The sorta fun thing suitable for summer
(Played for 20 hours on Steam Deck)
By the time yours truly made a purchase of Dave the Diver just before 2023’s Steam Summer Sale ended, it would not be fair to say that this indie title came out of nowhere. Scored 9 on ign dot com and a million sold on Steam definitely do not register as nowhere. It’s just that after paying full attention to the so-called independent scene for a full decade now, I feel nice to see nostalgia move with the times. Dave the Diver looks like something that can run on the original Playstation, though some of its polygonal assets (such as curves on some food and them sea mammals.) would be possible until the days of PS2.
The player character is clear enough, Dave the Diver with a design that could make one feel like playing as the late Ryan Davis. And before any of you start the “it’s refreshing to play a man old enough to have facial hair and beer gut in a video game” parade, let’s just remember that Nintendo’s Mario fits that bill as well. Of course, player character does not make a game, the seemingly ever-expanding world in front of them does.
It was an October day when Dave received a call from his old friend Cobra promising him sushi. After Dave reunited with his pal, he found out that there is a catch or two regarding the promised sushi, namely he got to catch the fish himself in an ever-shift underwater landscape and work at a sushi bar ran by a stoic black chef. What qualifies as work to Dave would make a nice summer escape for those who play this game during the dog days of summer.
Days in this game is separated into 3 parts: morning, afternoon and night. Morning and afternoon make up as day time when Dave is being a diver doing spearfishing and underwater salvage from the side-scrolling perspective. Speargun is the standard though there are other weapons like rifles and sleep darts. Dave’s oxygen countdown works as the life bar here, encounter fish who bite back like sharks would consume oxygen faster than the usual countdown.
Left trigger is for moving faster underwater and it consumes oxygen faster as well. Spear fishing and combat take up two buttons at least: Down face button to ready weapons and Right Trigger to fire. Left Stick is for aim instead of move when weapons are ready. For those that would bite back, the Right face button is dedicated to whack them to death if you got a powerful enough melee weapon. This being a video game ass video game, one would see boss fights, set pieces and all the gamey elements before the end credits roll.
By night the sushi bar management come into, putting up menu, research new dishes, hire up a staff and then there is the tense action of being a waiter, mainly to serve food and clean table when necessary. Serving drinks and resupply the wasabi paste also have mini games require the Right Stick. Then there are the special guests who would unlock new features like a upgrading app, a fish farm, a grain plus vegetable farm and something to help underwater activity. Later into the game there are cook offs which brought in some cooking mini games.
The game can be bit off at points. Like once I find those underwater drones that allow Dave to move fast underwater does not function during a run. Well, the game was made by only 29 people (If the count during we-dare-you-blast-us-all interactive end credit is to be believed), so take charm with the rough edges.
And what charm this game has. By now you all must heard all about its cut scenes. The pixelized motion comic style of yesteryear is a dying breed and I am just happy to see them kept alive here. Whether it’s someone’s socks knocked off by fine food, or parody of something known in video game or pop culture, manage to see one of those cut scenes can certainly keep one interested just after a too long salvage hunt or two.