Strangely, even though I spent most of my time in Beyond Blue obediently scanning wildlife, the in-game encyclopedia contains few facts about the many different species you encounter. The effort might perhaps have been better spent on interesting ways to deliver more information about the ocean creatures that take centre stage. None of these is particularly well developed.

Beyond Blue layers a few different plot lines over the ocean exploration: a grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease, a fractious sibling relationship, unauthorised mining and sea pollution.

In between dives, on the small submarine that serves as home, phone calls between our diver and her family and colleagues add a superfluous touch of human drama. Inevitably for a game informed by the actual state of our oceans, there’s a touch of sadness here.Įncourages learning and reflection. Nonetheless, do not expect an entirely chill time beneath the waves. You can admire the impressively realistic sea life at leisure, panning drones around creatures to record their songs and examine their markings. Attempts to swim directly into the gaping mouth of a humpback or provoke a hammerhead shark yield nothing but the odd visual glitch. Futuristic technology enables our marine scientist to scan creatures, track whale calls and withstand the crushing pressures of the deep ocean as she follows a pod of sperm whales through seascapes taken from the BBC’s Blue Planet II, from shallows to open ocean to the toxic deep-sea brine pool that gave me nightmares for weeks after seeing it on TV.Ītmospheric though these watery places are, there’s no peril in this version of deep-sea diving, even when you try to manufacture it. A mellow and overtly educational game about marine wildlife, Beyond Blue is an opportunity to submerge yourself in the expansive beauty of the Western Pacific.

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