Barotrauma – Early Access Preview (PC)
Patrolling the barren depths of the ocean can be equal parts mystifying and terrifying. Couple that with trying to traverse the alien seas of Jupiter’s moon Europa and being accompanied by a crew full of rag-dolling morons… things get even more horrifying and slightly ridiculous – in a good way. Co-developed by FakeFish and Undertow games, Barotrauma is a brand new space/sea faring drowning simulator set to launch in early access on Steam later this week.
Barotrauma has players take control of one of five different submarine crew members. A mechanic focuses on welding hull breaches, operating pumps to displace flooding waters, and crafting tools such as fire extinguishers. An engineer is responsible for wiring, repairing electrical panels, and conducting nuclear reactors to power the ship. The medic comes to the aid of injured and unconscious crew members using bandages, syringes, and resuscitation techniques. A security officer handles the offensive duties inside and outside of the vessel, using spear guns and stun batons to kill invading sea creatures, and rear mounted coil turrets to attack large monsters bashing the hull of the submarine. Finally, the captain pilots the ship and bosses everyone else around.
Playing as the captain you can issue commands for your crew to perform all of the above noted duties and more. What commands you issue will be dictated by the situation at hand. To begin, an engineer will need to be instructed to power up a main reactor to bring the vessel to life. Once you’re undocked and patrolling the depths, a security officer should be directed to man the coil turrets and keep watch for roving alien monsters. If you as a captain suck at driving and hit every solid piece of terrain visible (as I did) you’ll need to keep your mechanic busy with welding shut hull breaches and pumping out water.
While the majority of the duties that you will perform as your various crew members require a fairly simple set of inputs, the aforementioned task of driving the ship is quite a bit more complex. You will need to master use of active and directional sonar in order to see where your ship is going. Understanding that this all takes place under water, you’ll need to take into account things like drift and velocity as you can’t just stop on a dime to make a turn. The meticulous task of docking the ship can be quite difficult and may take multiple attempts. As much power as the captain is given with their command over the crew, they do possess the most difficult task of piloting – so it all evens out in the end.
Where Barotrauma really comes into it’s own is when you and up to fifteen other players take control of the crew to cooperatively run the massive sea dwelling tank. While computer controller crew members can complete their tasks with varying measures of success, the game has the potential to take on a whole new level of frantic fun when it’s your own friends that you’re bossing around. Actually issuing verbal commands as opposed to clicking preset inputs is more satisfying in itself, especially when things start to get crazy. A heightened level of cooperation is needed between all of your human controlled crew mates when multiple enemies have invaded the ship, several hull breaches are present, and many team members are injured or unconscious.
Barotrauma takes the micromanagement and frantic nature of games like Fallout Shelter and pairs them with the coordination of FTL: Faster Than Light. Throw in cooperative multiplayer and you have a game that takes teamwork to a whole new level. What really sets Barotrauma apart is the sea on an alien moon playing host to this sub nautical military strategy game. This is one that is more than worth checking out with a few friends when it launches in early access on June 5th.
