Under the Waves review – a glitchy, but captivating underwater expedition

PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, PC
Playing a professional diver maintaining undersea oil pipes may sound like an odd premise for a game, but it's so peaceful down there

Maybe I've played too many video games - 18 years as a games critic makes that likely - but for my first couple of hours manning a sea-floor oil-drilling outpost in Under the Waves I couldn't shake the feeling that some dire supernatural presence was about to appear. Heading out from my life-sustaining module in a manoeuvrable little submersible to check readings and maintain machinery, I was braced for undersea monsters to reveal themselves. But I can promise Under the Waves' horrors are all the human-made kind: climate vandalism, corporate greed, loss, grief. And bugs that kick you right out of the game at crucial moments.

Under the Waves does not run well. Its technical imperfections range from broken map markers, to uneven translation from its native French, to fatal errors that force you to repeat whatever you've done since the last autosave. But I like it despite all of that, because the things it does get right conjure something original and moving.