Each dive sees you follow way-points to activate sensors or triggers in a bid to track down different species of whale or shark. The mechanics are very simple too but strangely addictive as you play through the game. There are 6 dives for you to participate in with the option of free-diving when you’re done with the story. To tell you what these moments are would spoil the experience, but suffice to say they’re easily the highlights of the game. Along the way you experience all the ups and downs the ocean has to offer, with the threat of mining hinting toward man-made destruction and some in-game set-pieces that work really well to add genuine moments of jaw-dropping awe. In constant communication with her team-mates Andre and Irina, Mirai searches the ocean and follows a pod of sperm whales she’s been studying, checking on their progress over time. The story here revolves around a free diver known as Mirai.

With a largely positive, uplifting tone throughout, Beyond Blue acts as a celebratory look at our ocean and packs its play-time with an abundance of scientific knowledge along the way. It’s not as pretty or complex with its game mechanics but where Beyond Blue excels is in its desire to present something wholly educational a tool to be used to help people understand more about our ocean.Ĭlocking in at around 2-3 hours, Beyond Blue adds a light story to its exploration adventure, filling in some back-story for our main characters in a bid to give a simple enough reason for being in the ocean in the first place. Beyond Blue then is a very different experience to those two games.

Subnautica came close – bringing survival mechanics and a genuine sense of fear and dread to the watery world, while Abzu brought the genuine wonder and awe thanks to its visual design and colours. It’s also a wondrous, dangerous and gorgeous backdrop that hasn’t always translated well to the video game medium. This largely alien world plays host to a large number of species and is crucial to the well-being and sustainability of our planet’s eco-system.

With that in mind, it’s strange to think there’s still so much we don’t know about our oceans. Over 70% of our planet is made up of water. An Educational & Peaceful Underwater Game

Eco global survival game review