Beyond Blue Reviews

If you’ve ever wondered and wanted to learn more about the world under the sea, E-Line Media has you covered. In collaboration with BBC Studios, Blue Planet II, Beyond Blue allows you to explore the depths of the ocean to learn more about sea life in this soothing, relaxing, and educational game. So let’s suit up and be prepared to go on a soothing dive with the whales and more on the PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and the Nintendo Switch.

Beyond Blue does also provide players with a wider story to discover, both from Mirai’s professional sense as an oceanographer and from her inter-personal relationships. The maps generally relate to the tracking of a pod of sperm whales, while also splicing in other themes of conservation such as turtle hatchlings and the impact of mining on deep sea life. However, the family story, revolving around the care of Mirai’s grandmother and the impact on her sister, is really where the depth lies, the story running parallel to the familial stresses of the whale pod.

Forget Walking Simulators, Beyond Blue proves that Swimming Simulators is where it's at. This is a beautiful, relaxing and enchanting video game experience that acts as a soothing balm against the stresses of modern life. Sebastian was right, it really is better down where its wetter.

I should not have liked Beyond Blue. For one, science isn’t my thing. I literally nearly failed science in high school. Me, an artsy book worm, didn’t love the whole practical element of science classes. Also, I mainly play RPGs or looter shooters, not slow paced narrative adventures. Therefore, it may surprise you, as it did me, that Beyond Blue is now my favourite of all the games I’ve reviewed this year for Checkpoint. If I’d played this back when I was 16, science would have been ...

If you want to learn more about the ocean, this would be a great experience for you. If you want a beautiful, relaxed experience about fish, Beyond Blue just about misses the mark on that, unfortunately.

While it isn't nearly as deep or fluid as the ocean that it's set in, Beyond Blue is a chill and easy-going way to wind down in the deep blue sea

This won't necessarily be true for other players, of course. But you could well see those tweets as a sort of diagnostic for whether it's worth you buying this game. If you read them and think "ah, yes... that's the sort of emotionally laden sea stuff I like to think about," then the odds are Beyond Blue'll be worth it for you, despite all its drawbacks. And if that is the case, just be prepared to relax and click on a lot of sealife while it gets to its point.

E-Line Media seems to be creating a niche for themselves. Their first title, Never Alone, drew inspiration from Alaska Native Culture for its story, but players also had access to documentary footage to explain the setting in more factual detail. The developer’s second title, Beyond Blue, takes a similar approach. Taking to the depths of the ocean, you get to join an underwater expedition as they study the local wildlife. Thanks to a collaboration with BBC Studios, the Blue Planet II documentary team, and the OceanX exploration initiative, there’s plenty of opportunity to expand on your knowledge as well.

I appreciate that the story gave me plenty of reasons to care about Mirai and enough quiet space to shake off some stress among the waves. It’s a contemplative journey, one I can’t help but recommend.

Following on from the likes of Endless Ocean and Subnautica, Beyond Blue is an underwater exploration game in which you control a human diver. That diver is Mirai and, along with a team of fellow marine scientists, it’s her job to investigate various underwater landscapes with the hope of better understanding the diverse marine life living there.

A contemplative and educational diving sim.

Beyond Blue is an educational science simulator. The core of the game is based in actual science by actual real world experts. Whether it be all the animal facts and ocean design or the 17 mini-documentaries called Ocean Insights, Ocean Insights are short videos taken from Blue Planet II that give insight from real experts. This game isn’t fast and it isn’t hard, but it was never intended to be. It is intended to showcase and highlight the wonders of the ocean.

Beyond Blue is a gentle, peaceful exploration of the Pacific ocean, filled with beautiful reefs, terrifying abuses, and human interaction. It doesn’t carry the same mysticism of other watery games like Abzu or In Other Waters. It's more grounded, the storyline is more introspective. Some might call it boring, but it does exactly what it set out to do.

Beyond Blue struggles as a narrative adventure game but shines as an educational tool that brings awareness and reveals some of the ocean’s secrets. Its few characters don’t quite stand out and the simple core gameplay loop of swimming, scanning and following waypoints comes off as rather bland. While there’s not much excitement in the actions that you perform, the way they’re contextualized pulls the experience up significantly. Different moments during exploration and the short docu...

Beyond Blue isn’t going to be for everyone. If you’re after action and excitement, this isn’t going to be for you. It’s a slow but rather peaceful experience and I was pretty relaxed while playing though. Imagine Subnautica in creative mode, minus the building elements, and imagine David Attenborough is narrating it. You can add or subtract a few points depending on how interested you are personally in ocean studies.

Playing Beyond Blue shortly after playing Maneater is quite ironic. Not long ago, I was having the time of my life killing every single marine animal and/or naive human tourist with my super mutated bull shark, but now I’m here playing a relaxing diving game while learning more about marine wildlife and how whales communicate with each other. And I actually enjoyed my time with it, before you think I’d get bored by not being able to murder a single goldfish.

I loved my time with Beyond Blue. It’s incredibly relaxing being able to swim through the ocean, and mesmerising to reach depths that many of us will never see in real life. From its interesting story, fantastic soundtrack and admirable inclusion of educational elements, Beyond Blue is an excellent title that a wide gamut of gamers will enjoy. It isn’t free of issues, but they don’t deter from the magic of diving into an unexplored underwater world.

Beyond Blue is an entertaining diversion for a few hours. Unfortunately, its fun gameplay is held back by its small scale and clunky writing.