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PlayStation Basement #39 - Depth: Sweepstation Vol. 1

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on May 25th, 2019. A few grammatical edits have been made.

Hello, dear readers; it’s time for PlayStation Basement. PlayStation Basement is brought to you every Saturday with a review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Today, let’s submerge!


Since it’s getting time for summer vacations, today I have a game from the oceans off Japan. This is Depth: Sweepstation Vol. 1. This game is basically a music editor where you play as a dolphin swimming through surreal worlds. Each new world, called a Cruise Stage, unlocks new sounds for the Groove Editor. Depth was released in Japan on December 6th, 1996 and in Europe on August 1st, 1998. In Europe, the game was titled either Fluid: Interactive Sound Lab or Sub.




Each of the different cover art variants are all abstract. The Japanese art has some bulbous objects converging in the center with the title text. The two European covers are the same, swirling blue ripples, with different text.



Depth utilizes FMV backgrounds to showcase some really wild locations featuring giant flowers, asteroids in space, coral reefs, and ruined temples for each of the Cruise Stages. There are also some special sequences that occur every so often with seemingly random, unique backdrops of flying computer chips, other dolphins, and floating groups of jellyfish, among other things. The Silent Space (the hub world), the renderings within the Groove Editor, and the main character are the only 3D objects in the game. Groove Editor shows rainbow waves, orbs, and similar things you may see within the PlayStation’s own CD player or in a visualizer in Windows Media Player. The Silent Space is the quiet, real world. The visuals are good in all three realms of surreal spaces, abstract color fields, and the real ocean.


Depth is all about sound, and the designers did a great job. The different worlds all have unique sets of sounds to utilize, and the default compositions are well done. It’s all electronic stuff: trance, house, acid, techno, classic dubstep, and the like. I don’t love all of it, but there’s something for everyone. The player can inject their own sounds while playing the Cruise Stages with synthesizers, chimes, and bells. It’s fun to compose new songs with the vast array of sounds and add these little touches.



As for the actual gameplay, Depth is not challenging or even particularly long. The depth to the gameplay is exploring the ocean of song composition. You don’t need to play each Cruise Stage for long to unlock new sounds, only a few seconds. In a Cruise Stage, the player controls the dolphin in a visualization to the song. How you move the dolphin seems to affect the pitch of the different sound effects that can be added with the face buttons. Each song also has A and B sections to switch between. The Groove Editor lets you select different prerecorded pieces to create a song for a Cruise Stage. Depth plays out as a cycle of Silent Stage to Cruise Stage to Silent Stage to Groove Editor. There are 12 Cruise Stages in all. My partner and I played through the game together creating new compositions for each other. After you make a new song, you play through the level again, adding your own sound effects if you want to, and a path to the next stage appears. Once you have them all, you can go through each in a loop with the short special stages appearing every so often.



Depth: Sweepstation Vol. 1 is a fun experience that swims below the surface of the waters that encircle the islands of traditional video games. There are no bosses, enemies, mazes, inventories, or stores here. Depth is not even a traditional rhythm game like Parappa the Rapper or Dance Dance Revolution. If you are expecting these kinds of things, you probably will not have a good time. Though Depth is a bit of a holdover from the Sega CD era of FMV games, I enjoyed the unique experience diving with the dolphins.

Depth: Sweepstation Vol. 1 receives a Good.


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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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