The art direction and visuals of Death in the Water 2 are astounding. Everything from the seaweed gently swaying in the current, to the player’s own fully-modeled body writhing and twisting in the water to change directions looks great. Turning around in a panic and catching a glimpse of your own flippers is something that resulted in more than one heart attack for this review.

"Everything from the seaweed gently swaying in the current, to the player’s own fully-modeled body writhing and twisting in the water to change directions looks great."

Going even further, the diffused light from the surface dances across coral, rocks, and ruins, the ocean floor pops with color, and the environments you explore during your dives are as complex as they are well-rendered. There are underwater wrecks, the skeletal remains of giant sea creatures, and hulking metal frameworks to explore. Whether you’re floating over brightly-colored coral reefs or navigating dark caves filled with tunnels and aggressive aquatic life, Death in the Water 2 manages to be a visual feast at all times.

Speaking of the aquatic creatures you’ll come across, those are also an achievement. The quality of the models and textures, the way the underwater lighting is set up, or maybe even a combination of both of those things result in creatures that always look real. Aiding that realism is the way these creatures act and react to the player. Every shark, snake, and fish moves exactly as you would expect it to, and there are even some interesting touches to the animal AI that result in things like feeding frenzies if a few sharks catch a whiff of blood from a smaller creature, or come across a carcass on the ocean floor.

These things are fascinating to watch, but you can only spend so much time observing. Eventually you’re going to need to defend yourself, and Death in the Water 2 is as visceral as it is beautiful. The way these animals recoil after being shot with a speargun is wince-inducing. Snakes and eels spasm and whip their bodies away from you, and most sharks turn sharply and re-angle themselves for another attack. Not the Sand Tiger Shark though. That thing is like the Terminator and just eats spears for breakfast, completely unfazed until it has at least 5 metal rods sticking out of its face. Terrifying.

"Death in the Water 2 is as visceral as it is beautiful."

While the visuals and AI are worthy of praise, you also have to give some credit to the game’s sound design. Playing Death in the Water 2 with headphones is as close to diving as you can get while staying dry. The occasional glugs of your air tank, the bubbles being released from treasure chests, and even the sound that is made when the player bumps into the environment all sound very lifelike and believable, as if you were actually submerged in thousands of gallons of water. If every one of these sounds in the game weren’t actually recorded underwater, then it’s not clear how they managed to pull this off.

The gameplay of Death in the Water 2 consists of being dropped in a sizeable, open section of underwater map, exploring the area to look for treasure chests, and then fighting off a wave of mind-controlled sea creatures that are under the thrall of the game’s Big Bad: the Kraken named Death.

Before you have to deal with the stress of underwater fighting, it feels like you’re given ample time to find the treasure chests. But good luck finding them all, and god help if you’re colorblind. These chests are HIDDEN, and blend in so well with the rocks and seaweed around them that they are incredibly easy to miss. Additionally, the mini-map can only point you in the general direction of a chest, so it ends up not being much help as you scan areas from top to bottom without finding anything.

While some chests might seem impossible to locate, you’re going to want to find as many of them as you possibly can. The treasure they contain is very important because you use the currency you gain from it to purchase new weapons, equipment, and upgrades in-between dives. You can get by with the starting speargun for a while, but you’re going to want the shotgun, some grenades, and the explosive pistol before too long.

"Playing Death in the Water 2 with headphones is as close to diving as you can get while staying dry."

Once the time to explore expires, the Kraken emits its call, and you then become the primary target of every aggressive creature nearby. This is where Death in the Water 2 goes from relaxing exploration game to terrifying survival horror in the blink of an eye. Dodging sharks and hearing their jaws snap next to your head is pretty bad, but it’s even worse to be approached by a fast-moving underwater snake that has a thin, difficult-to-target body when it’s still, let alone in motion. The enemy variety and aggression increase every dive, which can become unmanageable if you aren’t unlocking and upgrading weapons. But, as long as you are, Death in the Water 2’s gameplay is solid.

The first few times, at least.

Despite its fantastic presentation, sound, and gameplay concept, it quickly becomes apparent what the limitations of a game made by two people are. Once you’ve completed the first several dives, you’ve essentially done everything in Death in the Water 2. There are new environments each dive, and later on you even fight non-natural creatures like Sirens and Death itself. But nothing in terms of gameplay really changes from the beginning to the end of the game, and there is a noticeable lack of enemy variety. It’s really just the same handful of sharks, a few snakes and eels, and the occasional lionfish to deal with. The Sirens are a rare but welcome addition.

There’s a thin story that’s not all that interesting to follow doing its best to tie things together (although the few voice lines are delivered very convincingly), and figuring out how to best deal with a new creature mid-wave is thrilling, but being presented with the same gameplay 15 times in a row results in an empty feeling by the time you reach the credits. Especially when the final fight with the leviathan is more infuriating than exhilarating.

"Despite its fantastic presentation, sound, and gameplay concept, it quickly becomes apparent what the limitations of a game made by two people are. Once you’ve completed the first several dives, you’ve essentially done everything in Death in the Water 2."

Yes, Death in the Water 2’s experience is stymied by limited gameplay. However, it’s also important to note that Lighthouse Games appears to be iterating on this concept quite a bit. The original Death in the Water is a $2.99 Steam game where you shoot at the same sharks with the same speargun until you die. No Sirens, no interesting environments, and definitely no Kraken. Framed in this context, the jump from the first Death in the Water to its sequel is like going from a web-swinging Flash game to Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It’s the same concept, but it’s been improved and expanded upon so much that it’s a completely different thing.

If Lighthouse Games ever makes a third Death in the Water game, the work they put into this sequel bodes well for the heights, or depths, the series can go to.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Developed by UK-based indie Lighthouse Games’ Studio, Death in the Water 2 is a successor to Death in the Water that was released all the way back in 2019. The original game saw players defeating waves upon waves of Great White sharks using underwater grappling hooks. While a fun game with a Mostly Positive rating on Steam, Death in the Water is an incredibly simple game that seems firmly rooted in the traditions of being a proof-of-concept of sorts.

Its sequel, Death in the Water 2, takes all of these concepts and sets a stage so large that it completely dwarfs the scope of the original game. While it’s still set in underwater and it still sees players fighting off hordes of sharks and what have you – but the many additions that the sequel will be featuring are very meaningful ones that could very well make it one hell of a game.

For starters, the game features a ton of different types of underwater creatures, unlike the first game which featured only one type of shark. There’s the majestic Great White Shark, the spot-finned Black Reef shark, Leopard Eels, Coral Reef Sea Snakes, Dolphins, and even mermaids that look like zombies among many others. Hell, you can even fight a gargantuan three-headed Hydra that spews electric balls at you from afar. All of these creatures are all rendered in exquisite detail with an incredible likeness to their real-life counterparts – barring some fictional ones, of course. This attention to detail only serves to show the dedication of the developer towards this project and is easily one of the strongest aspects of this game.

Additionally, the many sea creatures will also be functionally distinct from one another, presumably having different behavior trees, weak spots, and the like – all of which should help players in crafting efficient strategies to dispatch them with relative ease. The movement of these creatures is governed by a procedural animation cycle, so players may encounter any of these creatures at any moment which should give Death in the Water 2 a horrifying vibe as any number and any type of deadly creatures could be looming in the dark depths of the ocean.

On the topic of horrors in the ocean, the big baddy in Death in the Water 2 is a mind-controlling Kraken. It supposedly monitors your every move, although the developer hasn’t specified what this exactly means. But if I had to take a guess, it seems to be just another fancy set-dressing for Left 4 Dead‘s Director AI – a system that uses a multitude of variables like available ammunition and player performance to aggregate a stress level and then throw enemies and events at the player accordingly. Of course, the Kraken could also be an actual creature in the game considering how many fictional and mythical sea monsters the game already has – so we are not exactly sure.

Defeating the many different types of sea creatures would be no easy feat, and Death in the Water 2 features a sizable assortment of weapons for the job. There’s a trusty knife that can be used for slicing down smaller creatures like fish, a small-barrel pistol for close-range combat, and a long-barreled rifle for taking down bigger game. These are just three of the weapons that can be seen in the multitude of gameplay snippets Lighthouse Studios has been putting out. Granted it’s not the most varied arsenal of weapons in any game, Death in the Water 2 is still being actively developed at the moment – so more weapons could definitely be added in the near future.

In addition to battling the many monsters of the sea, Death in the Water 2 is also putting some focus on exploration. Players are free to explore the game’s map that’s populated with interesting flora and fauna that all react accordingly to the surrounding water. You can also find many different types of sea snakes flailing around the tall grass, which spew venomous acid on you. While exploring the underwater seas, players will also come across sunken ships, industrial structures, and the like – which hide valuable treasure boxes that might contain important resources that could be used to level up or weapons that make light work of these terrifying sea monsters.

On the technical side of things, Death in the Water 2 is currently being developed using the Unity Engine. It’s a popular choice amongst indie developers, and Lighthouse Studios’ choice to go with this engine shows some positive results. While the game is certainly not the best looking by any means, it still looks decent on a purely technical level. The art direction, as mentioned before, is absolutely stunning with a realistic rendering of the water, surface materials, and foliage which can make the game a sight to behold when it starts firing on all cylinders.

The choice to go with Unity also has had a direct result on the development pace of the project. Lighthouse Studios is a two-man development studio, but the game development process is still chugging along at a consistent pace. The developer shares multiple development updates on a regular basis on their social media handles, which has us confident that Death in the Water 2 will end up being a solid project. It’s currently slated for a 2022 release, which we are hoping the game will meet. Death in the Water 2 is currently in development for PC, and there are seemingly no plans to bring the game out on console.

In conclusion, Death in the Water 2 is looking to be a promising sequel that’s building upon the strengths of the original. The underwater setting is looking to be a fantastic backdrop to fighting the many mythical sea creatures that roam in the murky depths of the water. While it’s still a bit restrained in its scope when compared to similar games like say, Subnautica – it’s still punching well above its weight and we are really hoping it turns out to be simply put, one hell of a game.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.