3/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Sea of Solitude.

5h Sea of solitude is an indie game that at its roots is a visual representation of mental health struggles. You play as Kay, a girl who finds herself transformed into a dark version of herself and forced to navigate a flooded city filled with monsters to uncover the truths of her past. This is where the gameplay elements are introduced as you navigate the waters by boat or climb ladders and ledges on the exposed rooftops above water. Aside from this traversal Kay is gifted with another useful skill from a mysterious girl she meets in the opening scene. Armed with the ability to project a beam of light onto dark material she encounters, the “flare” mechanic can combat the negative energy or “corruption” that lives in this new reality. This is really the extent of gameplay and I did struggle to really engage and never found myself loosing track of time like a gripping game would. Collectibles come in two forms, messages in bottles that piece together a story and a really boring and without purpose “shooing” of seagulls. The flooded city represents the struggles within Kays mind and the monsters that she encounters are all representative of people in her life and the troubles that they endure. From the guilt of your little brother struggling with bullying in school and you not being there for him, to your boyfriend’s battle with depression you couldn’t understand, Kay will also try to make sense of the dysfunctional relationship that her parents had. Sea of solitude is a short 3 hour experience about mental health represented as a battle with monsters that is found inside of us all to varying degrees. I like games with this premise but I felt it lacking in both exciting gameplay and a heartfelt story. I wish that the narration was delivered in German with subtitles as I felt disengaged from the dialogue as it wasn’t in the voice actors native tongue and came across as fairly corny. It looked pretty, and it had the potential to shatter your emotions but I struggled to ever really feel sympathy for Kay and the other characters.