Barotrauma: I Hate This Game and I Never Want To Stop Playing

Orca 2. Europan Ridge. Balance: 382 Marks.

Barotrauma is a conundrum. On one hand, it’s a highly inventive and effective combination of simulation, crafting, and horror. On the other, it’s both an annoying slog, and also, horror.

I don’t like horror. It actually works on me. I still remember quitting Star Control 3 when I was like…13? because the text logs of a surface expedition creeped me out. There weren’t even pictures!

But I do like this game. There’s a couple different classes of experiences; the main type you’ll see is defending the sub via mounted weaponry against gigantic oceanic horrors like this:

This lures you into feeling powerful and protected. Big things can’t get into your sub, so as long as you keep the water out and bouyancy controlled, you won’t succumb to death by crushing pressures.

There’s other types of missions, though. Sometimes you have to get out of the sub. And go into another sub. A wrecked sub. And you find out why it’s wrecked.

This is the part I hate. You can hear the monsters in the sub you’re trying to clear. Your sub’s guns will damage the stuff inside the wreck, reducing the potential salvage value. So, your best bet is to gingerly peel open the sub, keeping your backside covered while you clear it out, room by room.

Because that’s not horrible enough, there’s a class of enemy called a husk that’s the game’s zombie archetype. There’s a parasite that spreads between native fauna and humans; it takes over bodies, grows tentacles, gains a bunch of superpowers, and tries to bite.

The human variants are bullet sponges, immune to pressure and capable of tanking lots of shots, but otherwise just an annoying disease vector. The cure is handy, if expensive, so at least it’s not Project Zomboid.

The non-human variants are just gross. Some mods make the submarine-sized megafauna husked , so yeah, good times.

The safer approach is to try to open up the wreck and let your submarine-mounted guns do the work. But, since I’m playing with bots, this comes with unique occupational hazards.

Hence the annoyance bit: the game is truly designed for multi-player mayhem, but also has a single-player campaign tacked on. Because the game does a good job of requiring multiple characters to split up tasks, playing it solo is cumbersome and time-consuming. And then you die.

I shall press on, regardless. At least when there’s enough daylight to keep me from being scared.