Deep Beyond

Deep Beyond is a short and cozy first-person walking simulator about a young sea explorer in search of a mysterious, long-lost artifact. You take the role of Lilly, the daughter of a treasure hunter who went missing some years ago. The game starts as she’s about to find the last artifact needed to pinpoint the location of the chalice that her father’s expedition was searching for. However, she’s not the only one looking for it and a series of unexpected events starts to occur as she gets closer to her objective.

While walking simulators are known to be rather slow-paced, Deep Beyond easily manages to keep you on your toes throughout the whole gameplay due to its excellent storytelling. The narrative is dynamic, there is always something new and unpredictable that happens. Several immersive cutscenes make the game look more like an interactive movie than anything else, topped with a great music score and well-placed sound effects that further enhance the experience. The game is fully voiced too, and the voice actors did a great job at portraying their characters.

The game is not entirely a walking simulator. It also has several puzzles to solve. They are easy enough to figure out without any help, yet very fun. Additionally, several elements from the environment have flavor text when interacting with them, similar to a point & click adventure (although there is no inventory and no objects can be picked up for puzzles). The game also has nine Steam achievements, most of which are story-related. None of them are missable, as you can revisit any part of the story from the chapter selection menu, which will also allow you to quickly experience the three possible endings (by replaying only the last sequence).

Deep Beyond doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but it’s one of the more enjoyable walking simulators I’ve played. It’s a little gem with an artsy design and compelling narrative, the only downside being that it is very short.