Why no underwater combat sims? Thread

So, yeah, this question has been bugging me for quite a while.

Quite a few space combat sims have came into development in recent years - Star Citizen, Elite - Dangerous, to name the most known ones. But there are pretty much none underwater combat sims. I don't mean games like Silent Hunter, but something like Freelancer in the ocean. I mean, think of the possibilities: from laying with your ship on the ocean floor to evade detection by enemy sonars to bailing your damaged vessel in a scuba suit and stabbing attacker sub's cabin with a knife to show you aren't f***ing around. Sounds like good times to me.

While I know there are a few games that have this setting, pretty much all of them are really old. I remember having a lot of fun with mobile game "Deep", although this was back in a day when having a phone with an MP3 player was considered innovative.

So, yeah. What gives?

Could be because it's less interesting in water vs space. Everything you could do in water for gameplay you could do in space and avoid a lot of the "water will crush you at this depth" physics stuff.

Uhh, there was a rather obscure but really good strategy game about combat exclusively deep on the ocean's bed.

I wouldn't say that space is always more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love myself some space shooting, it's one of my favorite genres. God knows how many times I helped GTVA Colossus tear SJ Sathanas apart. But I wouldn't say that space is superior choice in every way for a simulator.
For one, space isn't exactly the most...lively, varied place. 99.9% precent of it is just empty space. Sure, you can find something awesome looking, and the background is quite good, but for most of the time, there is f*** all around. And the scale is so huge it kinda loses it's meaning. Of course, it's part of the charm, after all, flying among the stars isn't exactly the same as trekking to the nearest store. But when distances are so vast, you are kinda forced to use some sort of hyperdrive, the space equivalent of Skyrim/Fallout's "Can't be arsed" Fast Travel system. This kinda turns the game universe into a collection of arenas/important areas rather than a seamless world. I'm sure there are games that don't have these problems, but still..
I'm not saying that underwater sim would be a lot better, I just think it's weird that this niche is pretty much unexplored. The water pressure could actually give some depth (heh) to the game (go up for better maneuverability and speed, or deeper to hide from stuff). Also, underwater world could have a lot of interesting crap in it to explore, like reefs, underwater caves, wreckage at the seabed, beautiful, creepy, even dangerous sea life, maybe even entire sunken cities.
It just feels like a wasted potential to me.

Reborn:X, what is the name of that game you mentioned?

I know this is cheesy as hell (and I'm awfully sorry about that) but maybe you want to have a look at our game.

Indiedb.com

Don't know if this is what you had in mind because it's far from being a simulator but it is combat and underwater.

TheHappyFriar wrote: Could be because it's less interesting in water vs space. Everything you could do in water for gameplay you could do in space and avoid a lot of the "water will crush you at this depth" physics stuff.

Identical mechanics can be used in space. Gravitational fields, radiation, flares, dust clouds. I think he has some weird presumptions about what the sea floor usually looks like due to news footage and documentaries painting either discoverous or brilliantly gorgeous and lively pictures. Most of the sea floor looks nothing like those representations, and like most of space, just induce vast tracts of boredom.

Edited by: somonels

Well, I guess it's more of a question of taste than anything else. I mean, yeah, a lot of those mechanics could be used in space games (at least to some extent), but the feel would be completely different. If you'd take BioShock, and change it's setting to space, you'd get....well, System Shock. Those two games share a lot of similarities in mechanics, but have completely different feel to them. So I wouldn't say that argument "space game can have that too" is a really strong one here.

Oh, and yeah, I'm perfectly aware that seabed isn't exactly littered with Atlantises and singing crabs. It can have some messed up looking fish, though.

Oh well, I guess there aren't that many people who would like such a game for the gaming industry to consider making it, especially in these times.