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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