Most of the story, as I’ve mentioned, is conveyed through voices in your ear. It is certainly educational, but there is a bit more of a story beyond just “learn about the ocean”-just barely. Beyond Blue is right on the line between ‘regular’ game and being (gasp) edutainment. Screenshot: Beyond Blueīut that’s the thing. I ended up watching every video, despite thinking I would skip through them (though I did skip the video that was essentially an OceanX commercial.) And, I daresay, I learned a thing or two.

Beyond Blue is not trying to scare you– it’s about endearing you to, and educating you about, the ocean.įor every dive, there is a companion video or two that shows real video footage of underwater life with some information that usually expands on something Mirai encountered. But there are some moments-near volcanic vents, swimming over the brine pool, and others-that really show the ocean off as a beautiful, but terrifying, place. Unfortunately, at least for me, the third person perspective takes a way a bit of the sense of scale. The water looks great, and the various sea life you’ll encounter is all quite impressive. But it’s where the story takes you, and what sights you see that are what’s impressive about Beyond Blue.įortunately, Beyond Blue is a pretty game, even if the graphics aren’t cutting edge. The gameplay consists of you travelling to a waypoint, and interacting with an object-and that’s really about it. You mostly just explore and scan while the story is told around you. There’s a scanning mode, and a regular mode fast swimming and slow swimming. But gameplay-wise, there really isn’t much here. It’s all presented in digestible and fascinating ways. The livestream that Mirai conducts is a bit of an excuse for the game to teach you about the ocean. And some of those tidbits are delivered through a “livestream” that your character does as part of her scientific duties. And while she doesn’t interact with anyone directly, there is a small cast of support characters that talk in her ear throughout, progressing the story and giving interesting tidbits about the ocean and its life. Her home base is a cool futuristic sub from which she launches her dives. You play as Mirai, a scientist working under the ocean tracking animals, and carrying out various other tasks across eight dives. But it turns out that it’s attempting to educate people about our world’s “blue heart”-and that it’s a love letter to the ocean and its inhabitants.īeyond Blue is an adventure game set entirely under the ocean. I wasn’t sure what Beyond Blue was, at first. But those games were built to scare, and weren’t so much about the ocean as the scary things that you can find there. They’re two very different games, but they’re both terrifying glimpses into the deep unknown.

Beyond blue video game