Dave The Diver Review

ign.com:

Just like an actual ocean, Dave The Diver is beautiful at first glance, but then you dive into it to find a vast, wonderful world to explore just beneath the surface. This waterlogged adventure manages to exceed the expectations of an already hilarious premise with some of the most irresistible exploration, sim management, and minigames I’ve seen in a long time, and which kept me completely glued to my seat for far more hours than I’d ever intended. With characters and a story that are deceptively substantial and more content packed into it than I could have anticipated, Dave The Diver never stopped surprising me. If you would have told me that one of the best games I’d play this year, standing alongside juggernauts with mega-million-dollar budgets, would end up being a retro indie RPG where you play as an obese SCUBA diver who runs a sushi shop…I would have believed you, actually. That sounds awesome. And it is.

Dave The Diver’s story focuses on a loveable group of coworkers turned friends who open a sushi bar near the mysterious Blue Hole: a seemingly magical stretch of water known to change its terrain and aquatic ecosystem every day. You play as the titular Dave himself, a rotund, soda-chugging diver who begrudgingly caters to the whims of everyone in his life, including the occasional bossy sea creature. What follows is an endearingly silly tale involving a secret society of merfolk, some really aggressive wildlife-protection enthusiasts, and dozens of people making very rude comments about your character’s weight.

But while it comes off a bit shallow at first, the story shockingly develops into something more substantial, with characters that are far more complex than their pixelated faces initially suggest. Even