Water You Doing? Review (PC)

Say what you will about trends. Clearly, bone-headed multiplayer games are becoming increasingly popular across consoles and PC. Take Water You Doing? as an example—a game that, like RV There Yet? or How to Fish, proudly wears its stupidity on its sleeve like a badge of honor and embraces the idiotic notion that, if you can give an inanimate object the middle finger and smoke a cigarette simultaneously, then you can more than likely spend dozens of hours in the same place, preaching the same ludicrous mantras and swigging gallons of whiskey from a hip flask with the same incompetent friends. It isn’t a concept that will single-handedly rewrite the book. It is, however, a concept that, against all odds, has the power to make you smile from ear to ear.

I almost wish that I wasn’t as easy to persuade as the average die-hard gamer. But the truth is, I have a soft spot for games like Water You Doing? Given that it’s a game that you can quite easily slip into with relatively low expectations and still find something to chuckle about, I can’t help but feel oddly drawn to it. At no point did I expect it to wow me or give me anything to write home about. In truth, I saw a hip flask, a sinking boat, and a chance to make a splash with a friend — and that was enough to bring me aboard for a while. It was never going to be a masterpiece. Heck, I was just happy to watch the antics unfold from the starboard.

Water You Doing? is a game that entertains an idea, but quickly loses sight of it in favor of an open-ended sandbox experience. Oh, you have a predicament on your hands—a sinking boat, no less—but you also have a world that is bursting with random opportunities and things for you to shake your clenched fist at. To fix the boat and patch the leaks is one thing, but to lean into your inner idiotic thoughts is the fuel that ferries this boat to the port — wherever that is. And I suppose that’s what this game is: an act of spontaneity that has an endgame in mind, but couldn’t care less whether you find it or not. It’s the journey that matters most here, apparently.

As I said, there is a purpose to this journey: the boat that you desperately rely upon to ferry you and your teammates through the tides is a piece of garbage, and therefore it’s your job to ensure that it remains afloat as you navigate the open waters, explore the local fauna, and fish for a chance to earn a quick paycheck and unlock better modules for your vessel. Harpoons, for example, can help you tackle rougher conditions and pull you further along the current. There’s a goal that you’re also looking to achieve, too. Odds are, though, that you’ll never make it off the dock. Again, blame RV There Yet? for setting the trend. Either that or, you know, physics.

If you’re expecting a tight ship with competent crew members who know how to respond to bad situations, then you might want to cast your hook elsewhere. Like How to Fish, most of what you see here is supported by a boatload of dumb luck and bad advice. As a team, it falls to each of you to manipulate the tides, repair the damages, and navigate the storms, all whilst being under the influence of alcohol, disastrous weather, and friends who think they know how to steer a ship, when in reality they haven’t the slightest clue how to hoist the flag or inflate their own armbands. But that’s your burden to bear in Water You Doing? Nobody has the faintest idea what they’re doing, but you just sort of roll with the punches and celebrate the victories, no matter how small they are.

If you’ve played through RV There Yet? and, by some random miracle, still happen to have most of your hairs on your scalp, then you’ll probably know that success doesn’t come without legwork and headaches. As physics is your one true enemy in this whirlpool of lunacy, you can expect a lot of problematic behavior here. Things can break at the touch of a button, folks can go overboard with as little as a gust of wind, and the world can beat you to a pulp if you forget to follow the instructions. But of course, that’s all part of the “experience.” It isn’t glamorous, and it definitely isn’t the epitome of professionalism. It’s a pantomime in motion, and you are the loyal caricature who’s pulling the strings and capsizing the boat.

While Water You Doing? doesn’t reinvent the wheel with its physics-based system or multiplayer-based tomfoolery, it does lean into the usual trappings with a few of its own curveballs, to boot. With an open sea of creative possibilities, vast swathes of obstacles and multiple boat upgrades to knuckle in on, there is a good deal for you to carve through here. Will it always go according to plan? Absolutely not — but again, it’s the journey that matters, as well as the brief spells of joy that you find in the world. If all hell breaks loose, then you can simply take a swig from your hip flask, cast your fishing rod, and push your shipmate over the edge. Truth be told, I spent more time doing that than anything else.

If you can embrace Water You Doing? like you would a ravenous storm in a rubber dinghy — without a clue what it is that you’re doing or where it is that you’re going — then you will probably enjoy wading through the ripples of this nautical landscape. With friends, it’s a lot of fun to slip into. Amazing? No — but stupidly entertaining, nonetheless. And I think that is what’s most important here. It might not be an excellent game that redefines the rules of a co-op game, but it is a pleasantly flavorful one that gives you plenty of bang for your buck.

With all of the above said, there is a bit of a dark cloud that hangs over Water You Doing? — and that’s its technical issues. See, while the game is comical in its own unique sort of way, it does have quite a few teething problems in its current state. Lagging aside, the game also has a rather bad habit of falling apart quite frequently, typically during checkpoints. In any other situation, you would laugh about it. After several hiccups, however, it can begin to grate and dampen the mood ever so slightly. Nevertheless, as we’re still in the treading water phase, I’d like to imagine that DiSolve Studios will patch up these loose components sooner rather than later. Here’s hoping, anyway.

Verdict

Water You Doing? blazes a similar trail as RV There Yet?, with an absolutely bonkers physics-based co-op experience that is as equally chaotic as it is hilarious. Even though it doesn’t reinvent the wheel or steal the thunder from its trail-blazing kin, it does emulate all of the trimmings that make an absurdly entertaining multiplayer game worth playing. I suppose, when all’s said and done, it proves a point. Sometimes, a fishing rod, a hip flask of questionable juju, and the power of free will can collectively provide a sufficient amount of content to satisfy your wildest desires.