I have a real problem. It’s something that I really noticed when first playing Metroid Prime back in the day. I have this instinctive need to scan anything and everything, even to the detriment to the pacing and story of a video game, when offered to me. If you give me some sort of scanning device, you better believe I’m going to 100% anything related to it like I’m living in the Star Trek universe. Beyond Blue seems to understand my disease in the best of ways. This scuba diving simulator could have easily fallen into the hole of boring walking simulator, a genre that has seemingly died off, but, instead, succeeds in some surprising ways, and not just because of my scanning fixation.
Beyond Blue tells the near-future story of an undersea team exploring and cataloging ocean life, with a focus on a pod a whales that our lead has been tracking for a number of years. Along the way you learn about the ocean and get a little drama along the way. It could have been as simple as that, but the game manages to incorporate an engaging story filled with some interesting characters that help push the story forward. You never feel stagnant or stuck in doing the dame thing over and over because there is always someone in your ear talking about something, including having some family issues outside the main exploration for added drama.
But the bulk of the adventure is swimming about from point to point and completing very simple scanning, tagging, and collecting tasks. It’s a video game, sure, but it’s one that takes the focus away from any form of combat or action. And yet, even with this stripped away, it still manages to be an engaging and quite calming experience. Your scanner lets to tag all manner of ocean life and build up your digital catalog. Each animal has a scan target, meaning that you need to, say, scan a dolphin to get it’s basic information and then scan all the dolphins in the region to complete the scan in full.
This means you’ll be swimming about ignoring the main quest if you want in order to complete your catalog. Once you have unlocked creatures you can then check their educational cards on your sub to learn even more about them. And that’s one of the surprising things about Beyond Blue, it’s not only really an educational video game, but quite possibly the greatest educational video game ever created because it doesn’t force it down your throat. Not once did I ever feel like I was playing a textbook, or a game that ticked off certain boxes based on some educational mandate. Beyond Blue managed to teach me more about the ocean, and make it engaging, than just about any other ocean-related media I was exposed to as a kid in school.
On top of these animal cards there are also tons of videos and interviews that you unlock with actual experts. Famed aquatic explorers, mini documentaries on various sea life, and all sorts of neat bits that are a lot of fun to watch. Sure, the quality of a lot of this footage is really compressed on the Switch, like this takes place during the first few years of YouTube, but it looks fine enough in portable mode. In fact, the game is really much better in portable mode, even more so if you have the new OLED Switch. I played it mostly docked, and when you do that you can really see all the limitations of the console.
In fact, when I did play it in portable mode it not only looked better but served as the perfect “before bed” sort of video game. Because of its slow nature and relaxed pacing, Beyond Blue makes for a great game to end a long day with. You can play it at your own pace and easily complete a few tasks while it hits you with some relaxing music and ocean sounds before calling it a night. It’s a calming game and I found it almost as good as popping a few melatonin pills in order to slow down and get ready for sleep. Beyond Blue is like this soothing sleep aid that can be essential to your well-being with how much the video game space relies on action and gritty combat.
It’s hard to knock the game as it does everything that it sets out to do in a tight and affordable package. It’ snot a very long experience, even if you are like me and scan everything in the ocean, but it serves its purpose well. Still, the game would have been served better by being a larger experience. Perhaps having it take place over a number of years and thus allowing you to search different areas of various oceans as your team does extended research. I want to scan more things and experience regions that I’m not very used to. And while I hate DLC, Beyond Blue is the perfect sort of game to create mission packs for based different regions.
The major issues I have, and it’s understandable in this respect, is that the graphics are great with regards to being under the ocean and seeing sea life, but when you are in your sub everything looks very early Xbox 360 at best. Facial animations don’t exist and I felt like I was in control of a human mannequin while not in the water. And because the game is so small the areas you get to explore don’t feel quite detailed enough, at least not on Switch. Beyond Blue doesn’t push graphics forward but this is a firmly budget title at only $20 across all platform. And if you can get it on sale you can find it for less than $15, making it an excellent deal.
If you are looking for a relaxing game that you can enjoy when you want a change of pace from sex, guns, and violence, Beyond Blue is the perfect title for you. Likewise, if you want a game that your kids can play and actually learn some amazing things from, Beyond Blue is great too. This might be the only game this year that anyone can enjoy, even those who never play video games. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back into the ocean to play around in photo mode and get some fun shots of my fishy friends.
Final Score:
Great!
*A review code was provided by the publisher*
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