Submarine Survivor is a new roguelike title from retro publisher EastAsiaSoft and developer The Bat Flight that is out today on Switch, played here, Xbox, and PlayStation, priced at $4.99. The game is riding the wave of the roguelike genre’s popularity since the huge success of Vampire Saviours and shares many of the hit game’s gameplay mechanics. There are a few differences, though, which help Submarine Survivor stand out on its own, and these make it a great game, especially at this price point.
The game’s main aim is to take on the mission of clearing up the seas using your trusty submarine that you upgrade in various ways as the game progresses. The mission is broken down into sub-levels, each with its own dangers, such as radioactive barrels falling from the surface or giant lasers that limit where you can move your sub to. Your sub can hold a certain number of weapons, and you gain these by collecting upgrade points from downed foes. The more upgrade points you collect, the more you can upgrade each weapon.
There are also passive upgrades to add to your loadout, such as energy regeneration or improved shields, and each upgrade will give you a choice of three different options. What you choose largely depends on how your loadout is progressing and the style of sub you want to build. However, focusing too much on one weapon or attribute will cause your sub to become unbalanced and will lead to more deaths than successes. If you do die on a sub-mission, the map resets, and you’ll have to start the entire mission over. Your submarine upgrades are also reset, and you’ll go back to the basic equipment.
Finishing a whole set of sub-missions isn’t easy, and at the start of the game, you will probably have more failures than successes. While it can feel frustrating, there is a great mechanic in Submarine Survivor that creates a lot of replay value. As you complete a sub-mission, other resources picked up during the mission can be used for permanent upgrades to the submarine that will always be there, no matter how many times you fail. This creates a scenario where you’ll eventually start to turn the tide, and finishing an entire set of missions becomes much easier.
Overall, Submarine Survivor ticks all the boxes that this type of game aims to offer. Plenty of resource management, levelling up, steady difficulty increases and plenty of variety in both enemy as well weapon types. This is even more rearkable given the games’ price and anyone who enjoys roguelike experiences will certainly see the value as games in this genre costing twice as much often don’t have this depth to the gameplay. Those interested in this genre may want to check out Dagger Froggy, another roguelike we recently played.
