The seagulls are also something that I found immensely gratifying to collect. Each of these messages forms a kind of communicative thread that suggests that Kay isn’t the first one to visit this sea of solitude. The messages in bottles can be found peppered around almost anywhere in a level, often tucked underneath a platform or behind a hidden ladder, etc. This game wants you to reach the end.Ĭompletionists and players looking for a little more to contend with will find some pleasure in the game’s two main collectibles: seagull shooing and messages in bottles. Players who are looking for a learning curve to the game will not find one, but I found that to be a sound mechanical decision by the developers. Most of your time will be spent navigating Kay’s boat around or running around, climbing ladders and evading monsters via mild platforming. The game doesn’t offer much in the way of difficulty, and I found myself breezing through sections. Anyone who follows my work will know that I prefer an experience to a challenge, and this is no exception with Sea of Solitude. The level design was one of the unexpected treats to my experience with this game. For visual style alone, this game is worth looking into. In particular moments, Sea of Solitude is more immersive than any game I have played in 2019. The graphics aren’t impressive so much as they are well designed, and a game doesn’t have to be realistic to be immersive. Everywhere you turn can be framed into a brilliant image. I found it impossible to keep my thumb off the screenshot button while playing through for the first time. When Kay discovers a new area, she encounters violent thunderstorms that cover the sunlight and turn the city into a threatening noir aesthetic, complete with an aquatic monster that has a particular pension for following Kay hungrily around. Little hotel signs and street lamps pepper the city that, despite being totally uninhabited, feels like a living thing as much as it does a place. When things are going well and Kay is clearing corruption from the city, the lighting is vibrant and the buildings exude brilliant pastels. The game bounces between two color palettes. Kay finds herself in a seemingly abandoned world that echoes Venetian architecture, complete with cramped, winding streets that she must navigate through. Kay is trapped in her own darkness but chooses to use her own energy to bring others out of that darkness.

This sets the tone for the rest of the game’s visual and narrative themes. Rather than worry about herself, Kay’s first instinct is to assume that glowing light might be someone in need and that she should help them.

In this dark storm, you see a glowing light in the distance. Your character, Kay, wakes up alone as turbulent waves rock her boat back and forth. Sea of Solitude came unnervingly close being an instant classic, something timeless akin to Journey or Gris, but failed to achieve that status due to clumsy writing that subtracted from the experience.

It was reported that Sea of Solitude would be spoken about in the same conversations as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice in terms of how it refreshingly dealt with mental and emotional struggles. Riding the wave of 2019 releases, I had high hopes that Sea of Solitude would be an emotionally driven experience that told its story through artistic direction and style.

Sea of solitude play time