"A two-euro shipwreck worth the panic, if the dice play fair"
About
Don't Sleep With The Fishes is a survival horror game set aboard a sinking ship. Each run splits into two phases: a timed scramble to grab items like a flare gun, bait, scuba gear and a bucket, then a longer survival stretch where you ration what you grabbed and answer random events at sea. Choices decide who lives, whether a rescue ship or plane finds you, and which of several endings you reach, including a hidden true ending. A cat companion, Captain Whiskers, and other survivors bring passive effects and dialogue, while ghost ships, a Kraken and an angler fish supply the horror beats. It draws openly on 60 Seconds, trading nuclear bunker for open water.
Verdict
For the price of a coffee, this delivers a survival loop with real teeth: the scavenge phase makes you plan, the sea makes you gamble, and the horror nights give the whole thing a pulse. The catch is how much the outcome rides on dice, and the true and rescue endings ask for patience that not everyone will have. Performance that stumbles on such plain visuals is the other blemish, alongside spotty language support. Take it for what it is, a sharp little shipwreck with more replay than its cost suggests, and it rewards you handsomely.
You'll like it if …
- +You enjoy short runs where a bad early roll still teaches you something for the next one
- +You want a survival game you can dip into and quit between phases
- +Chasing multiple endings and a hidden true ending is your kind of grind
You'll dislike it if …
- −Runs sunk by luck rather than judgement leave you cold
- −You need smooth performance and full localization before you'll forgive a rough edge
- −You lose interest once an event pool starts repeating
Breakdown
- +The gather-then-survive loop lands cleanly: the opening scavenge gives you room to plan, then the sea forces quick calls under pressure
- +Fishing and event decisions stay responsive and easy to pick up between sessions
- +Random events at sea keep each run from settling into a script
- −The RNG can lock you into a downward spiral with little you can do to climb out, which some players read as unfair rather than tense
- +Multiple endings and shifting survivor combinations give clear reasons to restart
- +Item interactions and companion effects reward learning what pairs with what
- +Achievement hunting stretches the run count well past the first clear
- −The rescue and true-lore endings hinge on luck heavily enough that players call unlocking them a slog
- −Companion abilities trigger inconsistently, and the event pool grows predictable once you've seen it a few times
- +The classified-mission framing and gradual reveals pull you into caring who survives
- +Story arrives through events and companion chatter rather than exposition dumps
- +Silly daytime happenings sit against genuinely nasty nights, and the tonal swing works
- −Because the story leans on random events, an unlucky run can starve you of the beats that give it weight
- +Art direction sells the shift from calm water to storm, and the jump scares connect
- +Audio design tightens the screws during the survival nights
- −Performance disappoints for how modest the visuals are, with several players reporting it runs badly
- −UI and localization feel thin against the system it demands
- +Launches and runs without fuss, with menus and controls that need no explaining
- +Clean move from itch.io to a stable Steam build
- −Language support is patchy, with standing requests for Chinese, Korean and Ukrainian
- −No gamepad option, awkward for the handheld crowd it otherwise suits
score