With over a decade between Countless Ocean outings, I wasn’t positive what to anticipate with a brand new one in 2024. Everyone knows, or have not less than heard, that the Countless Ocean video games are a bit chill and relaxed, however these days, we’ve a whole lot of video games that fill that area – you recognize, “cozy video games”. So, can a grandparent of the style kick it within the trendy period? Let’s – dive into it.
For a calming kind of recreation, Countless Ocean Lumious positive doesn’t kick off as easily because it ought to; you’re thrust proper into the sport’s story and launched to SERA (Survey, Explorations, Analysis and Assistant AI), the sport’s narrator and in-game AI who walks you thru the story. They welcome you to the Ocean Analysis Mission, which is looking for out why the World Coral is dying. This large invertebrate is important to a wholesome Veiled Sea, but it surely’s not doing nicely in the mean time. Fortunately, you possibly can assist by scanning over 500 species of marine life to gather “gentle”, which is able to assist the World Coral restore itself.
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The story is just a few chapters lengthy, and a lot of the missions serve to be not more than tutorials. A number of standout ones carry the story ahead, however general, the atmosphere and the experiences will drive you extra to play this one. Plus, the unlock necessities for every chapter are ridiculous; you’ll want to scan hundreds of species of marine life to progress, and the ultimate chapter requires you to gather all of 1 specific merchandise, which, in 20 hours of gameplay, I’ve solely discovered lower than half.
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The story is only a distraction from the true meat of the sport, which is simply having fun with a dive with your self or others. In contrast to the final two video games, the place you go from location to location and dive, right here in Luminous, the Veiled Sea you dive into is completely different each time. The map has the identical grid sample, however the factors of curiosity, issues to scan, and treasures to search out are all randomly generated. In the course of the first dive I did, I used to be a bit frightened; it wasn’t till I rerolled primarily and received a extra thrilling map that it was extra enjoyable to play. A number of hours into the sport, I can see this method’s shortcomings as map parts repeat, and there’s a scarcity of massive set items – however on the identical time, it offers you the sensation of only one extra go.
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However the diving a part of the sport is sort of enjoyable and enjoyable. There’s no fish to pet, no sharks to subdue anymore – everybody within the Veiled Sea simply will get alongside. As you scan fish, sharks, and every thing else below the ocean, you acquire gentle to not solely assist progress within the story but in addition set a excessive rating, unlock extra tags to make use of to mark the map and acquire currencies to unlock extra outfits, stickers and emotes. The motion of your diver is de facto nimble, and in contrast to the opposite video games, it’s not usually you’ll get caught and undecided which means is up – the third time round, it’s fairly streamlined.
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You’ll be able to scan batches of aquatic life fairly rapidly; all of the fish (and I maintain saying fish regardless of there being all types of underwater life) you’ve gotten but to scan are all glowing blue; it’s defined within the recreation as algae. It makes discovering all of the belongings you’re but to scan simpler. The one factor I discovered annoying was whenever you’re first beginning out and scanning issues for the primary time, you could scroll by way of every fish in a college to get to the one you haven’t logged earlier than for it to be added. You may also log a photograph of every one to fill out your logbook. The sport retains a powerful quantity of statistics on what you do and issues to; it additionally has a spread of achievements to finish. There’s lots to do earlier than you 100% it.
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So, what’s a typical dive like? Relying on whether or not you leap in solo or begin (or be part of) a shared dive, the goal is to scan as a lot as you possibly can to search out as a lot treasure as you possibly can and uncover the mysterious UML (distinctive marine life) creatures as nicely. These creatures are summoned by discovering one other sea life on the map that offers an odd sign. These usually gigantic or prehistoric creatures are large and delightful, and there’s an entire listing of them to search out – no matter one you get is picked at random. The opposite huge thriller of the ocean is the Thriller Board; discovering distinctive treasures in your dives or performing little missions across the map will unlock areas on the Thriller Board.
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Whether or not you dive alone or with folks, something you discover or unlock carries throughout each modes. For those who discover a particular creature whereas enjoying with a good friend in a single dive web site, you don’t must do it once more by your self. That’s the place enjoying with others can come in useful, as you possibly can break up up the work and scour the map rapidly with extra folks. There was a dive session with different media varieties. Whereas just a few did attempt to assist full the missions on the dive, lots simply floated round – there’s no actual solution to set an goal with a gaggle of as much as 30 folks, however you possibly can tag objects of curiosity as you scuba round and see what others have tagged as nicely. There’s additionally a enjoyable function: after uncovering 80% of a map, you possibly can share that map with others with a dive code. Right here’s one I fairly loved.
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For a recreation that’s meant to be enjoying it nevertheless you need and chill, the story mode necessities aren’t difficult to unlock the chapters, however there’s a little bit of grind. The grind is much less when you’ve gotten folks to dive with. The sport does provide you with 7 days free on-line to check out in case you’re not a Nintendo Swap On-line subscriber, however you may not get as a lot as you need out of this recreation in case you’re not enjoying with others. What begins as a chill diving recreation, the place you go round scanning, turns into an affordable scan fest to bump numbers up. Particularly when finishing every thing in a timed dive. The sport is at odds with itself on this regard. All on-line classes are timed, however there’s greater than sufficient time to search out one UML. Solo dives are untimed and you may spend actually hours simply exploring a map (offered its a great one).
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Consider it or not, that is the primary Countless Ocean recreation in HD, and being caught in SD on the Wii meant the low-resolution blurry visuals helped promote the underwater environment. Don’t get me mistaken, Luminous generally is a stunning recreation in locations, however at different occasions, the map is a desolate underwater panorama with plops of coral and fish sporadically hanging round. The random nature of the map means there’s no thought into spacing issues out. The one or two factors of curiosity on the maps are nice; an ice cave, a sunken pirate ship, and the caves and ruins that go proper right down to what seem like lava are highlights. The sport by no means takes itself severely; the variety of cross-species and extinct animals in the identical place, not to mention not ripping you or one another aside, ought to be an apparent inform. Many of the marine line is modelled nicely, however some species have just a few low-resolution enamel or different odd issues. However actually, this recreation has so many species that it greater than makes up for it.
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There’s combined information on the music entrance, too; the primary recreation belted out licenced music on repeat, and the second recreation toned issues down a bit volume-wise – however there have been nonetheless some licenced music tracks. All of that is gone in Lumiuious with a whole soundtrack of sentimental ocean-suited music; it’s not horrible; it’s suitably enjoyable and serene – but it surely feels a step again from the earlier recreation.
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There’s additionally an issue with the SERA AI character as a result of nobody voices it; it’s an precise AI voice (like that annoying TikTok voice). For a recreation with over 500 issues to scan in and encyclopedic entries to learn out, utilizing an AI works positive – however they’re additionally utilizing it as the one voice within the recreation through the story; there’s one other character within the recreation who simply mute very like the earlier video games which had no voice performing. It feels low cost and weird when the AI tries to crack some jokes.
That’s the final vibe of Countless Ocean Luminous. Regardless of the nice work that has gone into cataloguing all these creatures and making a enjoyable recreation round scanning all of them and exploring with buddies, it appears like corners have been lower, and the price range was only a bit scant.
Countless Ocean is the granddaddy of the comfy recreation, and there are some nice chilled experiences available right here. Diving with a bunch of individuals, uncovering mysteries, plus cataloguing and photographing a few of the ocean’s cutest and most disgusting creatures is a whole lot of enjoyable. Nonetheless, the grating AI-voiced story and the near-essential requirement for on-line to get probably the most out of it goes towards the chilled vibe for which the collection is understood. It’s a recreation considerably at odds with itself, however deep down, it’s a enjoyable, chilled expertise one that you would be able to share with large group of individuals.
Ranking: 3.5/5