A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
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Positive Messages
a lot
This game is all about teamwork as players have to coordinate and communicate to steer their submarine, address any sudden issues that may arise, and keep each other alive or risk losing it all.
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Positive Role Models
a little
While there's a main campaign, most of the characters you come across are manipulative and only care about themselves. The friends you play the game with could act as "role models" through their ability to work together, but that's entirely outside of anything the game does directly.
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Diverse Representations
very little
The character models are mostly randomly generated, although it's possible to incidentally meet characters of varying skin tones.
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Ease of Play
a little
The game is mechanically rich, implementing many different methods across the roles a player can occupy. But there's quite a bit of information the tutorial fails to properly articulate to the player, leading to many frustrating moments of trial and error.
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Violence & Scariness
some
When things get really bad, bloodshed occurs via players shooting creatures who may invade their submarine – and even other players could get shot in chaotic circ*mstances. The graphics don't make the violence as visceral or upsetting, but violence is still present at this game's core.
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Language
a lot
Curse words of nearly every variety are within the in-game text, including "f—k," "s—t," "bitch," "hell," "bastard," and "damn."
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
some
Players can actively use morphine and a host of other drugs to deal with any broken limbs and various other injuries that may befall them.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Barotrauma is a downloadable single-player/multiplayer survival game currently available for Linux, Mac, and Windows-based PCs. Operating a submarine in the deep, dark depths of one of Jupiter's irradiated moons, Europa, players will work alone (or with others) to collect resources, trade with other outposts, and survive for as long as possible. In this topsy-turvy struggle, players can turn on one another, be infected with deadly parasites, and even be invaded by Europa's many unfriendly creatures. This can lead to bloodshed as players use welding tools and guns to combat these potential menaces, but the game's graphical style takes a little bit of bite out of the visceral nature of the players' actions. There's also a heavy emphasis on teamwork and communication – two crucial components of gameplay that must be utilized to stay ahead of the submarine's maintenance, the general health of all players, and incoming threats. Within the game's campaign (which is largely text-based), cursing occurs in the form of "f—k," "s—t," "bitch," "hell," "bastard," and "damn." It's also possible to use morphine and other drugs to keep players standing if they break their limbs or otherwise are extremely hurt. Lastly, while the game has many mechanics to learn that keep things interesting, much of the information players should know isn't explicitly told to them – which can lead to frustrating bouts of trial and error.
What’s It About?
In BAROTRAUMA, planet Earth has become uninhabitable. Humanity has made its way to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. Even through the moon's radiation and nearly unbearable cold weather, the moon is soon colonized. This allows humans to create outposts where they can engage in trade and slowly rebuild society as it once was on Earth. But Europa already had things living there – and they aren't happy with humans occupying their space. Players will either direct a team or work together as one in order to collect resources, make money, and find a way to survive as long as possible under increasingly impossible conditions. It only takes one small mistake to send your submarine to the depths and lose everything. If you're brave enough, you and your friends can test yourselves and see how strong your chemistry is to be able to decide where to go and what to do.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the many ways teamwork is implemented within video games. As Barotrauma establishes teamwork through chaos and situations falling apart, is this an ideal setting to further establish bonds between players? Or would players do better together under calmer conditions? Why or why not?
As many people have a fear of the sea/ocean and what could possibly lurk within its depths, are games like Barotrauma useful for potentially combating phobias? As video games ultimately keep a comfortable distance between what's real and what isn't, should players seek to lessen the intensity of their fears by facing them "directly" within a video game?
