If this was where the focus stayed, then maybe the obviousness of its imagery and metaphor would’ve grown tiresome, but to my surprise, things really branched out. It’s not innovative and not obfuscated, but maybe things like depression are better served being laid more bare. You’re alone on a dark sea, travelling from darkness to light. You can choose to ignore either or try to catch them all for a little bit more replayability and challenge.Īs for the story, Sea of Solitude’s imagery and metaphor are fairly obvious throughout, though I don’t think this is unintentional or necessarily a bad thing. Sea of Solitude also features two different types of collectibles–seagulls you’ll need to shoo away, and messages in bottles that will give you a little bit more story here and there. This builds mistrust and to me, echoes some of the feelings you have when experiencing depression. One thing I thought served the overall theme very well was that certain parts of the game environment can be helpful at first, but hurt you later on. If Kay gets grabbed by ghostly hands, zapped, drowned or eaten, she’ll fade out momentarily, but fade back in just a short ways from where you left off–a good choice that means the narrative doesn’t get broken up too much even if you are struggling with something. Death is possible, too, but it’s not terribly consequential. The puzzles in Sea of Solitude aren’t too hard to figure out, though they can be challenging. It seems as though Sea of Solitude plays much better with a controller. Initially, I tried to play Sea of Solitude using a mouse and keyboard, but found it almost impossible to maneuver properly for one particular “connect” mechanic that’s often necessary to use to progress in the game, and ended up swapping out for a controller, which not only totally fixed the problem but felt far more comfortable in general. There’s also a few unique mechanics introduced throughout, including a sort of light-direction called “connect” that produces a gut-wrenching scream of pain from Kay whenever she attempts it. Apart from that, she can pick things up, board and unboard the boat to get on dry land, or jump. Kay will mostly travel the dreamlike world she exists in via her small boat, which uses straightforward directional controls. Very soon, she’s confronted by a strangely familiar monster that knows her intimately, and guided by a lighter being who’s also magically acquainted with her innermost thoughts. Kay is trapped in her own world of darkness, not knowing how she got there but know it’s overtaking her and she needs to escape.
Jud ensures the intimate, heartfelt nature of the script gets the gravitas it deserves, and makes Kay feel fully realized and genuine. Kay, voiced beautifully by Miriam Jud, is loosely based on one of the two writer/developers of the game, Cornelia Geppert, and the struggles she had with her own mental health. She wakes up on the bottom of a boat on stormy seas, all alone and unsure of what to do. You play as Kay, a 20 something woman who’s found herself in a dark place, both literally and figuratively. It’s in no way a bad thing, as certainly any discussion around mental health, and any normalization of it in the characters we see portrayed in the media, will help both those who suffer from mental illnesses and those who are there to support them. Sea of Solitude sails in on the waves of a recent trend in indie (and even AAA) games to address mental health as part of their main storyline.
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