After being kicked out from Space Rig 17 for drinking too much (I told management that was a bad idea…)
Being jobless was not fun, so I relocated myself to another high-pressure job.
Right around Jupiter’s moon- Europa!
 


In short: Barotrauma is a 2D co-op submarine simulator... quite a horrific one. Fixing leaks, operating machinery, crafting items, staying alert, Barotrauma has it all. If you can handle it.

Descriptively: It’s a horrifying 2D cooperative submarine game, where you (and X amount of misfits) take control of a submarine to drive yourselves into an endless journey…

…while trying to maintain your electronics, machinery, engine, guns, hulls, clear of any hostile entities.

If you are playing multiplayer, you can bring as many people as possible, with certain jobs/roles as:
* Medic – Opium and morphine hoarders with bandages and poison. Also, can make drugs that can revive you. Occasionally.
* Engineer – Submarine Reactor’s daddy. Side job: electrician and being a furry. Don’t let them sleep on wires.
* Mechanic – Jack of smithing, master at craftsmanship. Makes the engine and fabricator go brrrrr.
* Security Officer – Ensures safety of people and hoards his guns in the cabinet, while also avoid getting himself mauled, or backstabbed by his crew members.
* Captain – A hard-ass captain is an indispensable captain. Otherwise, can be replaced, if the captain is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ enough. Tells the submissive submarine where to go and where to hold position.
* Assistants – Disposable. Sometimes, but not always.
Each and every role has a certain mastery on skills, all of those can be maxed for every job, but we’ll get to that later.
Do keep in mind that maintenance of a submarine and awareness is all-time required. Always check on fuel rods, welding fuels, oxygen tanks, ammo, drugs and crew members. If you run out of these, it's over.

Okay, Captain. I’ll go over what certain jobs do, vaguely, but enough to give you slight idea what each job does.

The big brother of the submarine. The captain takes hold of helm (steering the submarine) and commanding its crew.
There can be one captain and only one captain.
They can delegate tasks to a certain crew member and also adjust everyone’s salary. Or hoard the salary to themselves, if they feel greedy enough.

Electrician. You need your Typhoon II submarine to have a functional bottom airlock? The engineer can make it happen. Power grid starts to fail? Call out the engie.
The engineer’s responsibility is to maintain electrical stuff and the reactor. Don’t tell them to put too many fuel rods in the reactor, though.
Some of them could be furries, but who knows. Don’t let them sleep on wires though. Captain won’t be happy.

Maintains the submarine hull and prevents leaks, while having unrestricted access of welding tools and plasma cutters for mining, obviously (if they aren’t taken away by the captain and officer).
They maintain the submarines engine to make sure it goes nyooom and zoomies.
Also, the oxygen generator. You breathe it in a submarine. Maintain it.

Responsible for keeping the submarine safe from threats. Both outside and inside.
Specialty with weaponry, they’ve been shooting threats with turrets since the age of 3.
They can punish and cuff crew members, if they tend to misbehave and attempt to sabotage the submarine.
Note from Carl’s experience: Don’t allow security officers to order 100 decillion detonators- because, Jesus fu----- Christ.

Ensures the scarcest & key resources does not get lost on the submarine: Humans. Crew members. Also, drugs. They can also make drugs. Mmm, trash morphine…
Got a husk infection? Tell a medic, if you can’t, wiggle in-front of them.
Blunt Trauma Force? They’ll tell you to go away, unless it’s really bad.
Hallucinating? Maybe mention you see colors and think the hammerheads are inside the submarine.
They’ll take care of you, as long you care for them.

No specific responsibilities or expertise, hence replaceable/disposable. Intended for newcomers, allowing them to play without giving them an important field to work in. Basically: learn, have fun and don’t try to die horribly.
Their skill tree can be absurdly useful. It’s best to keep them…

Your objectives in Barotrauma is maintaining the submarine, visiting outposts, doing missions for factions. There are multiple mission types, but I’ll make it short and simple.
* Salvage/Recovery
* Destroying another faction submarine
* Elimination (killing entities)
* Mining
* Transport/Shipment
* Activating the beacon.
* Cult-like missions.
Each mission you do and complete, you obtain money (& reputation) to upgrade the submarine and restock.
I will not be going over the reputation on this review, since I have no clear understanding of how it works completely (only 39 hours), however I will note down lore of all factions. None of them are good guys, and only your crew is a misfit of good boys.
* Europa Coalition – Rule resources with an iron fist and power the Europan society. The most prominent faction and de facto government on Europa.
* Jovian Separatists – Rebels against the Europa Coalition. By any means, they will attempt to topple the Coalition authority. With terrorism! :D
* The Church of Husk – Worshippers of Velonaceps calyx (basically, husk parasite) and are hated by everyone. The hosts who are infected with husk do not seek death, but… transcendence… eugh…
* Children of The Honkmother – Funny fu----- that heed the call of the bikehorn. Unorganized lot of entertainers. Don’t let them approach the revolver. If they do, engage with force that’s stronger than the revolver.
 
Too afraid? No problem, architect! Undertow has included the Submarine Editor for you to make submarines.
You can make your own dream submarine, with all the guns, storage, reactors, medical bay, anything! Always remember to wire things too, because you’ll be doing that a lot in a submarine editor as well.
You can also put your submarine design in Workshop for others to show off!
There’s also… obviously... OceanGate’s Titan... (sigh…)


If you love working under pressure, either alone or with friends, while imagining how it feels like to work in a submarine and probably losing your pair of pants, this game is for you!
Though, keep in mind that the store page calls it “submarine simulator,” which means any action in Barotrauma does not reflect real life submarine experience.
I would love to support the game further, but Supporter Pack (soon to obtain) is currently the only way to support this amazingly crafted game. I’ve already managed to lose my two pairs of pants while playing this game, alone and with friends.

All of my adventures with friends can be seen on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] and YouTube (VOD’s channel).
 

Barotrauma Wiki (official)[barotraumagame.com]
Steam Store Page (you are probably here)
Special thanks to PhantomDergwulf for gifting and introducing me to this game. He’s also the one that kept me alive from succumbing myself to death.

Overall: 8.7/10 – Barotrauma makes you feel horrified. Your submarine is small, while the creatures in Europa are so big. You can prove otherwise. You, can prevail from the creatures and factions.