Can "We Need To Go Deeper" be played solo?

looking at the description for We Need To Go Deeper it says

Crew a Submarine with friends in We Need To Go Deeper - a 2-4-player cooperative submarine roguelike set in a Verne-inspired undersea universe.

to me this would block me from playing since it's seem to imply i need atleast a second player to play the game.

however further down in the ABOUT THIS GAME section, while repeating the 2-4 player thing it says

2-4-Player Co-op
Designed with human interaction in mind, We Need to Go Deeper was created to encourage friends to shout at each other. The current version features 2-4 player cooperative multiplayer- either through a Local Area Network or Online, or with Bots to fill in for empty slots!

this suggests to be that i could play it by myself with bots (though i may not get the full experience) plus it also says

The current version features 2-4 player cooperative multiplayer

rather than requires 2-4 players to play.

So i am wondering, can We Need To Go Deeper be played solo?

2 Answers

We Need to Go Deeper can be played solo, with 1-3 AI controlled bots instead of other crew. The bots are pretty simple and will automatically do certain things; they can't pilot the sub but can man weapons and repair things well enough.

I played the game like this for a bit and found it a little dull. Without the teamwork, the game just becomes driving a 2d submarine while you trust the bots to do all the other work.

This Steam review by Rompateer mentions (sic):

you can play solo but i wouldnt recomend it. The bots are terrible and it gets kinda boring

Based on this, it seems like you can play solo, though it wouldn't be a very good experience.