The one question I kept returning to when playing Mark of the Deep was this: how do you become a pirate when you’re unable to swim? Every time the protagonist, Rookie, falls into water, he does a pathetic little flail before sinking like a stone. Surely this is like a pilot going up without knowing how to work a parachute? An astronaut not knowing how to use any of the many things required to not die a horrible death in space? Getting tossed around in the ocean is one thing, but I’d expect a pirate to at least be able to doggy-paddle their way through the shallow end of a pool.

Still, this was far from the only recurring thought that popped up during Mark of the Deep. It’s a game of many parts, all floating around together. Some of these parts, like the movement mechanics and general feel of the world, are great. Others feel out of place, and make the whole experience feel somewhat disjointed. It all smacks of game that’s had too many things thrown into it. While it has a stable core, somewhere along the line there’s been some definite turbulence.

Under The Sea

The stars of Mark of the Deep are the crew of the Angry Mermaid, a pirate vessel engaged in all sorts of pirate-y activities. The ocean, however, decides that it’s had enough of all that, and smashes it into driftwood. Things aren’t as simple as that, though, as a strange island rises from the waves and the crew finds themselves scattered around it. Worse still, they’re afflicted with a strange sickness that’s slowly changing them into mutant fish-people. Also, the island is full of angry skeletons, which never helps when you’re feeling a bit rough. Rookie, however, is not afflicted and sets off to rescue the crew, uncover the island’s history and send the affliction packing.

It’s an interesting premise. Unquestionably Lovecraftian, but where the fish people are more victims than crazed cultists. The setting in general is used rather well. There’s a big array of fish people, both sane and crazy, and all the sailors you meet are visibly afflicted. It flows nicely into the boss design too, where you learn about the heroics of past arrivals, before meeting their violent, fishy form. The writing is a bit of a light touch, though. Most sailors only talk in base exposition, blandly pointing out that they need to get off the island. They react to the fishy corruption the same way they might react to a stuffy nose heralding a cold.

Still, there’s a nice amount of backstory that keeps the world interesting. That’s good, as exploring is the number one pastime. It helps that movement feels rather good. Running and dodging around feels smooth, without any directional strangeness that sometimes accompanies isometric cameras. Being isometric, it can’t use the usual suite of metroidvania-esque movement upgrades, so instead we have things like a hookshot, and a range of different pirate pistols to help hit switches. A core part of the game is puzzles using these skills, which I quite enjoyed. Nothing that was a major headscratcher, but it helped get use out of all our skills.

Springing A Leak

The thing is, Mark of the Deep proudly lists two genres on its Steam blurb: metroidvania and soulslike. I take issue with both of these. The former stems from one big issue: there’s no map. Might not sound like a big issue, but remember: we spend the entire time looking at the floor. Outside of Wetherspoons, floors don’t really look unique. All the zones tend to blend together. One of the major quests is to rescue the entire Angry Mermaid crew, but trying to remember the location of every sailor I passed by was next to impossible. It doesn’t have to be a detailed map, but give us something we can put little marks on to aid us later.

As it stands, when I wanted to collect ores to upgrade my weapon, for instance, I was faced with just running back through the entire level. This was painful, largely thanks to the combat. Here we move on to Mark of the Deep‘s Soulslike label. On the surface, the combat isn’t too bad. We start with a big old hook as a weapon, and we can slash and dodge. Added to that, we get a suite of pistols. These work quite well together, as you can get in few quick slashes, fire a shot and roll away. It takes a little bit to get the hang of, as it definitely punishes recklessness.

Unfortunately, it’s plagued with a collection of small issues that bring it down. For one, I couldn’t cancel out of my attack animations half the time. This wasn’t too bad against melee enemies, who neatly telegraph their attacks, but a lot are ranged, splash-damage enemies. These are infuriating. Frequently we’ll be fighting a cluster of melee enemies, as an unreachable ranged enemy rains down splash damage. It’s repeated constantly, and is annoying every time. The combat never really evolves, either. I got through every single enemy, and boss, by hitting three times, blasting with blunderbuss, then rolling away.

Mark of the Deep – Overstuffed With Genres

Mark of the Deep is not without good points, mind. The levels are designed smartly, for instance. Completing a difficult section will usually open a gate back to a save point, so if you die then you can still push forward. That said, it does commit a metroidvania sin, as there’s no real reason to go back to older areas, other than to comb through for collectibles. It’s quite a linear trek through. Still, there is quite a lot here. After beating the game, I was poking back through areas and was still finding interesting new boss fights. Shame they have much too much health.

I can’t help but think I would’ve like Mark of the Deep more if it had specialised a bit. Chuck the metroidvania in the bin, and tone down the combat. There’s an interesting world here full of interesting fish people, but I struggled to find many interesting conversations. Instead, what I did like was the stream of little puzzles that put the hookshot, dash and grenade items into focus. As it stands, Mark of the Deep is a hodge-podge of different genres, but it doesn’t really excel at any of them.

(Mark of the Deep’s Steam Page)