A Tale of Silent Depths

Genuinely immersive underwater exploration

A Tale of Silent Depths earns its Mostly Positive rating first through real enthusiasm for its exploration. "The immersion in this game is really, really good. There's something about exploring this huge underwater world that just pulls you in. I legit kept saying 'okay, one more area' and then suddenly an hour had passed," reads one detailed review. A separate reviewer describes a similar pull: "Did not expect to get this sucked in. You're captaining a sub in a dead ocean and every dive feels tense in the best way." A third adds: "It's peak indie game dev!" This review treats that praise as fair: reviewers repeatedly describing losing track of time in a procedurally generated setting is a genuine signal that the exploration loop, at least, is working as intended.

Tactical combat compared favourably to X-COM

Beyond exploration, this review found reviewers specifically praising the turn-based combat against genre landmarks. "This game brought back nostalgic memories for me! It reminds me of the time I played X-Com UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep! Wonderful games! ... The turn-based combat system is wonderful," reads one detailed review. A separate reviewer echoes the sentiment from a different angle: "Combat actually makes you think, no two runs play the same." This review treats that comparison as fair and meaningful: reviewers reaching for specific, well-regarded tactics games rather than vague praise suggests the combat system has real mechanical substance underneath its rough edges.

A distinctive setting from a small studio

This review also found reviewers crediting the game's overall atmosphere and premise as a genuine strength. "Weird in a good way. A little resource management, a little tactical grid based combat, a little cosmic horror. Turns out the bottom of the ocean is cold... Massive game from a small studio," reads one review. A separate reviewer adds: "It delivers a mysterious atmosphere with lots of exploration and some combat sprinkled here and there. The visuals and sound design work really well together." This review treats that praise as fair: a small studio blending resource management, tactics, and cosmic horror into a coherent, atmospheric whole is a real achievement worth crediting on its own terms.

A fair, highest-voted complaint about persistence bugs and an item-duplication exploit

Set against that praise, this review found a fair, detailed, and highest-voted complaint in the entire sample about the game's technical state. "Buggy (annoying not game breaking), poor performance (startup), missing quality of life, empty game world... Settings not persisted... Quests not persisted... Item duplication. In the inventory screen left click and drag an item to the hot bar (but do not release left mouse). Right click while holding left mouse," reads that detailed negative review, which goes on to list several more specific reproduction steps. This review treats that complaint as fair and significant: a review this specific and methodical, describing an exploitable duplication bug alongside basic settings and quest-journal persistence failures, points to real, verifiable technical issues rather than a vague complaint.

A fair, repeated complaint about a sparse, empty world

This review also found more than one independent reviewer describing the game's content as thin, even among otherwise positive reviews. "I explored around for about an hour and couldn't find anything to do other than fight tiny but mighty sea creatures and combat is difficult... The town didn't really look like a town or anything but a gathering of rocks with a statue... For now it feels empty," reads one review, which still offers a tentative recommendation. A separate, more negative reviewer puts it more bluntly: "An incredibly dull game. There is little to nothing to do in this game." This review treats that complaint as fair: even a reviewer who ultimately likes the game's potential independently arrives at "empty" as the defining word for its current content density.

A fair, detailed complaint about a broken early power curve

Beyond content density, this review found a fair, detailed complaint about the game's difficulty balance. "You effectivelly overpowered from the get go, even against open world minibosses, 1 shot enemies drop rare heals that heal more then they do damage in 3 turns. You get drones that can solo any random encounter and you get like 5... Crafting is 100% pointless," reads one detailed negative review. A separate, more positive reviewer notes a milder version of the same imbalance: "Combat can be pretty unfair until you learn what enemies are above your level, but foraging for equipment in the world and being careful makes it easier." This review treats the more detailed complaint as fair: a specific, itemised account of broken power scaling and pointless crafting systems is a real design problem distinct from general difficulty complaints, even if not every reviewer experienced it as severely.

A specific complaint about startup performance and refund difficulty

This review also found a narrower, specific complaint about technical performance and purchase risk. The detailed negative review cited above lists "poor performance (startup)" among its specific bug reports. A separate reviewer who found the game unsatisfying adds a practical warning: "Tried to get my money back; but unfortunately I had gone over the amount of days I could return it in." This review treats these as fair, narrower points: startup performance is a specific, reportable issue, and the refund account is a reasonable caution for prospective buyers weighing an early-post-launch purchase.

Achievement data confirms a promising start with steep later attrition

This review's own check of Steam's global achievement data shows 62.7% of players reaching the game's first named milestone, "Town of Outcasts," before the curve falls away sharply, down to 22.8% for the next achievement and into single digits and below 1% for several of the game's later story and side-content milestones, with a handful of achievements at 0.0%. That steep drop-off corroborates reviewer accounts directly: a solid majority of players engage with the game's promising opening hours, but a much smaller fraction pushes through to its later content, consistent with reviewer complaints about persistence bugs, sparse world content, and a broken difficulty curve discouraging longer play.

Final verdict

A Tale of Silent Depths succeeds as a genuinely atmospheric, distinctive tactical RPG, earning real praise for its immersive procedural ocean and X-COM-inspired combat from a small studio. Its clearest weaknesses are a fair, highest-voted complaint about persistence bugs and an exploitable item-duplication bug, compounded by fair, repeated complaints about a sparse early-game world and a broken power curve that trivialises much of its combat too soon. For fans of exploration-driven tactics games who can tolerate early post-launch rough edges, there's a genuinely promising game underneath; players wanting a polished, well-balanced experience from day one should wait for further patches.