Key provided for review.
I have been heavily enjoying Dave the Diver since I got a copy of it to review on Xbox and I have made a few attempts on PlayStation in the past to get the game going while it was on PS+ and just didn’t manage to stick. Not because the game was bad, but because I have long periods of time where my attention is pulled between a dozen things.
Dave the Diver has a ton of things going on at any given time. You play as Dave. A diver. Go figure. Most of your days will be spent doing two things; diving and managing your restaurant. You dive to get the fish to make the sushi to sell to the hungry people.
You improve your restaurant through a few different mechanics. Foremost by upgrading your equipment over time, unlocking new areas through the story mode, and sacrificing fish to improve your recipes to make better version of that sushi as well as more complicated dishes. You’ll also hire employees to boost your efficiency as the restaurant becomes more popular and you get too many customers for you and your one sushi chef to handle on your own.
I love the pixel graphics for Dave the Diver. There’s an interesting combination of 2D and 3D graphics that merges pretty well in the diving portions of the game. There’s also a ton of cutscenes when you’re upgrading your fish or building equipment that just gives the game a burst of charm and energy.
The story mode unlocks new areas, new fish, and new opportunities for things like daily quests and extra income, not to mention expanding on the game world and the characters. There’s a few boss fights here and there that offer some fun ways to defeat the big fish so you can cut off a chunk and offer it up to your customers.
The further you go in the more you unlock events like celebrities with specific tastes, upgrade your Yelp-esque restaurant rating, and more. I liked the story mode, but my suggestion is that if the game ever becomes overwhelming (as it does for a few friends that I’ve talked to) I just stopped focusing on the quests while I let my restaurant catch up.
I only have one complaint with Dave the Diver and it is that the harpoon shooting sometimes feels broken. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what’s wrong, but it often feels like I have the harpoon aimed perfectly and my shot still goes right through the fish. Maybe it’s just me.
I do however plan to keep playing Dave the Diver through to the finish and then finally check out some of the DLC that’s released over the years. It’s not the indie game that Geoff Keighley claimed it is, but it is a damn good game.
Check it out.
MMO Fallout 