Beyond Blue Reviews
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.
Should you be looking for a brief distraction or simply a game with a bare input to see most of what it has to offer, Beyond Blue provides a quaint, if a touch short, detour away from the regular catalog of current-year releases.
We've seen how this can be implemented with <b>Ubisoft</b>'s brilliant “Discovery Tour” mode for both Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey -- an interactive journey through history; fact and myth alike, where you control the information available to you, and dive in as deep as <i>you</i> like.
For anyone who wants to be a marine biologist... this is a good casual immersion into the wonderous depths.
Despite some occasional framerate drops and a slightly twitchy camera, Beyond Blue is a thoroughly relaxing and educational dive through some of the most beautifully-diverse underwater landscapes on the PS4.
An educational way to explore the deep blue sea at your own pace.
If you're the type who likes to relax with the calming sites and sounds of an ocean life documentary, Beyond Blue will allow you to get more interactive with it. The educational and narrative moments don't fully gel with the undersea exploration, and the visuals get murky on the Switch, but that won't matter when you're exploring these deep, safe waters.
Beyond Blue is an adventure that will not be remembered for its gameplay, but it's something different from what we usually see in gaming and brings a strong message with it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Writing that's worth wincing at does little to drag down a hyper-relaxing and educational diving game. Beyond Blue lets you take a breath in a medium packed with games that try their hardest to make your blood pressure skyrocket.
Beyond Blue's educational approach to studying sea life and learning about the various effects humanity has on life is outstanding. While marine biologists look to tag and consider these precious creatures' habits, learning about their behavior, family development, health, diseases, etc., some seem to disrupt and cause harm. The experience is relatively short; however, I genuinely enjoyed learning and scanning all of the inhabitants.
Beyond Blue handles educational material successfully. It makes its ideas easy to digest, approachable and most of all, fun.
Beyond Blue excels at being a relaxing experience set in a beautiful ocean. The waters teem with wildlife and its environments are diverse enough to tempt multiple visits. The result is a great educational tool to teach people of all ages about its wildlife. Unlike its partners, it misses its chance to drive home the importance of conservation, though. With more time devoted to the important issues it raises, it could have taught us so much more.
Beyond Blue has noble intentions, with an urgent and vital message about our impact on the Earth. However, it doesn't do itself justice. Although there is some decent content in here – videos, music, sound design, gameplay, narrative – those parts do little to support or enhance one another. Gameplay is soothing but one-note, the video documentaries don't frame the missions and neither are well connected to the narrative. While there are moments of majesty in exploring the ocean, the limited draw distance and pop-in frequently interrupt the awe. Edutainment's a hard one to pull off, and Beyond Blue feels less like an awesome rock concert about dolphins and more like your science teacher trying to do a rap.
Overall, Beyond Blue is an interesting game with some solid story strands to propel its underwater gameplay. Its emotional impact doesn’t reach the heights of the likes of Firewatch, and its limited gameplay may put some players off if they want something more substantial or challenging, but nonetheless this is a well crafted and calm title that proves its worth. When it comes to education-based games, this is a good example of how engaging it can be.
The main problem of Beyond Blue is that, in the end, it doesn't do enough to fulfill its main task: to inspire curiosity about the beautiful Blue world of the ocean and make you want to watch all the documentaries of the same name.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Beyond Blue does exactly what it set out to do. It isn't trying to compete with action oriented games but instead focuses on a part of our world so often overlooked to create an incredible sense of place, beauty, and conservation out of the people playing it.
Beyond Blue excels in presenting gorgeous marine environments stuffed to the brim with fascinating ocean life and interesting places to explore. Whether you're swimming with humpback whales or exploring underwater caverns, this is an experience that really does make waves.
Beyond Blue is an educational game that delivers its lessons in a very relaxing manner. Players spend most of the game swimming around and looking at fish, and that's totally fine. Though it doesn't nail the story, that's not really the point – the documentary footage is informative and interesting. Beyond Blue is well worth the time for those curious about the depths of the sea, and the subtle ecological lessons it teaches are valuable enough to overlook its shortcomings.
Beyond Blue is a relaxing, short $20 edutainment game that’ll be a fun time for gamers who are curious about the deep blue sea and its inhabitants. Just don’t go into it expecting gameplay that’s deeper than a puddle.
Beyond Blue is a relaxing experience that will appease players who cannot get enough nature documentaries on Netflix. I loved taking my time and scanning creatures and just exploring the ocean. There is a lot of interesting info wrapped around a solid gaming experience. Beyond Blue is the kind of game that players will just know they will enjoy by looking at it.