Mark of the Deep PC Review
Summary:
4
Decent Booty
I’m a sucker for a Metroidvania, so once I caught wind of Mark of the Deep, I was pretty much sold from the off. A pirate-themed adventure that also incorporates Souls-like elements? I’m in, and the trailer confirmed this looked like exactly the game for me. So, after 20-something hours with Mark of the Deep, am I still as excited about it as I was on day one? Sure, I just wish I knew where I was meant to be going.
It’s pretty obvious what games have inspired Mark of the Deep. There’s more than a little Hades and Curse of the Dead Gods sprinkled through its DNA, especially with its isometric viewpoint and fast-paced combat, but it still feels original enough to stand on its own two feet. In particular, its nautical setting does much of the heavy lifting in making Mark of the Deep feel unique. Hacking and slashing around various aquatic biomes filled with deep sea nasties is unlike anything I’ve experienced in the genre to date, and I love how every aspect of the game feels authentically pirate-y.
Throughout Mark of the Deep, you take up the role of Rookie, a survivor of a nasty shipwreck that leaves you and your fellow pirates stranded on a mysterious island. Those who stay too long on the island find themselves transformed into one of its monstrous inhabitants, so it’s up to you to reunite your crew and find a way to stop yourself from turning into grotesque fishmen. Finding your shipmates becomes the catalyst for your reason to explore the island in-depth – and although I didn’t find the story particularly engaging – I enjoyed how much effort had gone into making each character feel unique. There’s some great voice acting throughout, and I was impressed with how much effort had gone into making Mark of the Deep so fleshed out.
While the main aim of Mark of the Deep is laid out pretty quickly, I also found many of my fellow survivors (and some friendly island inhabitants) offered up side quests. These became great incentives to fully explore everything Mark of the Deep has to offer, as well as helping to deepen the narrative of the game. Most importantly, though, I found a lot of these side quests could be easily solved by simply following the main story, and I didn’t have to do a tonne of tedious back-pedalling.
Which is probably a good thing, especially as there’s no map in Mark of the Deep. It’s a particularly odd choice to forgo any way of keeping track of locations and points of interest, and it becomes particularly annoying when succumbing to a nasty death miles away from your last respawn point. I lost track of how many times I ended up retreading old ground over and over because I simply couldn’t remember where I was meant to be going.
It’s here where you start to see that Mark of the Deep is less Metroidvania and more Metroidvania-inspired. In fact, it leans far heavier into its Souls-like roots than it does anything else. Combat requires precise dodging, well-timed combos and more than a little patience. As it is with a lot of Souls-likes, most of my many, many deaths came down to user error. More often than not, I found myself rushing enemies and bosses, rather than taking time to study attack patterns to find my perfect opportunity.
That said, things did still feel a little unfair at times. The game suffers from a few quality-of-life issues, the lack of a map being the main gripe, but things like having no enemy lock-on make distance-based attacks difficult to land. Shooting your enemies is a great way to turn the tide when surrounded by a group of mushroom monsters, but it’s wildly difficult not having the ability to ensure your bullets land. Enemies are also a little intense and tend to give chase until you either take them out or you leave the area, and sometimes it would be nice to have the option to have a breather in Mark of the Deep’s otherwise intense battlefield.
Thankfully though, Mark of the Deep’s combat is otherwise solid, as are the controls, and I found new abilities, weapons and powers unlocked at a steady pace to keep things fresh. There are also plenty of equipable buffs to allow you to micromanage your playstyle ala Hollow Knight, and while some of them felt a little futile (do extra damage while you have full health, which is often a monumental task in itself), overall I felt the selection was varied enough to curate your version of Rookie just how you want.
I haven’t quite wrapped up my time with Mark of the Deep yet, but as my first playthrough shows signs of coming to a close, I can’t help but feel that this is one the best games of its kind in a while. The genre is overloaded with Hades, Curse of the Gods, and Hollow Knight knock-offs, and it’s difficult for games akin to the Greats to really stand on their own. That’s where Mark of the Deep comes in. It does enough to tick off what I want from a Soulsike-come-Metroidvania(ish) to deserve your attention while still doing its own thing; I just wish one of these fish guys had a map or two on hand.
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