Under The Waves on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Stan, a professional diver in the North Sea, is struggling to overcome a life-changing loss during an extended mission underwater. Stuck in his self-imposed solitude, he starts to experience strange events and will have to make the most significant choice of his life...

Under The Waves is a adventure, underwater and exploration game developed by Parallel Studio and published by Spotlight by Quantic Dream.
Released on August 28th 2023 is available only on Windows in 21 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Arabic, Czech, Dutch, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Thai, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.

It has received 1,299 reviews of which 1,011 were positive and 288 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.5 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 29.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 9.77€ on Instant Gaming.

The Steam community has classified Under The Waves into these genres:

Adventure Underwater Exploration Story Rich Indie Atmospheric Singleplayer Third Person Sci-fi Submarine 3D Narration Cinematic Narrative Open World Horror Walking Simulator

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Under The Waves through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5 4th Gen/ AMD Ryzen 3 4100 4 cores 3.8 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB/ AMD R9 290 HD 4GB
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 10 GB available space

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Feb. 2025

If you are fond of a) the sea and b) solitude, this is the game for you. It is a realistic Subnautica, not at all exciting in terms of gameplay, but subtle and mundane - the kind of mundane you can find working as a warehouse boy in Shenmue. The story is not something entirely new but really evolves to something deeper towards the end. The ecology aspect gets a bit "on your face" occasionally, but you can't really argue with the message. It is not a perfect game, but it is a special game.

Dec. 2024

Thank you to the Developer Parallel Studio and Publisher Spotlight by Quantic dream for providing a game to escape, explore and learn. My Steam rating: Very Positive Under the Waves is a simple third person story driven game that excels in almost everything it sets out to accomplish. Despite an oddity or two in the story and some QoL omissions the game is an absolute diamond for the genre and easy to recommend. In the game you play as Stan, a professional diver who has returned to his employer after a tragic family event to basically escape from everything. Stan believes this isolation will help him deal with this event though 3 yrs have now passed. You are not totally isolated as you will make a few phone calls to your wife and each day you will talk with an old family friend(also an employer of the Co.) who will give you daily Co. tasks and other story missions to follow. The game is perfectly paced as if only doing what is required would be around 6 hrs(guess) but to 100%(all the collectibles/crafting) takes 12-15 hrs. The only issue I have with the story is the game covers only 17 days and the ending where you are given a choice which was not needed. The story from the writing, voice acting and music are all incredibly done. But beware this story is not for everyone as it is about loss and even with a choice at the end, there is no happy ending here. One thing I wanted to highlight for the story was this game was sponsored and/or funded by the Surfrider foundation which is an environmentalist group who is battling to protect the ocean for all to enjoy. This is how awareness to a cause is done right in a game. All of the group's causes are in things found(collectibles) or during loading screens with facts and not a distraction in any way. I was aware of some of the information provided but I learned more info on the continued effects from the garbage we dispose of into the ocean. *The story, atmosphere, sense of loneliness and isolation reminded me of the movie Moon(great movie). I do not know if the dev team were ever aware of this movie but your minisub you travel in the game is called Moon. The game covers 17 days(there is a 10 day fast forward after day 3) where you will be given missions daily that are basically restoring power, fixing or cleaning equipment, all tasks to make sure the Corporations machines keep drilling. There are also collectibles to find, photographs to take and a crafting system to upgrade your mini sub and your gear. Luckily the game was not gamified and what I mean by that is air, gas, damage and there is no combat like in a lot of survival games. The main goal here is to experience the story and world and I appreciated that design for this game. In order to complete your daily tasks Under the Waves is somewhat of a scuba simulation game. Each day when you wake up you will make a cup of coffee, retrieve your daily task and go into the deep blue travelling in your one man mini sub called Moon. As you travel you will hit a sonar that will highlight items or locations to explore. These will provide crafting materials and collectibles which also provide a lot of backstory for the game. I highly recommend searching out a majority(some are on your path to a mission) as they provide a lot of information on everyone involved in the game and story beats that paint the whole picture. The crafting system is pretty basic where you will gain bonuses to your mini sub and your gear. However, there are enough items scattered about and the upgrades really are not necessary, just makes some things a lot easier. Under the Waves is a beautiful heartbreaking narrative story. It is not really a game as it is more of a simulation of stepping into the shoes of an underwater diver and trying to deal with a tragic family event. It does that while bringing awareness to a cause I'm sure we would all agree is sad. It does a great job by not prolonging the game with slogged out survival mechanics but trying to simply let you immerse yourself into the deep blue sea. Positives Beautiful detailed underwater world Story, writing, voice acting, music Exploration is awesome Choice to NOT gamify the experience Environmental information not forced into the narrative Negatives Choice at the end Barebone settings, KB controls excluded No true ultrawide 21:9 setting

Nov. 2024

I have no idea what the mixed reviews are about. This is a little gem. A beautiful game with a well written story about drifting apart in a breathtaking underwater environment. The sound design is absolutely amazing. The visuals are great! The sense of being underwater is spot on. Played the whole thing on a Steamdeck OLED. 10/10 definitely recommended.

Sept. 2024

It's a very nice and heartfelt title but bear in mind that this is mainly a *NARRATIVE* game beyond anything else, the survival and exploration elements being extras. It's immersive and has gorgeous visuals but is (very) slow paced, to the point where I'd argue it's essentially on rails, even if you have the freedom to swim in apparently whatever direction. After having finished it I'd recommend just following the prompts and not deviate too far from the path to enjoy the story and not waste too much time gathering stuff that is ultimately useless.

May 2024

What a nice change from running around killing people. Playing at 3440 x 1440 on Ultra,looks great plays smooth. Highly recommend for a nice chill out gaming experience.

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Last Updates

Steam data	07 April 2025 08:17
SteamSpy data	12 April 2025 04:46
Steam price	15 April 2025 04:48
Steam reviews	14 April 2025 20:09

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Under The Waves, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Under The Waves
SteamCharts - Analysis of Under The Waves concurrent players on Steam
ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Under The Waves compatibility