Whoever said edutainment couldn't be fun?
You start of by creating a protagonist (male or female) but there isn't much customisation available except for a couple of hairstyles. As you play through you will unlock different clothes and even more hairstyles but I personally didn't take much notice of them, and as they have absolutely no effect on your performance there's not much reason to! You'll just choose what looks good and then do what this game is all about. Dive and explore!
After being subjected to a brief tutorial and your first diving mission (more on that in a moment), you can go and explore. The first time you dive can be a daunting experience; you'll note how slowly you move and ponder whether a great white shark is much faster than you are. You'll slowly move through a near empty area of beautiful blue water and pale white sand and then gasp in awe as you come across a group of fish. From that moment onward you're hooked.
The fish in the game (and other creatures) are all mesmerising. Most of them are wonderfully animated to mimic their real world counterparts (though they do move slower, but that fits the pace of the game perfectly) and almost all are beautiful (I mean the goblin Shark isn't beautiful, but it is awesome!). The first time you see a whale you can't help but think "oh my god!" even if you're an atheist! Unfortunately for the whales and most other large creatures their animation isn't quite as well crafted as the smaller fish, in fact they look like they're a tad over weight and are having a great deal of trouble swimming at two knots, though at their size it's understandable, but it's just doesn't look right. The actual models however look brilliant. And dear god are some of them big!
The story isn't exactly going to win the Pulitzer Prize. You've got an angsty dive partner with a clouded past and the main story revolves around uncovering why she has so much angst, and then doing something about it! Doing something about it will lead you across the world. It's always a pleasant experience and does its job: encouraging you to explore. In fact if you do get sick of exploring there'll always be the main story there to motivate you to get back into the ocean. And if you finished the main story then there's countless side quests and jobs!
Speaking of jobs, there's diving expeditions where you take a diving partner into a selected area and show them a good time, photo shoots where you hunt down rare fish and photograph them. (Duh!) And of course there's a multitude of side-quests (most activating by finding an item).
But all of this doesn't matter. The thing that will keep most you coming back is the ocean's itself, the slow paced, magnificent, and sometimes dangerous ocean! Okay, so there isn't actually any danger in the game, I think the only way to die is to run out of oxygen and you've got so much that that'll never happen.
The first time you enter the ruins or the abyss will be a magical experience, in fact the first time I dived into the abyss is one of the most enthralling experiences I've had in a video game. The dark rocks, whale skeletons at the bottom, and insane deep-sea life! And at the end of it a surprise that you will NOT want to miss! And then not long after you'll be exploring another graveyard of sorts. Only in this eerie shark infested place it's clear humans have met a rather wet end…
But there are a few problems; the slow swimming speed does begin to grate after awhile, especially if you're just looking for particular item or the ghost ship. But this is a minor complaint. Another is that the diving area is so small!
Which reminds me; whenever you find a fish you can pat it, stroke it, and feed it! The more time you spend with a fish the more you find out. From the size to small anecdotal information. This is fine, and will give you a surprisingly large general knowledge of marine life, but you'll want to know more, more, more! Still, with hundreds of fish in the game it's understandable that you don't get too much information. Besides if you ever wanted something to pique your interest in marine life you'd be hard pressed to find anything better. (Only David Attenborough deep-sea diving naked could have made me more interested in marine life!)
The sound in the game is brilliant too. Hayley Westenra helps render a wonderfully surreal atmosphere with her high-pitched pop/classical voice. The whale's and Dolphin's other-worldly voices sound just as good as does the occasional groan from the ocean, and wind-like sound of a current!
Likewise the graphics are solid, the fish themselves look brilliant, as does most of the scenery. The only main criticism is the sand itself. When you brush up against it you get a disgusting puff up of sand that looks more like vomit than beautiful grains of sand. But the rocks-even with a few ugly textures-and choral looks brilliant, in fact by pressing the + button you can zoom in on any surface and take a look at tiny fish and behind the tiny fish you'll find beautiful plants, sharp rocks, soft sand, and even cold metal on your diving boat!
As I said at the beginning of the review it's a love it or hate it sort of game. If you already like fish and laid-back relaxing game play, and you're pretty sure you're going to love it don't hesitate, go out and get it! Otherwise I implore you to go into this game with an open mind and at least give it a rent. You've got nothing to lose and you could very very pleasantly surprised!