Best Underwater Video Games to Dive Into in 2025

Patrick_Yu

If you’ve ever wanted to explore the mysteries of the deep without leaving dry land, 2025 is shaping up to be a great year for underwater games. From immersive diving games and scenic scuba diving game experiences to pulse-pounding underwater survival games and even the occasional underwater horror game, there’s something for every kind of ocean explorer. Whether you’re looking for a relaxing game about diving or a tense descent into the abyss, these titles let you plunge into a world where the unknown waits beneath the surface.

1. Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver is one of those rare games that constantly surprises you, blending underwater exploration, restaurant management, RPG mechanics, and an endless stream of quirky minigames into a deeply satisfying loop. You play as Dave, a slightly out-of-shape diver tasked with hunting fish during the day and running a bustling sushi restaurant at night. The deeper you go into the Blue Hole, the more secrets, dangers, and bizarre sea creatures you uncover.

The game balances lighthearted storytelling with genuinely strategic gameplay. Diving involves careful oxygen and inventory management, and combat can range from harpooning fish to tranquilizing massive sharks. Between dives, you’ll upgrade your gear, customize your staff, and expand your culinary empire. The pacing is tight, the humor lands, and the variety of content never stops.

In 2024, Mintrocket doubled down on the fun with a Dredge crossover DLC, bringing cosmic horror into Dave’s colorful world. This update introduces night dives filled with twisted sea monsters, dark visual themes, and potential nods to Dredge’s sanity mechanics. It adds a creepy layer of risk to Dave’s otherwise upbeat routine, creating an unexpected but welcome contrast that expands the game’s underwater universe.

Packed with charm, chaos, and now a little Lovecraft, Dave the Diver continues to be one of the most creative indie hits in recent years.

2. Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss

Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss is a narrative-rich underwater mystery developed by Subjective Realities and published in 2023. Set in the early 20th century, you play as Cam, a diver investigating the wreck of the S.S. Thalassa after a salvage mission goes disastrously wrong. What begins as a sunken treasure hunt turns into a deeply emotional investigation into the fate of the crew.

The game isn’t focused on realism but instead crafts a moody, immersive world where oxygen tanks never run out and lamps never die. The highlight is its interactive deduction board, which you’ll use to connect documents, letters, and clues scattered across six decks of the submerged vessel.

While animations can feel slow and the voice volume occasionally dips, the game’s richly atmospheric setting and personal, human storytelling pull you in. Thalassa is less about survival and more about discovery, offering a meditative, slow-burn dive into grief, memory, and mystery.

3. Barotrauma

Released in 2023 by Finnish developer FakeFish and Undertow Games, Barotrauma is a tense, often chaotic 2D co-op survival game set deep beneath the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Earth is uninhabitable, and what’s left of humanity now survives in submarines prowling a pitch-black ocean filled with things far worse than crushing pressure.

The game combines management sim mechanics with moments of pure horror. Players take on different crew roles (Captain, Engineer, Medic, Security Officer) and must work together to keep their vessel operational while fending off alien sea creatures, electrical failures, fires, and each other’s mistakes.

What makes Barotrauma truly shine is its balance between routine and panic. One minute you're calmly navigating icy waters or fixing a reactor, and the next you’re plugging hull breaches with monsters clawing their way inside. It’s at its best with friends, especially when teamwork quickly breaks down into chaos.

The game’s chunky pixel art might not impress visually, but it adds charm to the dread. While complex systems and lackluster AI bots might overwhelm solo players, Barotrauma thrives on unpredictability, making it one of the most memorable co-op underwater horror games out there.

4. Subnautica

Developed by Unknown Worlds and released in 2018, Subnautica is a masterclass in open-world survival and one of the most immersive underwater games ever made. The game begins with your crash landing on an alien ocean planet, and from there, it becomes a gripping blend of exploration, crafting, and existential terror.

What sets Subnautica apart is its atmosphere. Its biomes range from serene coral reefs to abyssal trenches teeming with predatory leviathans. There’s no hand-holding as you dive deeper and unlock new tools, submarines, and habitats to survive the crushing depths. Its sound design and ambient music intensify the feeling of isolation, and the positional audio often signals when something massive is stalking you just out of sight.

Unlike many survival games, Subnautica also tells a compelling story through logs, radio transmissions, and environmental storytelling. It’s a rare example of a survival game where the plot feels meaningful and well-paced.

The DLC, Subnautica: Below Zero, offers a more personal narrative and a smaller map, but introduces new tech, modular vehicles, and arctic biomes. Playing as xenobiologist Robin Ayou, you’ll unravel a corporate cover-up while navigating icy waters, using gadgets like the Sea Truck and Snowfox hoverbike. Though more compact, it’s packed with detail and variety, delivering a fresh, frosty take on the original's formula.

Both the base game and Below Zero maintain an incredible sense of immersion and awe. Whether you’re uncovering alien secrets or barely surviving an encounter with a leviathan, Subnautica remains a masterclass in environmental design and open-world pacing. It’s one of the finest aquatic survival experiences ever made.

5. Dredge

Dredge is a slow-burning, atmospheric fishing game wrapped in cosmic horror and quiet dread. You pilot a lone trawler across a fog-covered archipelago, dredging up twisted sea life and long-buried secrets. Its core loop, catch fish by day, avoid madness by night, is simple yet hypnotic, blending checklist progression with creeping tension.

The world is brought to life through a minimalist art style and haunting audio design. Each region has its own lore, puzzles, and fish to discover, keeping the game interesting across its tight 12-hour runtime. While the upgrade system is fairly linear, the pacing and mood make up for it.

Beyond the base game, two DLCs expand its haunting world. The Pale Reach introduces a glacial new region filled with icy waters and hidden relics, while The Iron Rig brings an environmental twist. This larger expansion sends you back through each biome to uncover the effects of corporate pollution and unnatural drilling. While the plot leans into metaphor, it never forgets its gameplay roots, new materials, powerful upgrades, and quality-of-life tools like portable repair kits and teleport anchors deepen the experience without losing its tight focus.

While some players may critique the lack of player agency in narrative decisions, the gameplay remains immersive and rewarding. Balancing inventory space, managing sanity, and choosing when to risk a night sail keeps the tension sharp across the 15–20 hour journey.

Dredge, developed by Black Salt Games and published in 2023, has earned widespread acclaim for its originality and execution. It won “Best Indie Game” at the Golden Joystick Awards and received nominations at The Game Awards 2023 and BAFTA Game Awards 2024.

It’s a standout experience that combines eerie exploration, tight resource management, and deeply unsettling storytelling into one unforgettable voyage.

6. Nauticrawl

Nauticrawl is a genre-blending roguelike from developer Andrea Interguglielmi, released in 2019, that drops you into the cockpit of a mysterious machine, and refuses to explain how anything works. There’s no tutorial, no guidance, just a mess of levers, dials, and switches to decipher through trial and error.

The game is essentially one giant puzzle. You must learn how to power up the machine, navigate hostile terrain, manage resources, and avoid enemies, all while gradually unraveling the system’s logic. Its turn-based mechanics and permanent consequences create a tense atmosphere, especially during your early, mistake-filled runs.

Though its difficulty eases as you gain experience, the sense of discovery remains strong. The game’s cockpit-only perspective and detailed interface make every button press feel impactful, and the ambient sound design enhances immersion. While the narrative is minimal and mostly fixed, Nauticrawl thrives on its unique concept and the thrill of experimentation, making it a memorable dive into the unknown.

7. Maneater

Maneater flips the open-world action formula on its head by putting you in control of a vengeful shark, not a human. Developed and published by Tripwire Interactive in 2020, the game begins with a brutal shark-hunter killing your mother, only for you, her pup, to escape and grow stronger with one goal in mind: revenge.

Set in the sun-soaked yet blood-soaked waters of Port Clovis, the game lets you level up your shark by hunting sea life and humans, unlocking wild evolutionary upgrades like electric fins and bone armor. Combat is chaotic and satisfying, and swimming through its detailed underwater environments is a constant visual treat.

Presented in the style of a nature documentary parody, narrated by Chris Parnell, Maneater adds some humor to its otherwise violent romp. While mission design gets repetitive, kill X number of enemies, rinse and repeat, the act of playing as a superpowered shark rarely loses its appeal.

Exploration, power progression, and sheer novelty carry the experience. It’s not deep in gameplay or story, but it knows what it is and runs with it: a shameless, fun, blood-soaked “shARkPG.”

8. Crab God

Crab God is a charming colony management game developed by Chaos Theory Games and published by Firesquid in 2024. It plays like a lighter, crab-themed take on the Kingdom series, with shorter gameplay loops and a focus on strategic team-building and survival.

You control a group of five crabs, each assigned to roles like Gardener, Scavenger, Worshipper, Builder, or Hunter. Balancing their abilities is key to gathering food, defending your colony at night, and unlocking permanent bonuses. Staying longer in each level gives you more rewards but also ramps up difficulty, pushing you to carefully manage risk and sacrifice.

Each run feeds into the next, with mechanics that let you resurrect powerful crabs if you fail, encouraging experimentation rather than punishing mistakes. Ritual stones and randomized bonuses add variation, while achievements nudge players to try different strategies with each run.

While the game currently suffers from a few bugged achievements, the core gameplay loop is satisfying, accessible, and surprisingly tactical. The colorful art and gentle pacing make it appealing even for those new to the genre.

Crab God may not have a deep story, but its playful design and achievement-focused structure offer plenty of replay value for fans of bite-sized, strategic management sims.

9. Loddlenaut

Loddlenaut is a chill, cleanup-focused adventure where you restore a polluted alien ocean one trash pile at a time. Playing as a lone diver on the planet GUP-14, you’ll vacuum microplastics, scrub toxic gunk, and recycle debris to upgrade your tools, all while helping cute, axolotl-like creatures called loddles reclaim their home.

The gameplay is simple but satisfying. As you unlock new zones, you’ll upgrade your gear and use gadgets to manage oxygen and access new areas. Loddles follow you around, chirp back in response to your lights, and evolve depending on how you care for them, adding charm without complexity.

While its cozy vibes and tactile feedback shine, the game doesn’t shy away from subtle environmental commentary. Despite your efforts, trash gradually returns, hinting at the limits of individual action. Developed by Moon Lagoon and published by Secret Mode, Loddlenaut is soothing, adorable, and quietly sobering beneath its cheerful surface.

10. IronWolf VR

IronWolf VR is an immersive World War II submarine simulation built specifically for PC VR. Developed by Ionized Studios and released in 2022, it puts players directly inside a fully interactive U-boat, where every switch, dial, and hatch must be manually operated as you track convoys, launch torpedoes, and evade enemy destroyers. From the creak of your hull under pressure to the thunder of nearby depth charges, the sound design and tactile controls elevate the tension to impressive levels.

Each compartment of your submarine is richly detailed, offering roles like navigation, weapons management, and engineering. You can play solo with automation support or command a crew in multiplayer, where coordination becomes essential. While combat can be exhilarating, especially manning the deck gun, IronWolf VR also requires patience. Positioning, escaping, and repairing damage take time, particularly when playing alone.

An open-world mode adds strategic depth, requiring fuel and ammo management across longer campaigns. Predefined missions are also available for quick sessions and a solid challenge.

Though it suffers from occasional downtime and repetitive repair mechanics, IronWolf VR delivers one of the most authentic and atmospheric submarine experiences in VR to date. For fans of tactical simulation and WWII naval warfare, this is a standout title.