We could at least have a more complex move set, or new mechanics that unlock after a while to keep things fresh. To be fair, there are some distractions: you can scan every fish you find to get additional info about the various species -it’s not bad, but it does get boring after a while. Usually, this game makes you just hit the “forward” button to go straight to the marker, with zero distractions while getting there. But, when touching the ground or when diving in underwater caves, we see that our character tends to “stick” to surfaces and move in a clunky way -and some scanning sequences are frustrating too, regarding their control scheme. When swimming in open waters, Beyond Blue controls fine. Beyond Blue makes me swim a lot, sometimes without even having something to look at -because the draw distance is really limited- and the controls are not great too.
If I’m just walking in a virtual world, I need the walking bit to be interesting or fun. When a video game makes us walk (or swim) large distances over and over, when we are tasked to go from one point to another without having something to do in between, the movement alone should be engaging. A game that has so few mechanics should find a way to make them interesting, and this one doesn’t manage. Of course, there are no fail states and gameovers, you just swim and scan fish, you go from one place to another and you collect some underwater items. Sadly, all the aforementioned aspects cannot translate well enough when it comes to actually playing the game. It’s a complete package when it comes to learning stuff and it runs just over two hours, making it a good way to learn interesting facts without having to commit for a long time.
BEYOND BLUE CAST SERIES
Additionally, we can read more about the animals or watch a series of video documentaries (that have nothing to do with the narrative). Naturally, she takes questions from viewers and answers them, taking the opportunity to just talk and give information about the sea, in a way talking to the player, without sounding weird or out of place. Our character is doing some live-streaming underwater, showing the majestic creatures to the public. Anyway, it’s a story that’s more effective than I initially thought it’d be and this approach should be followed by more people who make educational games.Īlso, the premise is used -cleverly- as an excuse to give us straightforward exposition about the fish. However, the introduction of choice-based dialogue is not needed here and distracts a bit. It’s a clever twist and the game is a lot better because of it. The stories themselves are decent, serviceable and interesting enough, the writing is passable too, and the voice actors do a surprisingly good job in portraying the protagonists.Īs a result, we have a narrative structure that is not very exciting, but it gets the job done and manages to ground the documentary part of the game in reality, to make us care about the whales and the grandma. You will learn about a co-worker’s marriage, you will talk to your sister about your grandma who has health problems and, in general, you will get to know the characters that make up the small cast. This gives the game a clear structure, further defined by the small side-stories that are about Mirai’s colleagues and their lives. You control a woman named Mirai and dive in deep (and shallow too) waters to follow a family of whales and record their movement and behaviour, for science reasons. In a clever move, the developers tried to inject some story and personality in their docu-game. Well, it’s a noble cause and learning about sea creatures is always intriguing -and done well here- but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.įirst of all, let’s talk about the school stuff. So, Beyond Blue wants to teach me about the sea and the fish that swim in its waters, while also talking about the impact of human behaviour. This game, Beyond Blue, is not a ton of fun, but I have to acknowledge that it really tries to do its best -and sometimes it succeeds too. If it’s not fun, I could as easily watch a documentary or something. A game that tries to teach us something should do so while being fun to play, if it wants to catch my attention and maintain it. Educational video games tend to be weird, because they struggle to find balance between school and fun.
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