There are very few titles like Beyond Blue: seabed as a setting, scientific advice and integration with real data to support the core mechanics, and a story of feelings between the protagonist and the whales as a central element, all elements that make you think of something. again and fresh. Too bad, however, that Beyond Blue is a title as beautiful on paper as it is revisable in practice: after less than three hours of play, ample enough to finish it, I took an evening of reflection to understand what I thought of the game. Unfortunately, despite the very high peaks in certain points, Beyond Blue remains a barely sufficient title, with a lot of unexpressed potential.
20.000 leagues under the sea
Let's start with an obligatory clarification: Beyond Blue is a narrative experience that was born with the idea of conveying a very specific message, and does nothing to hide it right from the start. It could open a long discussion on whether Beyond Blue can or cannot be considered a game in all respects, since it is clear that the mechanics have been built around the need to tell a situation, rather than the other way around. And if this is true for many other titles, the lack of gameplay variation, especially when compared to the huge variety of visual and scientific details, gives the title a strong aura of message conveyed by a video game, rather than a video game that also contains a message. This does not mean that what has been done is not valid, and it is good to underline it, but presenting Beyond Blue as a "graphic adventure", as reported on the Steam page, is misleading and suggests very different titles. This thesis is supported by Beyond Blue's complete lack of difficulty, so much so that it feels like watching a movie rather than playing a video game.
Given this premise, it must be said that the main narrative arc of Beyond Blue is very valid and intense, even if it ends in an anti-climatic way with a scene that makes the player say "ok I want to play the next level" , continuing instead with some static images and the credits. The protagonist has an engaging enthusiasm, able to make you passionate about cetology (the study of cetaceans, the more you know…), in the short time you will spend together. The relationship he creates with the animals he studies, the way he describes them and almost venerates them, will make even those who, like myself, certainly don't have a blue thumb smile behind the screen. The various pauses that the game takes, between one dive and another, in which we will have to converse with secondary characters including the protagonist's sister, and colleagues who collaborate with our searches.
Deep blue
If there's one thing Beyond Blue really excels at, it's the technique. Starting from the graphics, the real flagship of the title, one cannot fail to be amazed by the variety of settings presented in the few hours of play, by the myriad of fish, each with its own 3D model, from the backdrops, from the intense colors from the effects of the water, and even how different depths are shown based on the amount of light reaching them. It happens in some places to find yourself surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of fish, which move in all directions, creating "wow" moments in front of the screen. Precisely because of his ability to show himself, of all the faults that I would feel to attribute to Beyond Blue, the most serious is not having implemented virtual reality. Given the author's graphics, the average length of the title, and the strongly narrative inclination, it could have become a title of absolute respect in the panorama of immersive experiences.
Another great strength of Beyond Blue lies in the very high quality of the dubbing, which involves illustrious names such as Anna Akana (YouTube), Mira Furlan (Lost, Babylon 5), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Black Sails, Hotel Rwanda), and Ally Maki (Toy Story 4). Too bad they haven't managed to make the game's dialogues bearable either: between one dive and another, you will be forced to interact electronically with the other characters, being able to choose the phrase to say. Too bad, however, that many times the answers to be given would presuppose a specific knowledge of the character, as when we are asked what relationship we have with our sister, forcing us to invent the protagonist's past completely at random. It really stinks a lot of filling mechanics done without a purpose, and stuffed in between to enrich the contents.
For the rest, the game runs without infamy and without praise, with a soundtrack that will not remain in history but pleasant as a whole, and an interface as spartan as it is impactful and effective. The controls are simple and intuitive, and moving around is very simple. The objectives of the mission are always clear and the interface guides the player for the hand between one objective and another. Sometimes it makes you "hungry" for a more varied gameplay, since the mechanics are very repetitive and the variations that are introduced occur only once. It is possible that these mechanics have not been exploited too much so as not to distract the player's attention from the main message, but after a while you also get tired of looking for fish around the seabed, and would like something really different from the usual scan .
Running out of breath
Beyond Blue is a different experience from what we are used to. The choice to use video games as a dissemination tool must always be rewarded, but we must also admit that, in this case, it has not paid as much as in the past. The lack of gameplay variation and the flatness in some places cannot be erased by a solid narrative (which, however, stops too abruptly) or by state-of-the-art graphics.
In conclusion, Beyond Blue is a good manifesto for those who want to combine video games and science, albeit with its "but". A half point more must be given on trust, hoping that this experiment will bring greater investments and, hopefully, games worthy of the name and not just experiments.
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