Saturday Morning Gaming: Dave the Diver

Back in July, Reformed Republican told us about “Dave the Diver”. I checked it out and was kind of interested, kind of skeptical… “I’ll get it on sale”, I told myself. I put it on my wishlist and promptly forgot about it.

Well, that was a mistake. I bought it as part of Steam’s Black Friday sale and it is one of those “full price” kinda games. It’s exceptionally good. You should check it out. It’s only $20! And, you know what? I wouldn’t feel particularly ripped off if they had priced it at $30. I mean, I was pleased to pay 25% off or whatever the discount was for Black Friday but it’s good. It’s a quality game.

Here’s the conceit: You are Dave. You get called by one of your old buddies to do some light diving for a sushi restaurant. Dive, catch some fish during the day, then serve it up at the restaurant at night. The restaurant is on the water and oversits “the blue hole”, a mysterious feature of the ocean that changes every day. Sometimes it’s mapped out like this… other times like that… always similar to itself yesterday but never the same.

There’s a wacky cast of characters to interact with… a mercurial sushi chef who is an absolute genius, your weapons-dealing bestie who owns the boat that takes you out diving every day, a weapons expert who will craft/upgrade weapons for you, a host of goofy people who give you apps for your phone in the game, and goofy customers for your restaurant.

There are a couple of ways to play… the diving part of the game can be exceptionally relaxing in its own right. Swim around, catch fish for your restaurant. OH NO A SHARK okay, we’re having shark sushi, I guess… now to find some more clownfish.

And that’s practically a game you can just unwind with right there… punctuated with an exciting (if not stressful) restaurant simulator. Pour some green tea! Serve the sushi! Refill the wasabi! Clean the table! Pour a beer! Gah! I need to hire some servers! Oh, and hire some helper chefs! And we need more black vinegar!

And then you’re back on the water again. There are a host of upgrades to purchase (when you start out, you can only carry 9Kg of fish, your suit only lets you go down but so far, your harpoon is only but so powerful… and then you upgrade and upgrade again and now you can go deeper and catch bigger fish effortlessly and now you can carry more and your tanks hold more oxygen and so on and so forth. (You can also upgrade your dishes at the restaurant. I have the best Blue Tang in the region.)

You can also just power through the storyline. Get the package back from the creature that stole it. Make some archeological discoveries of a lost civilization. Make new friends. Learn the backstory behind how your genius sushi chef ended up in a little hole in the wall restaurant far away from civilization.

Periodically, there are little events that have you serve up specific fish (for a *LOT* more money) and these will help you with some of the higher-end upgrades. And you’ll learn how to best bring in tuna, or shark, or marlins…

And you’ll see new fish and remember that one kid in elementary school who knew *EVERYTHING* about salt water fishes and could rattle off genus and species for everything in the Great Barrier Reef and you’ll say “I haven’t thought about him in years… he would *LOVE* this game.”

And you’ll say “just one more dive, just one more dive, just one more dinner, just one more quest, just one more upgrade” and, holy cow, this game is *GOOD*.

So… what are you playing?

(Featured image is the game, not restaurant, menu from Dave the Diver. All screenshots taken by the author.)