![]() ![]() Beyond Blue also takes a different direction from the likes of Subnautica by moving away from an open-world setting. The swimming is satisfying and responsive without feeling too quick, prompting you to take your time more and take in everything around you rather than zoom through the seascapes. Whereas the 2016 title was all about fluid movement and fast-paced action, this game feels more deliberate. There will be many times when you will just want to stop for a few moments and take in the beautiful visuals.Īnother area where Beyond Blue differs from Abzû is in the gameplay. The end result is an incredible amount of detail for both the creatures you encounter and the spaces that you explore. Taking footage and images from BBC Studios, the team behind it have managed to recreate the action captured in the highly acclaimed documentary series Blue Planet II. While it doesn’t have the stylish and distinctive art style of many other games, it manages to effectively carve out a place for itself. In that sense, you get the impression that the developers wanted this game to be an educational tool rather than a great playing experience. But where Abzû was focused more on fantasy and metaphor, Beyond Blue puts the emphasis very much on realism as it aims to portray the job of deep sea diving and the environment as accurately as possible. The likes of Abzû and Subnautica spring to mind. Immediately after starting it up, you are reminded of other similar games that gave players the chance to dive deep into the ocean and discover what wonders lie beneath the surface. However, along the way, Beyond Blue also attempts to make you think about the environmental issues facing our planet and its oceans. It feels as if it has been built specifically to be the most relaxing and calming game you can play. Fortunately, there are plenty of games on the market that can help you do just that and Beyond Blue is the latest example. Its chapters feel like a collection of calm, interactive lectures rather than a passionate plea for action-and that's far from being a bad thing.Sometimes after a long day all you want to do is unwind. Beyond Blue is the perfect game to tackle the important issues its videos present, but doesn't delve deep enough to drive those ideas home.Īlthough some of the environmental messages are lost, the act scanning Beyond Blue's creatures and exploring its realistic environments makes for a brilliant educational tool. The biologists and scientists who lend their voices these clips are passionate about studying and saving our vibrant oceans, and it's unfortunate that the sentiment of the videos doesn't translate into the game.Į-line Media's previous adventure game, Never Alone, was brilliant in presenting the histories, stories and life lessons of Alaska Natives through both the same type of documentary videos coupled with a story that emotionally engages. These offer an eye-opening perspective on climate change and our attitude towards the planet, and give expert insight into the places and species seen in the game. The beating heart of Beyond Blue lies within the game's mini-documentary videos.Īs you progress through Beyond Blue's chapters you begin to unlock videos that provide insightful information about the state of the Earth's oceans. You can feel the good intentions of the game through its dedication to realism and its creature database, but it's muddied by lacklustre storytelling. There's even a storyline about Mirai's grandmother having Alzheimer's disease, but it never goes anywhere. It briefly touches upon the devastating effects of deep-sea mining and how certain pollutants are making the sea a toxic environment for wildlife, but then quickly moves on. ![]() There are some artful moments but both its environments and storytelling stay one-note throughout the three hour run time, with several plotlines gasping for space to breathe. It never felt like the ocean was teeming with life. Although its ocean is more realistic than Abzu's magical dream-world and Subnautica's alien planet, even it's most active environments felt empty. Unfortunately, many of Beyond Blue's dives feel a little uninspired. One level plunges you into an interconnected system of deep-sea trenches with no map, leaving you to explore its rocky corridors with exciting trepidation. ![]() I understand that open water is an integral layer of the ocean, but dedicating a whole dive to essentially an empty space left me a little disappointed, especially as there's only a handful of chapters. But then, another level was just a blue haze of open ocean with nothing in sight. The environments wildly vary in terms of successfully capturing the wonder of the sea. ![]() (Image credit: E-Line Media) Murky waters ![]()
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