SAMUDRA is a game in which you play as a young child ‘Trip’ in an adventure across the bottom of the ocean. Set in a future in which pollution has overrun the world, requiring all who remain on land to wear breathing apparatus, Trip must try and travel back to the surface, encountering plenty of creatures and dangers along the way.
Developed by Indonesian developer Khalayan Arts in conjunction with the Unity for Humanity Grant, SAMUDRA was developed from the ground up to have an environmental message, and that message permeates every part of the story. This goes further than just a message, with profits of the game going towards funding a collaboration with the Indonesian Environmental Activist Circle to help reduce plastic usage in Indonesia by 70% in 2025.
Throughout the adventure, you will encounter plenty of evidence of mankind’s pollution. Whether this is toxic sludge, chemical waste, factories, old washing machines and containers, or plenty and plenty of plastic, it is everywhere. The game features hand-illustrated graphics which I think look really nice, the game often looks like a picture-book, and it manages to capture the underwater atmosphere perfectly.
The actual gameplay is relatively simple. You can move Trip left or right, and there is one action button. This button sometimes lets you jump over obstacles, hide behind a container, turn a wheel, pull a box, anything that needs to be done, it’s done with that one button. This lends the game to feeling more like an interactive story than a platformer, but I think that’s okay. Later on, there are several puzzles and some parts of the game can actually be pretty difficult, but overall most players will have no problem navigating the experience.
Whilst I think many people would enjoy this, I think it would be a great game for children. The calming atmosphere, simple controls and the fact that there is no dialogue, all make that case. The story is told through actions, and sometimes when a character has to talk, such as an octopus man playing a guitar, he speaks in bubbles with pictures in them. It’s a novel way to tell a story, but as this game has a message to tell, it means it can tell it in any language.
That isn’t to say SAMUDRA is without fault. It unfortunately has some technical issues, most of which seem to be caused by the lack of a settings screen. There is screen tearing, so you have to force v-sync through the graphics card, and you can’t change the resolution or anything else, which does put a slight dampener on the package. Additionally, there are some sections of the game where the hand-drawn graphics can slightly merge together. For example, a danger early on is a container falling towards Trip, in which he has to hide in a hole. The hole though is difficult to make out from the rest of the background, and easily missed.
Largely though, I liked SAMUDRA. I like the way the story is told, I really like the calming visuals and music, and I support the environmental message. If you have younger kids that are just getting into games, then I would recommend this game to them most of all, but older gamers who already understand the message may not get as much out of this one.
You can purchase SAMUDRA on Steam here.
