Oh dear. After catching my attention way back in May 2015, I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of this underwater thriller – a mixture of atmospheric underwater exploration and a horror edged narrative about the mysteries of the deep sounded like a grand combination. However, after playing the preview back in December last year, some flaws became apparent, and my enthusiasm turned to trepidation. The movement was clunky and very slow paced. There’s only so much you can do to make underwater movement fluid (no pun intended) but those sort of niggles made the game frustrating and a little tedious. Unfortunately, on release, Iron Fish hasn’t done much to improve on those issues, and ultimately the final product is a disappointment.
We’re put in the flippers of underwater investigator Cerys, who is exploring the depths to discover what happened to a bunch of missing crew. Kitted out with the finest underwater tech, we drive around the ocean environments in our sub to see what we can find. Maybe this sunken ship, or this underwater cave will hold some clues to what’s been going on – particularly when we start to find severed limbs.
I’ll give Iron Fish some credit for its concept. After all, that’s what attracted me to the game in the first place. The ocean is still left largely unexplored, so there’s a great deal we don’t know about it. A mysterious, scary and deadly environment – perfect material for horror. The settings and narrative, while still leaving much to be desired, are the best parts of this game.
Iron Fish succeeds at pulling you in to its narrative, and exploring the depths is atmospheric and initially quite intriguing. It’s not the best looking game, but they did a good job creating some interesting environments – exploring a ship for example, broken and inhabited with fish. The creepy edge is present from the beginning as well, so exploring dark caves can be quite tense, and of course there’s the ever present aural and visual sensations of being underwater. All of this leads to some interesting, and certainly unique gameplay.
However, that’s sort of where the praise comes to an end. I mentioned that I played the game in its preview build, and at least with regards to that I can say there have been some improvements – swimming is less laboured and clunky, and the game is more stable – however it seems as though this wasn’t enough, and the full experience actually reveals new issues.
Unfortunately the end result of Iron Fish is a confusing and, in places, broken experience. While swimming around is a marked improvement on the preview build, it’s still a slow process. Not an issue in and of itself – I mean, we are underwater – however the exploration aspects of the game, and certainly the objectives, garner a lot of tedium and frustration. Despite having the occasional objective marker, and even a tool which tracks useful objects in your area, a lot of the time spent in the game is just wandering what the hell you have to do. Swimming around for ages, only to discover you’ve gone the wrong direction and have to go back makes what should be an immersive style of movement an annoyance. You have an aqua jet which is intended for those moments you might need to explore further away from your sub, however it isn’t always available, and of course still doesn’t solve anything if the game isn’t being clear on your next move.
There are a variety of items and objects you can find and use throughout the game – some permanent tech such as the tracking tool, and others simply consumable such as repair kits for your sub. The UI is clunky when attempting to cycle through your items, certainly not helped by the fact there is no mouse supports, and some things just don’t seem to work at all. You have a tool which scans underwater life and is supposed to log them, however as far as I know the thing simply doesn’t work. I haven’t managed to scan anything with it, and there’s no real explanation of how it’s supposed to be used – this may be a bug and not just bad design, but still.
Some restrictions are placed on your exploration, some of which tie into the use of items previously mentioned. The sub is a fragile thing, so driving around recklessly is ill advised, however if you do bump into things and cause damage, you can get out of your sub and use the repair tool. However, some consumables you can’t take with you, such as oxygen. For a deep sea diver, Cerys sure does run out of the stuff at a rapid rate. Fortunately you can find oxygen in containers on the sea floor, and taking one will fill your meter completely. It adds a certain element of tension to exploration – the constant depletion of your vital air – however it is just a little bit silly. Not to mention, if you do run out of oxygen, there’s no depletion of health – a rush back to the nearest oxygen supply – no, you die instantly. The whole process is just irritating, and makes exploration without your aqua jet or sub – which, as I have already said, in parts of the game is essential – pointless or really difficult.
Only adding to the frustration are the game’s ‘enemies’ (dangerous sea life and monsters). Sharks are actually pretty much non-issue, as they tend to be in real life – sharks are nowhere near as hostile as films have made them out to be – but some of the more unusual creatures you encounter later on can be a real pain. There’s no way of defending yourself, so essentially if you get attacked you’re going to die. I suppose it makes them a bit scarier – enemies in games such as Amnesia could not be defeated in combat – however there’s no real alternative for you to get away. Nowhere to hide, and they will be faster swimmers than you so there’s no point in trying to escape. It’s such a shame, because as I said, the mysterious deep and what lurks there is a genuinely intriguing concept in this game, but it just becomes ridiculous.
The whole experience stinks of missed opportunity. Even the dialogue, which is well voiced and generally well written, in some areas is just lacking. Cerys will comment on some things and have conversations with her colleague over comms, but there are times when she is weirdly silent – like when you discover severed heads and limbs at the beginning of the game and she just says nothing.
I’m not sure there’s much else to say really. Iron Fish doesn’t fulfil its potential. The story and concept are interesting, but the gameplay is not. It just becomes tedious and annoying, and I’m not sure many would see the game through to its conclusion despite the intriguing mystery. A really unfortunate let-down.