Barotrauma (video game)

Last updated

Barotrauma
Barotrauma logo.png
Developer(s)
  • Undertow Games
  • FakeFish Games
Publisher(s) Daedalic Entertainment
Director(s) Joonas "Regalis" Rikkonen
Producer(s)
  • Aku Jauhiainen
  • Kimmo Kari
Composer(s) Jussi Elsilä
Engine
Platform(s)
ReleaseMarch 13, 2023
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s)

Barotrauma is a survival-horror role-playing submarine simulator developed by Finnish studio Undertow Games and published by Daedalic Entertainment. Following an early access beta phase that began in 2019, the game was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux in March 2023.

Contents

Barotrauma is a side scrolling game that takes place in the distant future, on a submarine traversing the inhospitable oceans of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. The player is assigned a job on the submarine, and must coexist with other crew members aboard the vessel. Certain game modes may include the role of a traitor, which can increase the level of suspense in the game.

Gameplay

To navigate the ocean in Barotrauma, the crew must make use of sonar imaging. Barotrauma SC 02Navigation.jpg
To navigate the ocean in Barotrauma, the crew must make use of sonar imaging.

Barotrauma largely takes place inside submarines submerged beneath Europa's ocean. At the start of each game, players are assigned a job, which may provide them access to specialized traits and equipment. The submarine's crew are given a mission, which may involve hauling cargo from one outpost to another, hunting hostile undersea wildlife, or recovering alien artifacts. The players are then free to act at their own discretion for the duration of the round, with few, if any, additional objectives provided by the game itself. Stations serve as areas of downtime that offer different services, depending on their type. These stations are common in early biomes, but get rarer the further players get in the game, although new stations can appear in empty areas if a beacon station adjacent is activated.

Barotrauma also contains a faction system, with missions increasing reputation, although sometimes missions will reduce reputation with another faction. The game contains 4 factions in total, with 2 of the factions, the Europa Coalition and the Jovian Separatists, being major factions, and the 2 others, the Children of the Honkmother, and the Church of the Husk, being minor.

The game has a 2D side-view perspective and features a complex simulation of multiple systems within the submarine, including oxygen levels, power, weapons and the crew's health. [1]

Various hazards will frequently jeopardize the submarine's voyage, such as hostile fauna, parasite outbreaks, and player-controlled traitors. Player incompetence can also be a source of disaster, as improperly-maintained ship equipment (such as nuclear reactors or oxygen generators) can quickly render the submarine inoperable. Crisis management is a recurrent theme in moment-to-moment gameplay, as players are implicitly encouraged to use their job skills to both avoid and mitigate disaster.

In the event that the submarine's hull is damaged, water will begin to flood the vessel, which damages submarine structures and significantly impedes player movement; without appropriate equipment, a player trapped in a flooded segment of the sub is liable to suffocate, or in areas with high water pressure, be crushed via barotrauma. As the submarine effectively functions as a lifeline for its crew, an irreparably-damaged vessel often signals the end of a round.

The game provides both single-player and multiplayer modes, which enable players to venture into the vast, unexplored depths of the ocean, taking on various tasks while managing resources, dealing with environmental hazards, and hostile creatures.

The game's core gameplay loop revolves around cooperation among the players to maintain life support systems, repair the submarine, and ward off enemy attacks. To enhance their chances of survival, players can craft equipment and customize their submarines using a complex crafting system.

Roles

In Barotrauma, players can take on various roles aboard the submarine, each with its own set of responsibilities and duties. These roles are necessary to keep the submarine functioning, and to ensure the crew's survival.

The roles available in the game include:

Each role is essential, and players must work together to succeed in their mission. In multiplayer, each player can choose to take on a specific role, allowing for coordinated teamwork and specialization to achieve success. [3]

Development

Lead developer Joonas Rikkonen, who had previously developed SCP – Containment Breach , cited the online role-playing game Space Station 13 as the biggest single source of inspiration for Barotrauma, praising its emergent gameplay and emphasis on human interaction. However, he also critiqued Space Station 13's unintuitive user interface and various technical issues; with Barotrauma, Rikkonen sought to create a game that "built on the foundation of SS13" while "smoothing some of the rougher edges". Rikkonen also drew heavy inspiration from "Pressure", a game concept anonymously posted to 4chan's video games board. [4]

Development on Barotrauma began in 2014, under the working title Subsurface. [4] From 2015 to 2018, pre-alpha builds of Barotrauma were freely released to the public for testing and feedback. Following the 2019 commercial release, future versions of Barotrauma were made exclusive to Steam, and the unsupported free version was retitled Barotrauma Legacy. [5]

In 2017, the source code for Barotrauma was publicly released under a limited license to facilitate the creation of community mods. [6] The source repository continues to be updated in tandem with the commercial release. [7] Barotrauma was Greenlit on Steam in February 2017. [8]

In 2018, Undertow Games partnered with FakeFish Games to jointly develop Barotrauma, turning the solo project into one developed by nearly a dozen individuals. [4] In early 2019, Undertow Games signed Daedalic Entertainment, a German games publisher, to handle Barotrauma's publishing and marketing. [9]

Barotrauma was released onto early access on June 5, 2019, with initial plans for the full release later in the year. The game would remain in early access indefinitely until January 2023, when the full release date was announced as March 13, 2023. [10] [11]

The developers host a public development roadmap on their Trello page. [12]

Reception

Barotrauma was voted "Best Hardcore Game" at Game Connection Europe 2018, where it was also nominated in three other categories. [13]

YearAwarding BodyAwardStatus
2019Games Without BordersBest Survival GameWon [14]
2018Game Connection EuropeBest Hardcore GameWon [14]
2018Game Connection EuropeMost Promising IPNominated [14]
2018Game Connection EuropeBest Console/PC HardcoreNominated [14]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Barotrauma". Barotrauma. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  2. ↑ "Captain". Official Barotrauma Wiki. 2023-01-03. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  3. ↑ "Jobs". Official Barotrauma Wiki. 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  4. 1 2 3 Regalis (March 15, 2019). "WELCOME TO EUROPA: THE HISTORY OF BAROTRAUMA". barotraumagame.com. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Barotrauma Legacy". undertowgames.com. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  6. ↑ Regalis (June 4, 2017). "BAROTRAUMA SOURCE CODE". barotraumagame.com. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ Regalis11. "Regalis11/Barotrauma". github.com . Retrieved June 6, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "Barotrauma | Undertow Games". 19 November 2018. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  9. ↑ Regalis (February 28, 2019). "COLLABORATION WITH DAEDALIC ENTERTAINMENT". barotraumagame.com. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  10. ↑ Fraser Brown (June 5, 2019). "Barotrauma, the 16-player submarine sim, hits Early Access". pcgamer.com . PC Gamer. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  11. ↑ Regalis (2023-02-27). "Barotrauma 1.0 coming on March 13". Steam. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  12. ↑ "Trello". trello.com. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  13. ↑ "GAME CONNECTION EUROPE 2018 DEVELOPMENT AWARDS". game-connection.com. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Press". Barotrauma. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
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