When it comes to indie horror titles on the Switch, there unfortunately hasn’t been much consistency outside of most of the games simply being middling at best. Whether the issue is an over-reliance on jump scares, too much aimless walking around without direction, or just a lack of overall quality, there have certainly been playable experiences for genre fans, but not very good ones. Submersed 2 - The Hive is somewhat of a breath of fresh air, succeeding in avoiding some of the more common missteps of its peers, but given its overall lack of polish it’s also hard to get excited about nonetheless.

In the game you’ll find yourself waking to the sounds of alarms, naked, and more than a little disoriented. With your first priority simply being to find some clothes you’ll begin your journey, making a number of discoveries along the way that help you to quickly understand that you’re in a survival horror game. Among the things you’ll find out will be that you’re in an underwater station, that most of the crew is dead, that there are dangerous and somewhat zombie-like enemies lurking about, and finally that there’s a pretty scary and seemingly-invincible shark waiting for you out in the water. Of course, that means that at certain points you’ll need to go out and deal with it… mostly by moving as fast as you can and avoiding the hell out of it.

The challenge here is in walking the line between the fact that it’s clear this is a better overall effort than many of its peers, but then not letting it off the hook for its own issues. It’s clear that the developers have put some effort into the overall flow and design of the various areas you’ll explore. In some cases you’ll need to crouch down and go into the vents, you’ll spend some time out in the water, and for the most part the puzzles you’ll need to solve can be dealt with intuitively… all of which are refreshing. I also appreciate the tension the game often manages to create, whether due to the feeling of helplessness you have while out in the water, or just the fact that your method of saving is so constrained that it makes you vulnerable. 

Where it falls down a bit tends to come with some technical issues, whether with odd clipping, the somewhat clunky interface, or the odd and inconsistent behavior of your enemies at times. Putting these together you end up with a game that’s easy to root for, but that can also let you down at times. The good news is that compared to many of its contemporaries it does manage to stand above the crowd, with a tighter and more focused overall design. The bad news is that some of its shine has more to do with the sad state of its competition than with its own overall excellence, which is spotty but at least reasonably good.