From the Depths

The best custom ship builders I have ever played, I don't really play the campaign but the sandbox is incredible in my opinion

This game has less of a learning curve and more of a learning cliff, on fire, and covered in bears. In my eyes, a fantastic use of time, a great creative outlet, and just all around a good time. WARNING, this game will take at least 150 hours for you to partially understand most of the weapons and mechanics. After 380 hours I am only somewhat familiar with the game. 10/10-PHD in mechanical engineering not included.

Funny game with emotional Somalia lore, unfortunately still don't get how the weapons work. Doubt I ever will.
Still entertaining 8/10.
Would recommend!

so, games wonderful, but the recent camera update has made the game just assinine, do not buy the game till it gets reverted

I love this game, and have been wanting to get back into it but the new camera system is such a pain in the ass, it feels unplayable.

Pls revert to the old system. 🙏🙏

I've played too long to get used to the new camera/gun controls. I really loved this game but now I just can't seem to adapt to the new system. Please make an option to revert this change. For now maybe I'll just play the old version but miss out on future updates.

one of the greatest game to ever exist, made me buy a proper computer to run it, made me waste over 200 hours of my life. what do i have to show for all this, im sh*t at the game and don't know how to build a plane. best game would highly recommend for those late night discord calls with the homies.

Tutorial 4 broke and flipped the boat, Sorry for not providing more information but it's a bit hard to remember. Also stabilizing the boat is impossible for me no matter what i do.

Very cool, lots of mechanics but very complex, collioso.

The overwhelming complexity may seem daunting at first, but once you learn the basics and then the details From The Depths starts to get really fun and interesting.
It's a rare gem of a game that is just complicated enough for you to freely build any absurd military contraption you want and yet not too complicated that it's boring.
The campaigns' unique playstyle are well crafted to mix both RTS strategy and thrills of individual battles, along with literally hundreds of spectacularly well built craft.

An absolutely fantastic game that deserves way more credit and attention than it does now. If you like it, buy it, add a review, tell your friends, and grow this community so that more people know about it.

This game has a total learning CLIFF before you can start to enjoy it. If you're patient enough to learn it though, it is something special

Pretty complicated game if you don't understand it (I Don't) but it is still fun to build big and powerful ships and vehicles with the very easy to understand and use building system, which allows you to build with all of the deadly weapons from the start. Overall great game, worth the price. I have not mentioned the campaign as i have not played it yet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Somewhat steep learning curve and Surprisingly hard on your graphics card. I've unfortunately had to stop playing because of that exact issue :(

Overall, amazing game!

Camera controls are far too ridiculous. I'm sure like anything given enough time it could flesh itself out and become playable, but over 8 hours of honest try and powering through tutorials it just simply isn't user friendly enough to want to continue playing, I feel i'm fighting with every system and things just are not intuitive.

this game makes me cum dick after i actually make good B O A T me likey advanced cannonen and likey missile me very like good big boat

so i got the game but i try and build a boat no matter what i can't move and i just cant do anything

I have yet to make a vehicle that does not look like a flying fridge and i love it. You feel like you are making crack out of milk and its delicious

very fun game, great to watch what you spent multiple hours making get blown up by something half the cost of your own ship, the only complaint is that the tutorials that are in the game are rather slow and the guy talking in them (no offence voice acting is difficult) can get on my nerves rather quickly

The camera update is horrible.
I would recommend the game but i just cannot fathom changing cameras for the sake of changing it after being out for 10 years and not allowing an option to change it back.

This game mixes vehicle customization with RTS mechanics in a way that tickles my brain in a good way. It even inspired me to look into Aircraft Sciences!

The only downside is the mental struggle of spending 15 hours building a single vessel, constantly sweating over whether it’ll be worth it against similar-tier competitors. Sometimes it performs way beyond expectations, taking down ships with twice the materials, and sometimes it’s a total failure that needs to be put down due to Neter's laws of Nautical Darwinism.

It’s the kind of game that can suck you in for hours just like cocaine. One moment, you’re just testing a design, and the next thing you know, it’s 4 AM, and you’re in for a rough morning after burning out your brain for seven straight hours.

But hey, if my big ship makes other big ships go boom, I’m all in, heheheh.

well i thought it would be fun, it looked cool on youtube, but its too damn complicated. i tried to connect the wireless output thing and no matter what i did, even if they were connected to the mainframe, it didnt connect. I probably COULD try to learn this game, but 2-3 hours in, im still clueless.

Hope you like tutorials lmao, game is great but takes a whole degree to play optimally

damn good game. Campaign could use a bit more work, and I think the controls are a bit obtuse to start, but for $25, if you take like 5 minutes in the settings, it is an amazing game. Still haven't beat neter once.

this game is fun but takes a long time to build boat

I love this game, I really do but, as it stands I can't recommend the game with how the game continues to be updated.

Background

I've played 2,100 hours so far, and I hope I'll play more, but this game really feels like it's stuck in terminal Alpha or development hell, where controls and Core systems are fundamentally changed too frequently.

New and experienced players are both negatively impacted, new players have very few people to teach them when these changes have been made to the game and they continue to blindside us when they are released.

Current Issues

The most recent update has altered the camera controls and how the player's avatar works to the point where I can't comfortably play the game anymore, and it no longer feels intuitive to use.

From my perspective, the changes to the controls cannot be justified this far into the development of the game (From the Depths being fully released out of Early Access quite some time ago) and have negatively impacted the quality of the game overall.

There is no way to revert these changes as far as I'm aware without reverting to an older version of the game, effectively locking me out of future updates unless a future update adds back the older control system and options are made when playing the game to use the old Avatar system.

My Current Recommendations and Opinion

I can't recommend this game as it stands; too much is changed too often. Given that this game is inherently complex to the point of needing to scrawl through the Wiki and Reddit posts to figure things out to even the most basic levels of understanding, It's not wise to invest the time and money into the game while the basics are still in flux and can be changed on a dime and make the game unplayable for you.

Give it a few more years, and check back when the game is a bit more stable on the development side of things.

The engineering in this game is pretty satisfying, however it is also very complex. This wouldn't be a problem but the community seems to like making things harder for new players.

I love the new camera update and anyone who disagrees is a fake fan. Now onto the real part of the review this game is one of those "10,000 hours and im still bad" type of games. This has a steep learning curve and everytime you think youve designed something good its not there will still be issues with it.

Good? Yes.
Should you buy it? Maybe.
Just know going in you're basically going to need to be a NEET, a student, or a retired person to get into the game.
If you're a working adult with 2-3 hours of discretionary time on your hands a day (being generous), this is going to take you close to a week just to get started building your first ship and have it actually work.

-Be me with nearly 90 hours in
-open designer
-learn to build
-join discord to get help and advice
-made many designs, hulls and vehicles
-spend nearly 9 hours in one design, only to go nowhere
-have not played not ONE campaign (yet)

10/10 amazing game, spend 90% my time in designer asking myself why my gun has better aim against its own team than shooting at the enemy. Complicated and very intuitive designing system where one error can make your engine explode. Best vehicle building game out there. Amazing community in there discord, no one is afraid to help.

A Very fun game, but it is very complex, If you don't want to play a hard/ complex game, then don't get this game. If you are fine with that, then go right ahead and get it. overall 8/10 game very good.

This game is the ultimate time sink. At first it seems silly and simple, after all its only a bunch of 1m blocks. Like Minecraft! Oh dear how wrong that initial impression is.
You start with the tutorials, which have certainly gotten better over the years. They are helpful, but leave you wanting more. So you turn to the internet. Reddit is helpful, then you find the thousands of hours of Youtube videos and realize how deep the rabbit hole goes.
After binging about a days worth of online videos, you get back on the game and try to build something. You realize it doesn't work despite doing what you saw in the video. You go back to the video, and see that it was from 2021. Its all outdated. The devs ARE active. This game is receiving constant updates and fixes. It has been getting those fixes constantly for YEARS, and the devs have given no indication of slowing down or stopping. In 2024 alone they introduced two new weapons systems, a ton of new blocks, fixed a bunch of bugs, updated nearly every campaign ship and tank, and changed a handful of game mechanics for the better. Great devs.

Okay, you found a tutorial from 2024, watch it, and jump back in game.
You want to create a small boat. Yay! You spend what feels like days creating the most intricate tool of insurgency war ever devised by a sole rambot. You figure this piece of engineering excellence can take over the world. You jump straight into a campaign run, easy mode of course, lets not too ahead of ourselves. You realize you have no idea how to run a campaign, so you go watch a borderwise video on it. Come back, set up a supply line and make your first boat from earlier. An enemy!
Its a tiny little Deep Water Guard craft. Essentially a little wooden raft with a couple missiles. You obliterate it with ease. See, you were right. This game isn't as hard as people say.
Oh look, another enemy! A duster? Sounds easy. Wait, its a plane. You forgot any AA and your missiles can't turn enough. You Quickly slap on a simple weapon and get a lucky hit. Woah, that was close.
Uh oh, another enemy. He's invading! The audacity!
Its a Wanda? Fairly Odd name. Lets fight, bring it on! Wait, that's a big shell. OH NO! He one shot me? WTF?
You rage quit. Twp days later you come back and start building a battleship, with a Lathrix video playing in the background.

Yeah, this game is great. Huge learning curves and opportunities. I have over 1,100 hours as of this review, and have much to learn. As the great psychedelic frog put it, the game has a learning curve "like a cliff, on fire, and covered in bears." Beware that warning, and the sinkhole that is this game and its numerous overlapping mechanics.
Yes, I absolutely adore and recommend this game to anyone that likes building games of any sort. Embrace the first 5-10 hours of confusion and learning suck. It gets better, then worse, then it becomes like drugs. After a hundred hours or so, you discover decorations and mimics, then time begins to delete itself.

Get this game. It good.

Truly the 20 hours building and 1 hour watching all the flaws in your design be brutally and demoralizingly highlighted experience of all time

100% recommend if you played bad piggies as a kid and loved that shit, and don't mind a 40~ hour long tutorial, the contents of which could easily fill an undergrad course.

But that's not why I'm writing this review. I tend to stop playing games after the review, so I'm writing this review as a desperate and final attempt to stop playing it because I need to catch back up to the real fucking life that I'm rapidly losing as a result of playing this all day.

There is a new camera system that is impressively terrible. Just doing basic things like "How do I move the camera to this unit on the map" is a constant trip to the forums. I am all for changing things for the potential of improvement, but this new system is atrocious.

Edit: Also to the unhelpful snarky developer review - that just straight up isn't true. In either the command mode with ('e') or the map mode with ('m'), left clicking does not change the camera to that location, it simply selects a unit if there happens to be one, or does nothing if there does not. The camera does not change in either case when you leave either map screen, and it certainly does not do the old option of repositioning the camera via the map. Yes, I can warp there - there are many moments in this game that require moving a camera without moving the character to a location.

I've played this game for over 1000 hours. It was 100% worth buying before the camera update. It is now unplayable. I can no longer drive and adjust my camera. This was absolutely an unnecessary change. This is some Mircosoft like crap. Have a great system in place. Change it for no reason. Piss everyone off.

Edit:
Ruggedlegs [developer] Posted: Jan 25 @ 6:26pm
Vehicle key map --> simultaneous mode

I'm not even going to validate that by starting the game and trying it. That was just 1 problem of many with the 4.2 camera downgrade. To save time I'm just going to gesture the entire 4.2 camera downgrade. Unless there is an option to 100% disable the mandatory 4.2 camera downgrade, or you are going to send me a step by step instruction sheet on how to NUKE the 4.2 camera downgrade and restore the greatness that used to exist in From The Depths user controls . Please do not waste my time or yours replying with a used band aid to the problem you created in the first place.

This game takes alot of time to learn and for me it was not very fun but once you get to build your own ships and learn the mechanics everything is great. the tutorials however are not so much, just take the movement one then go to youtube for weapony and floatation and such!

I love this game i truly do but after the camera update i cant stand playing with friends do to it locking on to my friends build cause i clicked left click while trying to use the new weapon control schema. If im by myself it still makes want to bash my skull in simply because im used to the controls being wasd and tab for camera not half my fucking keyboard. If there was a toggle for old camera(not just key binds) I would praise this game but a forced camera change during the holiday season and the camera making me rage harder than League kinda kill it for me.

its the only game like it.highly recommend watching videos on it first. can be very complicated.awesome game though.

The best vehicle builder out there, despite the complexity I actually find the game to be a more enjoyable/user friendly version of the ACF mod for Garry's mod, if you enjoyed that mod at all you'll fall in love with this game.

Don't get scared off by the talk of the learning curve, it is intense but it's fun, you'll be enjoying the game and glad you purchased it long before you understand everything. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of the mechanics with my measly 90 hours but it's been the most fun 90 hours I've but into a single player game in ages.

Does exactly what it says on the tin, FTD is an amazing vehicle builder with tons of depth (pun intended) and character.

Incredibly complex game (and still being updated) but really satisfying to learn, if you have the time and patience.
Over 1700 hours now and I can barely make a functional boat.
11/10

Super complicated, but also super fun.

you either watch a video for 15+ hours or learn how to make a boat float on your own. eitherway it's going to take as long and i'm only half-way through those hours

This game is great, I have had this game since it came out but never dared to play it as it looked to difficult.
A week ago I finally had enough courage to try and just jumped in the campaign mode after looking at a YouTube vid or 2. Made a thing, it got destroyed, made another thing, same. Restarted with the knowledge I gained and then actually was able to beat the first encounter. Since then I've been building all kinds of cool stuff.
I do recommend Gmodism and Borderwise on YouTube. Just to learn the camera controls and how the campaign works.
After that just try stuff.. and if you need help-> discord, very helpful people there!

The game looks really cool and I have been watching videos of it for a long time. I finally got the game and 50 minutes in I still can not make a boat that can sail let alone fight. I don't mind spending time making things like that but the controls just don't make sense and it is really annoying having to correctly orient every block in the game manually. Would it not be easier for the engine pieces to just snap to the correct orientation when placed? Maybe if it was a grid system instead of a free camera it would be easier. Also, the movement being based on camera orientation is annoying as well, why can't space just go up at all times? I like to look down at the blocks to make sure it is aligned properly but when I try to move I go down through the ship instead of forward then I try to hit space to go up but that moves me forward. If I look up suddenly W goes forward and space goes up. I just wanted to build boats and blow things up not learn a system as complicated and with as many quirks as autodesk inventor.

When I was a child, I would play with Lego's and build tanks, battleships, and artillery gun platforms. The building took a long time, but the fun part was the destroying.

This game is a lot like that, you spend a long time building your masterpieces, then you set them to blow each other up and watch the carnage. From the Depths has brought my childhood back in a much more satisfying way. Also there is a campaign if you want to do that.

I feel bad because i use some of the pre-built vehicles, but at the same time i can't be bothered spending hundreds of hours developing extensive crafts. I've still made stuff of my own, and they work well, but yk. Also great game, 10/10 should get haha its really fun. I can't play it to its fullest extent on my laptop since the frames dip pretty often, but for the most part its a really fun strategy game.

Do not get unless your a engineer or enjoy very VERY complicated stuff I've had this game for a year and still can't get into it or build a boat. Which is a bummer because I'm really interested in the destruction system and having AI controlled Vehicles for a battle but just can't get through the massive glass ceiling of just building something. Unless one day it gets a massive Overhaul tutorial or something along those lines I really can't recommend unfortunately Which is a shame because it's such a good/interesting concept just needs to be easier for New Players to access or learn.

I loved this game ... it was my place to go chill and do some crazy things and mess about for fun ....

But upon returning just now to play for a bit .... its been ruined by some horrid control changes ... it feels broken and i dont have the will power to try to understand it.

Real Shame.

i do like the idea of the game but it is way to complex, and also not what i expected, i do recomend if you are up to 2 hours of learning or more, and due to some personel issues i went past the refund window.