Off the Shelf Media

Dave the Diver is a refreshing game at a great price point that will keep you hooked for hours at a time. In a market drowning in AAA games that underwhelm, this smaller title rises to the top with its personality and unique gameplay loop.

Gameplay: 2

The gameplay loop is odd at first glance but definitely grows on you. Simply put, you dive into the blue hole looking for fish and other treasures. You have a harpoon gun, and work your way up to other underwater weaponry to fight off bigger more aggressive fish the further you progress. The goal here is to catch fish that you will later be serving up in the sushi bar that your run at night. It sounds boring, and a bit like a job, but I promise you if you give it a shot you will be hooked almost right away.

They really nailed the sense of progression in this game to where you never feel things getting stale or repetitive because there is always  a new wrinkle or thing to consider. While some mechanics have been done before, such as “earn money, upgrade gear, go further down,” it throws a lot of other curveballs at you to keep you on your toes. You might dive in for your morning exploration and find yourself surrounded by poachers you need to fight off, or follow some tiny squid through a bunch of nooks and crannies in the ocean to a secret area with a gear upgrade. They are constantly throwing new mechanics at you as well such as an aquarium where you can breed more fish for service and a farm to grow high quality rice and other vegetables to compliment the main course.

The map is also interesting because sometimes it’s the same and sometimes its different. I don’t really fully understand if it’s based on days, time of day, or special events. To be honest, I didn’t want to research it because it keeps the world feeling fresh when you jump into a different ocean sometimes. The fish you can find also progress as you continue through the main story quests and add new gameplay mechanics. For example, after some time, you will start to notice super fast and strong fish like tuna showing up in pods. It seems cumbersome to catch at first, but then they introduce you to a net gun that lets you catch multiple and can feed your patrons for a week.

The boss fights are interesting and not incredible challenging, but still engaging. They bring you to unique areas of the ocean with a great atmosphere and you know right away you are in for a fight. I think the best part is you can serve these boss fish up to your guests and see them post about it on the game’s social media app.

If I had to find faults or areas to be critical of, I would say that the button responses sometimes can be a little off. It seems like you might have to click X 3 or 4 times to pick up something, but its so few and far between I would hardly call it a major issue, but rather a timing based input to get used to at first. I would also say that there is a lot the game doesn’t explain very well, which can lead you to having to do online research to round it out. However, I tried to do as little as possible while playing, and it led me to enjoying things more when I realized how a system worked and could utilize it to the fullest.

Overall, I would say the gameplay is probably the highlight of this game. It really is satisfying and doesn’t linger in one area for too long. Later in the game you might be diving for 20+ minutes while completing some quest or objective or just exploring, but especially early on you might be in the water for 5-10 minutes, then go check on your crops and fish farm, then head over to your restaurant to prepare for the nighttime rush, which is also only a few minutes from the start. It’s fast paced and energetic, and follows many other successful games in this genre where you can’t put it down and keep telling yourself “Just one more day”.

Story: 1

The story here isn’t the most complicated or deep, but it is satisfying. They keep it fairly high-level most of the time, while occasionally diving deeper into a side character’s back story or adding in new issues to your overall day-to-day restaurant empire. It’s done in a very 8-bit way where the narration isn’t spoken, but still funny and charming and reminds you of much older titles in a nostalgic and not cheap way.

There is certainly more going on than it seems at first, as your dive-by-day, cook-by-night formula gets a lot of extra dimensions added to it as you play. From working with the royalty of the sea people, an ancient civilization that you discover with the help of a creative character named Dr. Bacon, to fighting off alleged climate activists who end up doing way more harm than good to local fish and wildlife in the name of conservationism.

Atmosphere: 2

Graphically this game is certainly not going to require a top-tier graphics card, and I will say I did most of my playing on my steam deck and honestly preferred it to a full monitor. That said, the art design is incredible and reminds me of an aquatic Stardew Valley in that its low-resolution but has a charming energy to it. The sights and sounds you see as you dive deeper and deeper into the abyss and how the world changes around you as you enter underwater caves and the deeps that require headlamps to see really immerse you into the underwater world they’ve built here.

The restaurant itself seems like it would be the calm and relaxing section as you just surface from fighting sharks and barracudas, but this area is chaotic and intense as well. You can certainly customize a lot of the aesthetic to the store as the game progresses on, but the overall feel aligns well with the art direction in that you feel like you’re at a beach bar somewhere in the Caribbean without a care in the world. That is, until 20 diners sit down and all want a drink and food and you and your desperate servers all try to make it happen.

Combine this with all of the unique underwater areas later in the game, such as the sea people village and others I won’t spoil, and they all seem to mesh together really well despite being so different. For a game that isn’t graphics intensive, you really get sucked into an immersive world full of interesting characters and tropical vibes.

The cutscenes in this game are also full of life and remind you of some popular anime shows with their art design and punchy scenes. Great scenes of your head chef slicing and dicing tirelessly to upgrade one of the restaurants signature dishes, to the eccentric anime obsessed gun-nut who helps you acquire and upgrade underwater weaponry to fight off large sharks and aggressive sealife. They add a lot of flavor to the sushi based adventure and keep the game feeling fresh.

Value: 2

This game feels perfectly priced at $19.99 where it is at time of writing this, and to be honest, it could probably charge a little bit more. While I certainly wouldn’t think it’s a full $60+ game like so many AAA launches lately, I would say anything under $40 seems like a fair point. Like I said earlier, you are not paying for top of the line graphics, a story written by William Shakespeare or 500+ hour game, but the value is certainly there for this title.

The thing I found the best about this game for this price is you can fully immerse yourself, throw some headphones in, and enjoy all the sights and sounds of the ocean and restaurant business up close and personal and lose yourself in the world fully. However, you can also treat this as much more casual endeavor that you can play with a podcast or TV show on and still get a ton of enjoyment out of the rewarding gameplay loop. I find it’s hard to find a game that can do both of these very well, and that versality is definitely something I value in games. It’s a great title at a great price.

Duration: 1

The duration you get out of this game is entirely based on your playstyle and how you treat it. If you are someone who sprints through the main story, it will take about 25 hours or so, whereas a “completionist” might take about 48 hours. However, if you are treating this as I would recommend, as a much more casual game, progress at your pace and don’t try to be the most efficient each day. With this play style, you can easily rack up 80+ hours in this title. The ability to casually play while watching or listening to something else and just grind out ingredients definitely adds a ton of play time in my eyes, and the sense of wonder and exploration will constantly have you checking every nook and cranny of the ever changing map to see what new fish or items you can find.

While 25+ hours is a decent amount of gameplay, it is certainly a bit low when compared to many other titles and that’s okay. One of the biggest gripes I have is when a game is marketed as being 100+ hours, but then you boot it up and 80+ hours of that is a boring repetitive grind that never changes or has any substance. This game keeps things really fresh with new elements and mechanics constantly, and it never seems to lag or feel like you need to grind out something to progress. It all flows really organically, and while it may go faster than other games, it’s a great adventure.

Total Score: 8/10

Dave the Diver is one of those games that stops you in your tracks and reminds you that new games can have soul and a personality and not just be some sequel that falls flat or a rehashed story in an overused engine and gameplay loop… looking at you Ubisoft. You can feel the passion from its creators and the artistic level to detail in shaping this world with its unique personality really give it a great vibe. The gameplay is satisfying and crisp, and I would say it’s moved into my rotation of favorite casual games that you don’t have to try too hard at, but can still get a great session out of. Overall, I would strongly recommend picking this up, especially if it goes on sale which it does frequently.