Beyond Blue Reviews
Beyond Blue lets you swim alongside marine biologists from the future, tagging and learning about the creatures that occupy our world's oceans.
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.
There’s something strangely endearing with Beyond Blue that’ll keep you playing through to the end. The simplicity of its scan/travel gameplay loop does become tiresome by the end but the calming, meditative state of exploring the ocean and watching these creatures in their natural habitat is worth persevering for. The story has some nice emotional beats too and the characters each have their own motivations and a decent level of depth. It may not be as good as Subnautica or Abzu but it does have the edge over those games when it comes to educational content. For that alone, Beyond Blue is well worth playing through and a reminder of how precious and beautiful our watery world really is.
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 is a beautiful and enchanting journey. The attention to detail and devotion to its creation, along with the companion documentary segments, show a love for the ocean. It's a little on the short side, but there's still so much to enjoy in this gorgeously crafted game.
Worst of all, so much of the effort that’s gone into making the very deepest locales seem melancholy and strange is wasted, as there’s no sense of scale. Thanks to handwaved technology, Morai is capable of diving in her regular suit even at abyssal depths, and there’s no real sense in having to travel to get there. The madness-inviting vertical isolation of the deeps, the monstrous cold and the pressure, are all absent. These lonely pits feel like any of the other levels: roughly oval patches of water, about so high and so wide, with a certain number of fish spawned within them. It’s not that I’m unimpressed, or ungrateful, you understand. I just think the developers set themselves a near-impossible task.
Beyond Blue is a concise experience. You can finish it in about two to three hours, and you can 100% it in less than five. While I really enjoyed all of the educational value that the game provides, if you don’t happen to be interested in the real-world ocean, there isn’t any reason for you to play this game.
Beyond Blue is a balanced game that walks on a fine line between a fun experience, and an educational one.
Review in Persian | Read full review
For anyone who wants to be a marine biologist... this is a good casual immersion into the wonderous depths.
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.
Beyond Blue is a welcome bonus experience, correctly priced and manages to get the balance between being an educational title as well as a solid gaming experience as well which so few others have successfully done. I truly hope to see follow up titles or content for this game as the wonder of Ocean life was ever present just as it was with Blue Planet series of documentaries.
A very relaxing and enjoyable experience, specially for those ocean-lovers who will dream with the release of a VR version of it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
If you want to learn more about the ocean, this would be a great experience for you. If you want a beautiful, relaxed experience about fish, Beyond Blue just about misses the mark on that, unfortunately.
Beyond Blue is a brilliant combination of artistry and education, putting the ocean on its pedestal. The documentary format feels informative without being pushy, except glitches and mind-numbing gameplay overshadow it.
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.
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.
An aquatic adventure that tells a powerful story, carries an important message and teaches as well as entertains, Beyond Blue is an excellent game.
Whether you're looking for a chill, non-violent ocean adventure or an educational product for kids, Beyond Blue does both surprisingly well. Just don't expect an action-packed experience.
Beyond Blue is a calm, immersive and deeply didactic proposal, with a very simple gameplay that encourages us, little by little, to fall into their networks. Thanks to a visual section that portrays with great beauty the marine environments and their animals and a very remarkable voice casting, it is impossible not to fall exhausted at your feet. Of course, the proposal is short, because in about 3 hours (something more if we investigate in depth its scenarios) we will have realized its history. E-Line knows how to blur, like few others, that fine line that separates the didactic from the playful: a video game as rich in knowledge as it is absorbing in its playable part.
Review in Spanish | Read full review