Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss Review — The Deep

Thalassa is the name for the Greek personification of the ocean, a sort of avatar of the world’s seas. Thalassophobia, therefore, is what we call the irrational fear of the ocean or deep water, the idea of being trapped beneath the ocean’s deep, dark, unknowable depths. Thalassophobia is also how I continue to misread the title of Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss, a deep sea mystery game that has you unraveling the strange sinking of ship, all the while submerged along with it below the inky blue depths.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss follows faceless protagonist Cam, a deep sea diver who shares his passion with his love, Alex. After a strange accident during a deep sea excavation effort led by the SS Thalassa and her crew, Alex tragically drowns in front of Cam, leading our protagonist into solitude, drinking, and depression. Several months later, the SS Thalassa and her crew mysteriously sink while making a return voyage to the same place where Alex lost her life, prompting our protagonist to investigate how the sinking happened.

While searching for clues about how the crew of the Thalassa met their tragic fate, evidence arises suggesting that this sinking, as well as the death of Alex, may have been part of a greater conspiracy, leading our protagonist and player down an intriguing rabbit hole of sex, lies, and sabotage.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss did not strike me for what it was going in. When the game forces you to watch Alex dramatically drown before your very eyes, you can certainly say that I was surprised. When the game later takes what is suggested to be a supernatural angle, I found myself grinning ear to ear. I knew this was going to be something special.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a mystery-solving game that tasks players with navigating the eerie, claustrophobic setting of a sunken ship. Navigating the tight, collapsed hull of the Thalassa is a harrowing experience. I found myself feeling as though any wrong step could tear a hole in my turn-of-the-century diving suit, and that would be it for me.

There is no running, sliding, quick-time events, or any such mechanics in Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss, besides a few interactable moments. Instead, you are given the freedom to navigate the SS Thalassa more or less as you please, gradually opening up new paths as you discover keys and tools about the ship.

As you explore, you’ll gradually collect evidence in the form of photos, audio recordings, journal entries, signs of sabotage, etc. As you do, little bits of the Thalassa’s story will open up to you in the form of mysteries. These mysteries open up into a web of other mysteries, each one solved by gathering the correct evidence, eventually unraveling the full story of what caused the Thalassa to sink. Often, you’ll collect a piece of evidence that answers a question you won’t be asking until much later down the line.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is definitely a story game; thankfully, the story is excellent. You only become more invested as the various mysteries unfold, with more and more questions revealing themselves as you explore more of the sunken carcass of the Thalassa. The story does an excellent job of walking the line between paranormal and hallucination, never making it too obvious, which is at play as our protagonist descends into madness at the bottom of the sea.

As much as I love Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss and its story and mysteries, I would have to complain about how choppy the game can sometimes feel.

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss chooses to render its cutscenes in real-time, moving you to various areas of the ship and then loading in animations to show you scenes that once played out on the ship. The issue is that the game doesn’t feel incredibly solid with these transitions, often slowing down to a sluggish halt as these scenes load. The developers must have known about this because these scenes have a special loading wheel you don’t see elsewhere.

I began to dread when these scenes would start because I faced a semi-frequent bug where, after witnessing these scenes, I would lose the ability to walk altogether. The only fix is quitting to the menu, and since there is no manual saving, I would often lose progress, at the very least having to rewatch these scenes again.

The game also has an annoying habit of completely removing player control when finding and playing a wax audio recording. As interesting as these character bits are, they are not interesting enough for me to be held completely still for their entire duration. It might not sound like much, but considering these recordings are abundant on the ship, it becomes a significant amount of time spent just standing around when otherwise I could be exploring or navigating the ship, which requires a lot of backtracking and is done at a fixed, below-water walking speed.

Despite these little nitpicks, I’d still consider Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss a fantastic game. The mysteries are fantastic and incredibly engaging, keeping me hooked from beginning to end. I highly recommend Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss to anyone looking for a new, creepy, emotional story, especially if they have a particular fondness (or fear) of the ocean.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is available on Steam.