Sub-Verge Review – The Underwater Narrative Game That Makes Every Dialogue Choice Deeply Personal
Sub-Verge is a story-rich underwater puzzle game where dialogue drives direction and drama shapes decisions. Choose your faction and lead divers through deep, emotional, moral dilemmas.
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Game: Sub-Verge
Studio: Interactive Tragedy, Limited
Publisher: Pantaloon (first published game)
Platforms: Steam
Completion Time: 2 hours for 2 endings.
Price: $6.99
Genre: Story Rich, Puzzle, Atmospheric
✅ Steam Deck Verified (awaiting approval but confirmed by steam account)
Sub-Verge is a story-rich narrative puzzle game where you let the conversations get deep. If you love narrative games with drama then Sub-Verge will be your next obsession. Lets DIVE (sorry) in.
Story | Factions & Foundations
I wanted to shout out Pantaloon, the publisher who provided the key for Sub-Verge, developed by the studio Interactive Tragedy, Limited. It’s their first published game, and I wanted to wish them luck on this journey into video game publishing. This is a great start to what I think will be a strong publishing studio. The itch.io page has three transmissions—essentially dev blogs—with lots of insights about the studio's origin and development, which is what made me want to review the game in the first place.
Okay, let’s get into the story.
The game begins with you choosing between two unique groups: the rough and rugged Below, or the classy and sophisticated Surfacers. These two groups are completely different in their lifestyles but united in their mission. You’re then sent into the ocean in a solo-manned ship. As you descend, the lights from your ship alert a renegade diver. They inform you that the lights must be turned off so as not to attract the Krake, a beast patrolling the waters and ready to kill anything it sees. You pull out the handle where the light emerges, grab on, and begin to push it back toward the surface, where you came from. As you do, you encounter a second diver who introduces the main premise and mechanics of the game—which is a great place to transition into the gameplay.
Gameplay | Tactical Dialogue Dynamics
You can see that the ship has eight levers, so more divers eventually join you on the journey. What makes the gameplay so interesting is the constant push and pull of deciding what should happen next. Divers share their reasoning, and with each decision you make, they open up more about themselves or reveal recent horrific events. You’ll need to figure out who should make the next move, understand their personal biases, or consider why someone may want to lead instead of follow. The order in which you choose who grabs onto the ship determines whether you go deeper into the waters or rise back to the surface.
The writing in Sub-Verge stands out, since it's the core of what you do during the short playthrough. Learning about the world, each character's unique take on it, and how they all connect makes for surprising outcomes—and sometimes frustrating results. It makes the narrative experience worth the exhausting back and forth between divers. They put you in a position where you have to remember who wants to go when, and who they tend to follow. You are given a guide on your right that shows a label of each diver and who wants to react when. Full disclosure I played on a easier setting for mostly story so I imagine these are different for the difficult settings.
I played through the game twice to get two different endings, and my only gripe is that many of the early dialogue options are repetitive—so be aware of that going in. Otherwise, it’s a truly engaging experience.
Green-Tinted Aesthetic
I was drawn to Sub-Verge by the green tint used throughout its marketing. One of the things I love about itch.io is how much control creators have over the design of their game pages, and Pantaloon nailed it. The page’s design, color palette, and character art all contribute to a visually appealing game. The aforementioned itch.io page also features behind-the-scenes character sketches. I recommend checking it out to learn more about the character design work.
These portraits are the most detailed visuals and pop up when each character speaks. The ship and its surroundings have a more simplified design, with that same green palette carrying through the whole experience.
Immersive Audio Atmosphere
The soundtrack is ambient and fully immerses you in the underwater setting. There isn’t a huge range of tracks, so I don’t have a standout song to mention, but the audio does a great job supporting the dystopian sci-fi underwater atmosphere.
Final Thoughts & Future
Sub-Verge is a promising start for a new indie game studio, and they appear to be in great hands with Pantaloon Publishing. The marketing has been strong—I’ve seen it all over my socials—and I’m especially looking forward to upcoming events in May like Fellow Traveller’s LudoNarraCon 2025. I’ll be sharing many reviews and demos from the event, so subscribe to make sure you don’t miss anything!
Sub-Verge is narrative-driven, and I’m all for it. I enjoyed the banter between divers trying to sway others to their side, giving in to better solutions, or standing their ground and defending their core principles. The character portraits are picturesque and add a nice touch to each character’s profile.
It took me about two hours to play through both factions and get two different endings—and I believe there may be more endings based on the results I experienced. Its Steam Deck playable but the team is just waiting for the badge before adding it to the Steam page and showing the verification.
I’m also excited to take a deeper dive (pun intended) into Subtle Mind, a Sub-Verge. It’s described as a narrative prequel told in 74 pages across eight chapters, and includes exclusive character portraits from the game’s artist, Tiia Reijonen.
Thank you to Pantaloon for the review key on behalf of Interactive Tragedy, Limited.