Although there hasn't been a lot of hype behind Insomniac Games' Song of the Deep, the title has officially landed on PlayStation 4, its exclusive home.
The game is a 2D action-adventure platformer, complete with a lot of puzzles, that tells the story of a girl, Merryn, who goes in search of answers after her father gets lost at sea.
"One of the things I love most about video games as a medium is that they can transport you to a world you've never seen and let you discover its secrets from the inside," Insomniac CCO Brian Hastings writes on the PlayStation blog. "And the team has done an incredible job making it an incredible world to explore. Everything is interactive in unexpected ways, and every part of the world is moving and full of secrets."
Hastings promises that even the game's music and art help convey the story of Merryn, as well as the animation and puzzle design. He calls it a "singularly beautiful experience."
In April, Insomniac released a story trailer for the game to show players what they can expect from Song of the Deep:
Hastings admits that Merryn's inspiration came from his 11-year-old daughter, but that the puzzles aren't for the faint of heart: they can get "intense," especially for those players who choose higher difficulty gameplay levels. Song of the Deep also features a lot of secrets, including 200 treasure chests full of things like submarine upgrades to help players traverse the world underneath the sea. Upgrades give the sub new abilities that players can combine.
The setting of Song of the Deep comes from Hastings' childhood obsession with submarines. However, there's more to Merryn's story than just the game. There's also a companion novel that will tell the story from the girl's perspective. That book is now available at Barnes & Noble and online.
"One other opportunity on this project was the chance to create a companion novel (also called Song of the Deep) that tells the story of Merryn's journey from her own perspective," Hastings writes. "The book delves deeper into many of the mysteries and secrets of the world, as well reveals more about Merryn's earlier life and why she makes the choices she does."
Song of the Deep is available now at GameStop (for those wanting a physical copy), as well as digitally in the PlayStation store for $14.99.
