Introduction

This blog post is kind of a follow up to my last blog post 2026-H1 Arts Recommendations in which I say:

“A remake of [Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)] exists, but from what I read and saw, it is basically the same gameplay, except pay to win. I am probably gonna try it, but honestly “Perls of the Deep” is nearly flawless and outside of some specific maps being frustrating. I have had, overall, a great time playing it”.

I ended up trying it, and this blog post is what I have to say about it.

A good game ruined by predatory practices

This game is based on a great game, “Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)” and its sequel, “League of Mermaid (2013)”. It’s effectively the same game… except they added a lot of stuff that makes it so much worse:

  • The number of pearls is limited, when you run out you have to use one of the currencies to get 5 more or restart
  • There’s an energy system, 100 energy, each “try” of a level takes 10 energy
  • There’s 5 different currencies (yes seriously, technically there’s also  “compasses” too, which are kind of a currency, except it’s gated behind building stuff)
  • The levels “packs” are “locked” behind gates that are unlocked by building pointless stuff that give you “compass”. To build those, you need to spend the resources, and spoiler, you won’t have enough coins, which is the one you buy with real money
  • The game cheats, if there’s only a single “objective” pearl, the game will more than likely NOT give you the color you need to get it. If you “buy” 5 more pearls after running out, it’s almost guaranteed that you will at most get 1, usually 0, of the color you need

All this makes it so the game is a lot worse than the original, which is sad… and you can’t even buy a version without all this predatory and pointless stuff that ruins the game, if you want to play any of it, you have to play this version and deal with the awfulness of it…

Conclusion

They literally choose to make the game worse to effectively have “wales” spend hundreds of dollars on it (too bad the game is too niche for that to happen), instead of making a good game, and potentially having it paid. Even the paid version available on console still has all the same issues (yes, they really left the 5 currencies), they just added stuff to make it so the game gives you more resources (like an effective lootbox disguised as a chance wheel.

Greed is one hell of a thing, especially on a game like that with a finite amount of levels. I would have happily paid to not have to deal with all this, but I’m not paying to “reward” the predatory stuff.

Rating and Recommendation

3/10 - Not Recommended

Post-Scriptum

Play “Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)” and “League of Mermaid (2013)” instead.

Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012): 8/10 - Recommended

League of Mermaid (2013): 7/10 - Recommended