Hidden Deep is an unusual specimen, it's not an indie game, the developer has the backing of a major publisher, Daedalic, but it's also in Early Access (this is an abuse of Early Access as Daedalic has sufficient funds to fully fund the game, so there's no justification for using Early Access for pre-launch funding to complete the project... either you have the money or you don't).

It's a 2D retro pixel-esque adventure platformer (the low quality graphics immediately disqualify this for any serious recommendation). Now the big draw here is an ambitious adventure game/RPG system with a fun retro sci-fi theme, and that's cool, but this Early Access amateur (not indie) project has near AAA pricing for an incomplete game that compares really badly to much deeper, richer games like Skyrim, Fallout, Mass Effect... the list goes on. Amateur developers often live in some kind of weird dream land where they don't have to get real jobs as real game developers but get all the same money, if not more, for shoving out some amateur crap. Ambition does not mean delivery, and it's often nothing more than an unfulfilled promise. And here we are.

One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience.

The game is still being developed, but development is slow enough that the game appears to be headed to Development Hell. While there's still time before the game reaches the developers committed deadline to complete the game, it's only getting very small updates from time to time. There's no reliable indication the game will ever be completed, which is another reason for gamers to avoid this. It's important to remember that only about 25% of Early Access games ever get completed... the vast majority of Early Access games are abandoned and all money taken from gamers is never refunded. Early Access games are a huge risk and in general should be avoided.

The developer produced this train wreck on their own, failing to hire professional staff, allocate sufficient budget, and other resources to the development of this game. This is a lot like trying to drive a car using only your feet. It can be done, perhaps, but it's almost certain to end in disaster. Trying to to the job wrong, without professional resources, on purpose, will not result in a product that has high value for gamers.

On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.

While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

Hidden Deep has the farcical price of $25 USD, for which you could easily get any number of recent AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $25 asking price for this game could get you games like "Prey", "Mass Effect" or "The Witcher 3". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.

So far this has been amazing getting huge vibes of that one multiplayer shooter game from early 00's which name i can't remember but ♥♥♥♥ THAT TIMED MISSION

looking forward to the online coop update :3