beautiful love-letter to our oceans and the life cradled within it. From the encapsulating music to the intensity of the writing, I cannot express my deep love and appreciation for this game even if it took me longer than I expected to actually sit down and play it.

To give a brief summary of the game and to be completely transparent: it is a text game. If you do not enjoy text games that are unvoiced- then this may not be the one for you.

The core of the gameplay exists within a minimalist UI as you play as an AI assistant that controls the diving suit of the speaking character: Ellery Vas. She is a marine biologist looking for a former coworker and colleague named Minae who came to this planet years ago in secrecy, desperately looking for something which is your job yo piece together.

The game embraces exploration and shines when it comes to discovering life on the planet Gliese 667c. The developers did an amazing job portraying Ellery and her careful note taking and requests for finding samples to prove theories on her observations. Going above and beyond, the notes within the game about what you see is backed up by a believable and well researched scientific process and is highly rewarding when a creature has been researched to the fullest. For a text game- there are precious few visuals but upon completing a taxonomy entry, the game rewards you with Ellery's sketches of the species they studied, bringing the alien world to life in a very thematic way.

The more you engage in studying the marine life with Ellery, the more you explore the planet, making it feel less foreign and lonely. The sound design also goes leaps and bounds to convey this feeling deep within a seemingly endless oceanic planet. Every animal, plant, and biome has its own distinctive sounds and atmosphere whether it's the fizzling of gas bubbles or the moaning of giant, alien creatures scavenging along the ocean floor. The experience is immersive despite the minimalist design.

I highly recommend this game for people who enjoy Subnautica without its intensity and for those who enjoy and have an appreciation for exploration and science. Thanks to its lovingly crafted descriptions of alien sea-life and the immersion it brings, this is a story that's worth your time.