Sink into the depths of Jupiter's sixth moon with a merry band of fools! Read on to find out if Barotrauma gameplay and atmosphere will give you fun on the high seas in our review!

Barotrauma Rating: Review and Score Explanation

Barotrauma Score Explanation

Barotrauma Review: Multiplayer Terror From the Deep

Barotrauma is a great little submarine simulation game that’s in the same vein as the classic game Space Station 13. It’s a wonderful experience with friends or even random people in multiplayer, and somewhat decent in single-player. It’s only held back by its barebones story, bugs, and the need for multiplayer for a full experience.

Relatively cheap, we recommend you buy it if you’re into multiplayer games that depend on social communication, or games with dark themes. Even if you’re not, you can try it out by buying it during a sale on Steam.

Barotrauma Full Game Review

Pros of Barotrauma

Things Barotrauma Got Right
Complex and Thrilling Multiplayer Gameplay Dark and Foreboding Atmosphere High Moddability and Robust Modding Scene Decent Single-Player Campaign and AI

Complex and Thrilling Multiplayer Gameplay

The greatest thing about playing Barotrauma is how fun it can be to play with friends. A man cannot pilot a submarine alone. A captain can steer the ship, but he needs an engineer to maintain the reactor and electronics, a mechanic to maintain the machines, a security officer to man the guns and keep order, a medic to look after the wounded, and multiple assistants to do random work on the ship.

Now put random people into these roles, give them access to firearms and explosives, and try to maintain any sort of cohesion. You probably can’t, but any captain worth his salt will figure out a way to put his crew to heel somehow. If not, then the submarine sinks into the bottom of the abyss.

In between all this, however, you can experience so many stories just by playing with other people. In my case, I was mostly the faithful mechanic who did his job without fail. However, I’ve been asked multiple times by other players to join a mutiny against the captain, or lock an overzealous security officer out of the airlock until their oxygen runs out.

Sometimes, I’d be a security officer who searches suspicious crew members while planting stolen opium on them. Other times, a doctor who nonchalantly injects zombie parasites into his patients, only to laugh maniacally as the infection spreads throughout the sub. I haven’t even talked about ‘Traitor Mode’ yet; this is just regular gameplay. In Traitor Mode, you will have somebody who will try to mess up the ship, and you will have to depend on your people skills to survive.

Whether you’re a casual player or a serious role-player, Barotrauma has a lot in store for those playing on the internet with friends.

Dark and Foreboding Atmosphere

The waters of Europa are a dark and foreboding place, where you can never see more than a few feet ahead of you and many monsters await in the shadows. From the fast Crawlers that roam the seas in packs, to the hulking Molochs, to the insanity-driving Watchers, you will never be safe outside your sub.

But even inside your sub, there is barely any respite. You will hear the darkness creeping through the walls, or the sounds of the sonar ringing through an endless void. There’s little reason to trust your crewmates, who all have the means to kill you as fast as possible. That’s if the monsters haven’t made it into the submarine first.

Whenever you reach a dock, you will feel cramped with its short hallways and endless ladders. Such is the reality of living under the sea to avoid Jovian radiation. All the while, grungy industrial music composed of bangs on metallic surfaces and sonar sounds play in the background.

Even though Barotrauma is a 2D game, it does its best to be as immersive as possible, with screen effects, directional sound, and status ailments affecting gameplay and your perception of reality. I thought a fire had broken out in our engine room, so I grabbed a fire extinguisher and began spraying it until the rest of my crewmates restrained me. Turns out, I had psychosis. 10/10, very immersive.

High Moddability and Robust Modding Scene

After a while, you might get bored of seeing the same submarines or wrecks or ports or monsters, or even player avatars. That’s where the mods come in. Ever since Barotrauma added Steam Workshop compatibility, you can access hundreds of mods made by the game’s dedicated fanbase.

These range from new submarines to campaign and port overhauls to campaign difficulty overhauls that make the game system more complex. There are even mods to make all your crew members into anime girls (which, of course, I downloaded without any hesitation whatsoever), mods that make it harder to treat wounded crewmates, and modded ships taken straight out of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This is because the game had been in early access for a long time, giving its community time to develop a modding scene that’s still going strong as of this writing. Barotrauma has a ton of both western and Chinese modders (most of whom are kind enough to translate their mods into English, so you can definitely extend your playtime with free content.

Decent Single-Player Campaign and AI

Most multiplayer-focused games don’t really give you a chance to play a decent match with AI and even eschew the single-player aspect entirely. The point of multiplayer games, after all, is to play them with friends. But surprisingly enough, Barotrauma has decent single-player AI. They can fix your leaks, reload your guns, put away random items on the floor, heal your wounds, and attack your enemies.

That’s why it’s viable to play through a whole campaign with just an AI team, especially if you’re not up to playing with friends. Bots are useful even in multiplayer, as I’ve seen many subs where captains leave menial labor to the bots while the rest of their crews engage in shenanigans.

Cons of Barotrauma

Things That Barotrauma Can Improve
Barebones Story Can Lead to Boring Single Player Campaign Gameplay Can Get Repetitive Full Release Version Prone to Bugs

Barebones Story Can Lead to Somewhat Boring Single Player Campaign

The story of Barotrauma is that you and your crew are going into the depths of Europa to see what’s causing the radiation to spread from the surface of Europa to its very core. I don’t want to spoil it, but you’ll have to work to get the ending. It’s a decent-enough ending, though I would’ve preferred it if there were other endings.

Because there are four major factions on Europa (the Europa Coalition, the Jovian Separatists, the Church of the Husk, and the Children of the Honkmother) it would’ve been nice to have seen an ending related to the factions as well.

Plus, there’s not that much immersion in the world aside from the occasional corrupt Coalition Navy officer who will try to demand bribes from you, or the outpost director that will try to have you break a miner’s strike.

In short, more endings could do Barotrauma some good. The boss fight at the end was very difficult, making it rather satisfying to finally finish it. Hopefully, with the game having been released, we’ll see more endings in the future.

Gameplay Can Get Repetitive

Though to be fair, gameplay will be repetitive if you play the same class over and over again. More so in single-player, where you won’t be playing along with other players who might end up doing some kooky stuff.

You’ll have to learn how to play each class decently, so that’s some motivation to switch character classes. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one class, or else you’ll get bored quickly.

Full Release Version Prone to Bugs

Even after being in early access and having a full release, Barotrauma still isn’t 100 percent free of bugs. Sometimes, supplies won’t get delivered after you buy them from an outpost, pinned parts of a UI while using a machine will disappear, and sometimes people just won’t be able to connect to matches because of a P2P error.

Though most games have bugs, they still detract from the overall experience.

Barotrauma Story Plot

Humanity has spread to the stars, making it as far as the 6th moon of Jupiter, Europa. Though covered in ice, the moon has large swathes of ocean under the surface that is home to many examples of endemic underwater life. This is why humans have colonized the moon, creating outposts underwater to escape Jupiter’s harsh radiation, and submarines that would facilitate trade between these outposts.

Eventually, humans lost contact with old Earth, and the Europa Coalition rose to rule Europa amid the chaos with an iron fist. In response, the Jovian Separatists began arming themselves to undermine the Coalition and push for a more democratic Europa. On the sidelines, the Church of the Husk continues its research into using the dreaded ‘Husk’ parasite as the next step in human evolution, while a group of clowns heed the call of the bikehorn and cause chaos in the name of the Honkmother.

In the middle of all this is you, a crewmember of one of Europa’s many submarines. Be a captain, a security officer, a mechanic, an engineer, a medical doctor, or a dowdy assistant; doing your job will help make sure your submarine does not sink to the depths of the ocean. Though it doesn’t mean that your submarine won’t sink, as you’ll have to trust other players to do their jobs on the submarine properly as well...

And that’s where the fun starts.

Barotrauma is a 2D single and multiplayer submarine simulation game by independent developer Undertow Games in collaboration with FakeFish Games. Though it has been under early access since 2019, the game finally had a proper release in March 2023 on Steam for PC.

Work with your crew and survive... or sabotage them at every turn. It’s up to you.

Who Should Play Barotrauma?

Barotrauma is Recommended if You Enjoy:

• Space Station 13
• Among Us
• Sea of Thieves

Barotrauma was directly inspired by the classic multiplayer game Space Station 13, so it’s no surprise that those who liked that game will find a good time playing Barotrauma.

Those who play the multiplayer murder mystery Among Us will also feel at home since they will have to co-exist with other players who may or may not want to set them on fire.

If you want to be more cooperative with your teammates instead of antagonistic, then those playing Sea of Thieves will find the same spirit of cooperation in Barotrauma. You’ll need to work together to man the guns, maintain the sub, and steer the vessel to its ultimate destination, or else you’ll sink.

Is Barotrauma Worth It?

Great for Submariners Who Like Playing With Friends

At 35 dollars, I would say Barotrauma is a pretty solid buy for people who love fooling around with their friends or random strangers while avoiding death and those who want to do serious roleplay.

If you’re in it for the single-player experience, we recommend buying the game during a sale instead.

How Barotrauma Matches Up to Recently-Released Games

Games That Came Out Recently	Pros	Cons
Demonologist	Both are co-op multiplayer games where you’ll have to work with your team to complete an objective. Though Barotrauma lets you play with more people, whereas Demonologist has four players in a game (like Phasmophobia).	Judging by the gameplay and familiarity with Phasmophobia, Demonologist may be more accessible compared to Barotrauma.
Smalland: Survive the Wilds	Smalland is an open-world resource-gathering game, while Barotrauma has more emphasis on a closed space and being with people in that closed space.	Aside from 3D graphics, other players might like Smalland’s brighter atmosphere better compared to Barotrauma’s dark and dingy feel.

How Barotrauma Matches Up to Similar Games

Games Similar to Barotrauma	Pros	Cons
Space Station 13	Both Space Station 13 and Barotrauma are more or less the same game, though SS13 is more complex while Barotrauma is more accessible.	Veterans of SS13 might want to keep playing that game, as it allows for more complex gameplay like item editing (a feature Barotrauma doesn’t have yet).
Among Us	Among Us and Barotrauma both make you feel anxiety and paranoia whenever you’re with other players you can’t trust too much.	Among Us is way more accessible than Barotrauma.
Sea of Thieves	Barotrauma and Sea of Thieves may take place in a submarine and a ship respectively, but both games will make you cooperate with other players to achieve your goals and avoid sinking to the depths of the ocean.	Just like Among Us, Sea of Thieves would be easier to pick up than Barotrauma, and it has full 3D graphics.

Barotrauma Trailer

Game8 Reviews

Barotrauma Product Information

Title	BAROTRAUMA
Release Date	March 13, 2023
Developer	Undertow Games, FakeFish Games
Supported Platforms	PC
Genre	Simulation
Number of Players	1-16
ESRB Rating	Not Available
Official Website	https://barotraumagame.com/

Michael Mendoza Ab..

Reviews video games by day, tries to write novels by night. He's a sucker for open-world games (Bethesda Fallout titles, Mount and Blade Bannerlord, Grand Theft Auto), CRPGs (Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium), and First-Person Shooters (Call of Duty, Battlefield, and immersive sims like Bioshock..