Murky Divers Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Eight scuba divers, one submarine, one shopping cart, countless corpses, and one goal: to remove the dead from the wreckage of a seemingly secretive laboratory. If you’re thinking, ‘what could possibly go wrong in a situation like this?’ Well, a lot, as it turns out. See, if it was a simple extraction job—to dive into the remains of a submerged vessel and gather data, that is—then it wouldn’t be an issue. In Murky Divers, however, even the easiest tasks are a thorn in the side, made even more difficult thanks to seven incompetent colleagues and blind pilots, and, of course, a trove of malicious creatures that look awfully similar to your typical Tim Burton cast.

I have absolutely no issue with extraction shooters. I gel with the concept, especially its simplicity and the fact that it doesn’t keep anything from you. With as little as a dossier, a location, and a collection of tools and upgrades, it sends you packing and asks you to float without a buoy. With that, it doesn’t lean on drawn-out jargon or unnecessary canon fodder; it gets straight to the point and dunks your head below the surface. The objective is clear, and the path forward is parallel with the divide between the Red Sea. You have friends, and you have corpses that, well, need removing.

There’s a pretty easy loop here that doesn’t require a lot of effort to comprehend. As a team, you embark on daring expeditions into the seemingly infinite depths of the deep sea, and, with the aid of various tools, find and extract limbs and corpses. On removal, you earn credits, with which you can use to purchase better tool upgrades—equipment that can increase your skill and ability to locate corpses, naturally—and options that can ultimately elevate your vessel. For example, with enough credits you can harden your defensive gear, expand the reach of your sonar radar, and unlock carts that can transport larger loads of ligaments, and so on and so forth.

As with most survival horror games, Murky Divers comes with a catch: you don’t share the waters with your teammates; you occupy a portion of its space, and the remaining creatures—the PSX-like monsters that are both powerful and nautically capable—take control of the lion’s share. And of course, this brings us to the primary source of the game’s content: the encounters with the creatures, and the death toll that is, annoyingly, all too common.

While you can slug through Murky Divers as a solo diver, I personally wouldn’t recommend it, given that it is, quite simply, a game that it best served as a co-op experience. With there being a lot of ground to cover and a close proximity chat system that can be your only hope for surviving the deep blue, everything that you do here is worth tackling with a tight-knit squad. Alone, it’s dull, tedious, and just a little bit depressing. Unsettling, yes, but also rather lonely and lacking in comic relief. And if there’s one thing that you need with a game that bases its entire existence around the ocean, it’s comic relief and companionship.

Given that you spend most of your time in Murky Divers allocating roles, piloting submarines, and collaborating with others to extract valuable data, it is, and understandably so, a lot easier to complete your objectives with the aid of your companions. From a single-player perspective, it’s a thorn in the side, like juggling nine balls at once without a paddle to keep you afloat. It might provide a good challenge, but it does lose that all-important sense of satisfaction that ties into the act of collaborating. It’s also a lot more entertaining to work through with friends, too, even when said friends are prone to being torn limb from limb in the most ludicrous ways.

Speaking of death and unorthodox climaxes, Murky Divers is just as much of a comedy as it is a horror. With friends, it’s a pantomime—a chaotic volleying process that mostly consists of plugging into the deep dark void and actively searching for secrets whilst under the watchful gaze of a wide host of mysterious creatures. And of course, seeing as you aren’t world class heroes, but a ragtag bunch of inept individuals with basic scuba gear, there isn’t a lot of grace and professionalism to flaunt here. In fact, if you’re not fumbling around in the dark with a shopping cart, then you’re waging make-believe wars with your friends over the most futile decisions.

As I said, Murky Divers is a dish best served with a few extra ingredients. People, or fledgling divers that come in bunches, carry this journey forward. Without the company of a team, ransacking the laboratories can begin to take its toll and feel awfully repetitive. As a group, it hits a little differently. The upgrades are plentiful, the world is vast, and the belly laughs are a frequent feature that you never want to lose sight of.

In spite of its multiplayer-oriented approach, Murky Divers is an absolute blast to delve into, more so given that it provides numerous locations, creatures, and procedurally generated confrontations. It’s still somewhat dated in terms of graphical complexity, but that’s anything if not a footnote for a perfectly serviceable co-op extraction horror.

All in all there is a rather bizarre experience here that checks a lot of the right boxes. Granted, it toes the line alongside a lot of cult classic extraction chapters á la Lethal Company. That being said, it certainly serves its purpose as a humorous, unnerving nautical corridor romper with two fins to stay afloat in what is, in all honesty, a ravenous ocean.

Verdict

Murky Divers brings ashore a highly intoxicating co-op deep sea expedition that scratches all of the right spots. It’s anything if not familiar, yet still as equally bursting at the seams with engaging gameplay and tense encounters as a big-budget multiplayer survival horror flick. Again, it might fall short on strong single-player facets, but as with most games of its kind, it finds comfort in companionship, in collaborative work, and in the pockets of those who enjoy high-octane shenanigans and the occasional belly laugh.