Barotrauma

This is a good one, requires at least 2-3 people organized ahead of time.

Definitely one of my favorite games.

 

You need at least a small group for it. (I recommend 3 people as bare minimum)

 

I can mostly comment on the campaign part of the game, since that is what I had played.

You can play the game with friends or solo, and both has their good and bad parts.

 

Let's get solo out of the way. Here, you'll have bots as your crew that manage the systems for you, and maintain the submarine. You can give them orders what to do, and they will try their best to complete it. At the time of this review, AI is quite good as long as bots are inside the submarine. Fixing leaks, broken devices; using turrets, reloading weapons, cleaning up items from the floor and even healing crew can be done by bots quite efficiently. Recharging electrical equipment and oxygen tanks is weirder, since they will take the batteries and O2 tanks to the refilling place, they won't put it back into the item they took it from, and that can be a problem during an emergency.

And you will have a lot of emergencies, in which, bots do not excel. Once an enemy gets into the sub, the bots can quite easily shoot at each other.
You also have a lot of missions outside of the submarine, and there, bots are either dead weight, or straight up worse than the enemy. (Have been shot in the back many times)

I need to note that a bot can only queue up 3 orders at max, and keep doing that 3 orders as long as they can, which means, you either have to constantly reorder stuff, or have many-many bots so you can queue up more commands and forget about it.

 

Multiplayer is the complete opposite, since your actions are not limited by orders, one player can easily do the work of 3 bots. A lot easier to have missions outside the sub, since they can all make their own calls, so you only get shot in the back if they so wish to.
The downside is, unlike bots, players don't magically know which item needs repair, so they constantly need to check.

 

So bots are great to maintain the sub, while players are better at emergencies and outside missions.

 

The game comes with a large enemy and submarine variation already. (and is being updated constantly)

But you can also build your own ships and characters. Which, the modding community hopped on quite hard. So if the base game doesn't satisfy, there are a lot of mods already to choose from.

 

Missions can become a bit boring, since there are only so few of them, but since you don't know what lurks in that wreck or alien ruin, you don't know what you can get. (sometimes you encounter no enemies, and sometimes, a virus kills anyone on board and even takes over your sub)

 

UI and movement are a bit wonky, but once you get used to them, it fits the game quite well.

 

The theme of the game is really good also, but what adds more flavor to it, is the bonus content you can buy.
The developers made magazines from the game universe, and it can show you what a common person's life is on Europa (Jupiter's watery moon, where the game takes place).

All in all, great game to play with friend, but a gigantic time eater. (200 hours, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface of the game)

Great from all sides, must play with friends. I wish I had any