Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut

Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut is a very personal and beautiful narrative adventure that deals with some topics in an interesting way. Although it may not connect with everyone, it will surely appeal to players looking for a different proposal.

Despite the lack of subtlety, Sea of Solitude is largely successful in bringing its positive affirmative message to a colorful world. The events that play out are often powerfully voice acted and complemented with incredible art. It wears its influences on its sleeve and is profoundly direct with its, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even though the gameplay is flawed with clumsy and inaccurate platforming, it’s not enough to capsize a strong overall presentation.

This beautiful adventure lands on Switch with some adjustments, while keeping all the good and bad things of the original.

From a storytelling standpoint, there are few games that have affected me as much as this did. The themes explored are heavy but the game has a nice balance of optimism and dread. Music is used perfectly to elevate the emotional impact of the game. Where it falls short however is its gameplay. It's basic, but slightly sluggish controls and frame drops make it a bit of a mixed bag from a gameplay perspective.

Despite a somewhat lacking narrative and a fairly short length – we saw the (beautiful) credits in less than four hours – Sea of Solitude is fun to play while it lasts. It looks superb and there's plenty of variety in the locales even in its brief running time. Sadly, though, it's not a standout – it wasn't on its original release and it still isn't here on the Switch. It's no walking simulator, but in trying to marry its story with somewhat rudimentary platforming gameplay, neither are entirely satisfactory. Of course, your mileage may vary in what the various heavier themes mean to you, but we found them pretty leaden and uninteresting takes on what are admittedly quite universal issues.