A game I saw for cheap and still new, so why not try this one out.

Steel Diver

Another launch title for the 3DS, but this time it is a submarine game. Yes, a game about submarines. That’s something you don’t see very much about at all. So it does have some originality in trying something that not many other games are willing to try that’s for sure. However, is that a good thing, and did they execute it in a way that will do it justice? Well, let us take a closer look at Steel Diver and find out shall we?


Gameplay

Steel Diver is a 2.5D submarine game where pretty much your goal is to get to the end of the level without sinking. That is pretty much it in the main mode of the game. You pick one of three submarines, each of different length’s and strengths, which means different submarines control differently than each other, and have slightly different ways of attack. For example, the smallest sub can attack straight up, but can’t control the angle at which it fires directly. The medium and long subs can adjust the direction they are sailing, meaning they can tilt themselves to point in diagonals to shoot that way. That is how the other subs get away with not have a vertical missile like the small sub has. As you are going through the levels you have to attack other subs in the water shooting missiles at you, and then other ships on the surface dropping depth charges down at you. Then there are environmental hazards like rocks and currents that can cause damage to you as well. Yes, your sub really does take damage easily at times if you aren’t careful, and you have an air meter you have to worry about as well, which drains whenever you try and stealth yourself from heat seeking missiles from the enemies. Luckily, you can recover health and your air by being on the surface for a bit, but this will lower your level time which is the main goal at the end of the levels. You want to finish the levels as quickly as possible and to get a low time to do well on the leader boards. This is only for yourself though, so it isn’t even really that important over all. The levels take anywhere from five to fifteen minute to complete at most, which wouldn’t be so bad, but there, is the fact there are only like seven or so missions in the main mode of the game. Yes, this game is very very very short. Just a couple of hours and likely you will have the bulk of this game done. This is balanced out a little bit with two additional modes, but the fact is, they aren’t really that long lasting either in my opinion. One mode is just playing the bonus game you play in the main mode where you are the sub in a central location trying to sink all the ships sailing around you. This is interesting in that you have to spin yourself in your chair to control it like a sub scope, but it is over so quickly that it might not even be a mode. The last mode is a sort of strategy game where you are either trying to sink the opponents sub on a grid, or take out their five supply ships. You do this by having your sub run around their territory and them the same trying to hunt down the supply ship. Yours and their destroyers are trying to hunt down the sub and sink it before this happens. You damage the sub by throwing depth charges at it, but you have to guess at what depth it is at. If you match, the sub takes some damage and the turn ends. Three or four hits like this and the sub is sunk and you or they win. If all supply ships are sunk, it is the same thing. The big thing is, is that everything is invisible on the map and has to be hunted down by either luck or sonar, and sonar is risky as it does show off your location as well as theirs. This would be a better game if there was more variation of it and also more units, but it is just so simple and honestly quite luck based. It could have been expanded on a lot and made to be a much better compliment to the main game. Overall, the gameplay is honestly just okay here. If there was a bit more too it all, and the game was a lot longer, than it might be a different story here. Honestly, it’s just average really.


Story

Okay, this is just a joke. I know some of this may have been fine in the old days, but if you are going to try and tell a story, at least try more than just a bad nation is attacking other nations and we gotta stop them. That’s honestly all the story is you get in the beginning. There is sometimes a bit of story in the introduction to a mission, but honestly, it really doesn’t seem to have any sort of connection at all to what this story is supposed to be, other than just bad stuff is there, go blow it up or get to the end of the level. I didn’t totally trash the story as they did sort of attempt some sort of story, but it honestly would have been better at this point if they didn’t have much of a story at all. It likely would have been better to just take it out completely instead of just doing one that seems sort of half assed really. Don’t expect anything special here at all. It’s dull.


Graphics

This is one of those games that while it doesn’t have a ton going for it gameplay wise, it doesn’t look that bad at all. It isn’t something amazing, but you really do believe that you are sailing around in a sub under the water. The 2.5D graphics look convincingly like an ocean or cavern, and do give you that feeling of looking like underwater. It doesn’t look like just the above land with just a blue background. You see the ground and items in the backgrounds that would make you believe you are under the ocean. You see plants, fish, and other ship debris all over the place. Plus when you are closer to human made bases, there is a lot of metal under there as well. Graphics can be a bit tough to describe at times, but this is one of those cases where honestly, I don’t really have a ton to say about the game in a negative way when it comes to look. It could have been a tad better in some areas, but honestly, for what it was going for overall, it seems to work for me. Just make it a little more detailed in the oceans and have a few things that are already there look a bit nicer and have more detail, and this area would actually shine quite well.


Sound

Like I said with the graphics above, the sound of this game is good, but nothing really impressive. You hear the normal submarine sounds that you would expect and the sonar sounds from your submarine as you are sailing along. You hear the commands of the captain as you are sailing with a few key phrases you would expect such as fire, dive and surface and such like that. Other than that, you hear the sounds of the water, and the sounds of explosions from torpedoes as they fly around and hit things. There is also a sense of concern for you when you take hits yourself. There will be sirens that start to go off and concern from the captain when you take damage. So the game does try its best to make sure you know when there are things of concern going on with your boat and hopes you take is serious. The music in the game is on the soft side quite a bit. You barely notice it, and is more meant to be background music as you are playing the game rather than something you take more notice on. There is a little music you can take notice of before the levels and during the bonus levels. So really, once again, the music is good, but nothing really great either. It is just the music of the game.


Control

Okay, this is something that some people may like or dislike when it comes to this game. The controls are quite the interesting experiment that does sort of work, but can also make controlling the submarine a bit tricky at the same time. To control the submarine, you strictly use the stylus, nothing else. There are two bars on the screen. One is vertical and one is horizontal. You use the vertical bar to control your depth, and the horizontal bar to control your forward or backwards movement. This is actually quite the interesting way of controlling your sub. It does mean you aren’t in full direct control like if you were using the d-pad, but at the same time, you do instead feel like you are possibly in control of actual sub controls as you are doing the basic movements of the sub. This is a bit tricky though to get used to and can sometimes result in awkward movements and missed opportunities due to not being able to do both bars at the same time. It can be very easy sometimes to overshoot your targets to accidently nudge walls or mines because you could control yourself directly or stop quickly enough. When you are more used to it, you do learn that this method of controlling is quite the unique method of controlling the sub. It makes sense why they chose this method over the standard d-pad controls you may have in a shootem up game. I could see them doing that in this game if this game was more about shooting. However, this game seems so much more about being able to control the sub over shooting the enemies. Though controlling the sub through the environment isn’t that hard at times, aiming at enemies can be a bit of a pain, since it is easy to under or overshoot your shots and also getting the right angle to shoot at can be quite the task at times. Good luck hitting smaller things or doing things that require more precise aiming. You may be there for a bit trying to aim properly, unless you get lucky. It is obvious that control was the main concept of this game. I do admit it is a unique method for sure, but it is still a little iffy as well.


Replay Value

I sort of mentioned before how short this game is overall. That is a big factor that honestly makes this one of those games you play once or twice and once you beat it, you likely aren’t going to come back to it any time soon. The other modes may add some additional play time to the game, but once again, this game doesn’t have a whole lot that is egging you to keep playing it after that initial play through. There really isn’t anything extra, and really, the game is over and done with in such a short amount of time that you really don’t have a lot to go on. The game isn’t horrible as it does encourage you, if you can get others to play with, to play the game against them for time attack or time trials. There is also the possibility of playing the strategy game with the sub and supply ships versus friends instead of just the AI. That may make that game a little more lasting, but only so much. It is such a simple game and sort of repetitive that it won’t have a long lasting effect on people. Eh, I wasn’t too impressed here, and I don’t know if will want to come back to this one that quickly. It is worth it for the cheap price, but that’s about it.


Overall, I would say Steel Diver is an okay game for a cheap price, but it is nothing to be impressed about. For a 3DS launch title, I wouldn’t have been too impressed if this was my first game for the system, but the game isn’t really bad either. It is an interesting experiment getting to control a submarine like you are, with a unique control system, but with a pathetic story and honestly, no lasting appeal, I don’t see people wanting to go out and play this game that much at all in the long run. It is okay, but that it. It is just okay. If you want something cheap for your 3DS to play for a while with a unique control scheme or have a thing for boats or submarines, go pick this one up. Everyone else, honestly, I think you can pass on this unless you get it for cheap.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Steel Diver a six out of ten.


Gameplay: 6
Story: 3
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Control: 7
Replay Value: 5

Overall: 6