3/5 ★ – cjfelty3396's review of Sea of Solitude.

Sea of Solitude was both much more and much less than I expected it to be. Going into the game, I had the sense that this game was much more centered on the boat gameplay than it ended up being, and I was delightfully surprised to discover that the game was a collect-a-thon platformer with really interesting environments and art direction. However, the game also failed to live up to its marketing as a life-changing exploration of depression. The game’s story was fine, even great at a few particular moments, but more often than not, the dialogue was so ham-fisted that I laughed instead of feeling pained by what was being portrayed. My other major complaint with the game is that boss battles are uninspired—most of the time they just involved moving around an area while character dialogue plays, and I honestly would have rather had a cutscene. In the end, I don’t regret the 4.5 hours I gave to Sea of Solitude, and I think there are at least a few plot points that may be helpful to players reflecting on their own stories, but I sure wish the dialogue could have had another editing pass or two before the game was released!