Free Download - The Deep Down Game

 Deep Down

            Capcom’s PS4-exclusive offering takes knights of yore into randomly-generated dungeons to kill dragons… except it doesn’t because it’s all set in the future somehow.

Into the mouth of hell we march

             For a long time, Capcom rested on its laurels – banking on its old tried-and tested franchises to ensure consistent sales and profit margins. Capcom isn’t Nintendo, though – its IP isn’t as strong or enduring as its Japanese competitor and eventually this reliance on old favourites dried up, landing the company in troubled water. We’re happy to see, then, that Capcom is keen to roll with the punches and adapt – Deep Down, as a concept and a game, looks like something completely new for Capcom, and that excites us.

            On first examination, Deep Down doesn’t seem to promise much. It’s a free-to-play title, and we all know the implications that label carries, but we’d argue the free-to-play model is a better approach to keeping a game monetised than locking out on-disc content and asking for extortionate prices on pathetic DLC (we’re looking at you, Street Fighter X Tekken).  This is Capcom’s first foray into the console-based free-to-play domain, and we’re hoping that the shift away from DLC dependence indicates a self-awareness within the company;  this could be the beginning of the end of ‘horse armour’ DLC.

            Deep Down is a curious chimera of a game – seemingly composed of various strands of other series’ DNA. Taking the multiplayer monster hunting of, well, Monster Hunter, the futuristic time-regression of Assassin’s Creed’s animus, the dungeon-crawling of Dark Souls and the looting of Borderlands wasn’t enough for Deep Down – so Capcom completed its experiment by making the whole thing revolve around procedurally-generated dungeons, too.

            We think the whole game could be a playable tech demo for Capcom’s new Panta Rhei engine – the company’s replacement for the aging MT Framework it’s been using since Dead Rising. Panta Rhei is an old Greek saying, meaning ‘everything flows’, and that’s clearly the design philosophy kept in mind with Deep Down – the game is good looking, blending  fantasy settings with photorealistic visuals; light sources are defined and illuminate the high-resolution  textures sharply and realistically, the particle effects are astounding and the collision detection is smooth and responsive. The Panta Rhei engine was apparently designed parallel to the game, with Capcom working closely with Sony to better understand the PS4’s native power. This shows.

            But that’s all style – the substance is also impressive. We were reminded of a paired-down Dark Souls; combat isn’t particularly inspiring or complicated, it’s all lunges and vague evasive moves, compounded with projectile elemental attacks, time freezing spells and summoned barriers. Movement feels weighted and dangerous – like Dark Souls, you feel like your character really is a knight, the pressure of all that plate armour weighing their limbs down, making timing and choosing where to strike essential. Combat becomes tricky once enemies start building up in number, and this is when you have to consider which spells and skills can be deployed to greatest effect. We imagine this is where the four-player co-op will really come into its own; with a variety of knights, all loaded out with various abilities and weapons, we envisage slow descents into deep dungeons – bastardised MMO raids that’ll suit the play style of this kind of game.

            Deep Down is an experiment, then – an ambitious and tentative step by Capcom into the new generation. We’re keen for more information, particularly on how the futuristic narrative framework of the whole thing comes into play – will different items take you to different kinds of dungeons, for example? We’re also interested in how the monetization of the title will pan out – we feel Capcom have something genuinely interesting here, and we’d hate to see it sullied by a game-wrecking reliance on premium content or level barriers. If nothing else, though, Deep Down is a reassuring example of what Panta Rhei can do – if this is how it functions at the start of the generation, imagine what it’ll look like by the time we’re at Street Fighter VII.

INFORMATION

Details

Format: PlayStation 4

Origin: Japan

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: In-House

Release: 2014

Genre: Dungeon crawler

Players: 1-4

Developer Profile

            Capcom – a developer and publisher that needs no introduction. Responsible for some of the most notable Japanese franchises in gaming history; from Resident Evil to Mega Man, Devil May Cry to Street Fighter, the company has enjoyed consistent popularity and prestige since its inception in 1983.

Developer History

Dead Rising 3 2013 [Xbox One]

Lost Planet 3 2013 [Multi]

Resident Evil 6 2012 [Multi]

High Point

            Among its many titles, we have to say Capcom’s best offering is Ōkami; visually appealing, unique and touching, it was a refreshing platformer produced at a time the genre was stagnating.