Plus, as you get the chance to learn about the fish, aquatic mammals and sea-going reptiles in the area, you could even describe Endless Planet as educational.īy now you’ll probably have made up your mind. If you liked watching the BBC’s The Blue Planet, there’s a good chance that you’ll like playing this. The first sight of a whale is genuinely impressive, while undersea caves, deep rifts and sunken ruins offer moments of awe to those with the right mentality. What’s more, the Ocean throws up more and more spectacular secrets as the game goes on.
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With all this plus a sizable chunk of ocean to explore, there’s actually quite a lot to do. There’s even a slightly weird side-plot regarding a colleague and her dead father. You can train dolphins to do tricks and muck around with visiting penguins, or just sit back in a lounger and watch the waves. The game packs in side-quests, from collecting fish information to sorting out the local aquarium to taking requested photos and sending them off to a local agent. It’s not that there’s nothing to do or no sense of progression. Don’t worry if the game’s choice of music horrifies you, either, as the game allows you to use your own MP3 soundtrack from a plugged-in SD memory card. Add in a worryingly pleasant Classic FM style soundtrack featuring New Zealand chanteuse Hayley Westenra and time drifts by in a thoroughly agreeable fashion – providing you like this sort of thing. I’d love to see a version of this running on the 360 or PS3, with more intricate coral and more realistic textures, yet Endless Ocean does capture some of the feeling of swimming around in warm blue waters and getting close to the aquatic fauna in the immediate locale. While not a stunning feast of visual detail, Endless Ocean is one of the nicest looking games I’ve seen on Wii, mainly thanks to some gorgeous underwater lighting, well-designed environments and some lifelike, well-animated creatures. You can just chill out and enjoy the view.Īnd it has to be said that the overall ambiance backs up that attitude. You can’t get too lost as the boat is always one menu selection away. There are no real time limits and you’re in no danger of running out of air. The controls don’t need to be crazily responsive because fast reactions really aren’t a factor. Press A over fish and assorted swimming animals, and you can focus on them, then stroke them until you’re able to identify and add them to your creature journal. Press the + button when you’re near to a surface, and the view zooms in for added detail. Press the B trigger and he swims towards the selected point. The controls are based on the pointer functionality of the Wii remote: aim the blue dot on the screen and your diver shifts position to follow it. This is pretty cool, because this is a game you can relax into. The game has clever ways of hinting where to go next, but the only limits you’ll find initially are how far away from the boat you can travel and how deep you can safely dive. You will receive missions through your handy smartphone – can you go to such and such a spot and check it our, or guide so and so for a dive around the Coral Forest and make damn sure he sees a Humphead Wrasse – but a lot of the time it’s up to you where you drop anchor and hop out for a dive. Endless Ocean is not the sort of game that likes to tell you what to do and when to do it. Based on a small boat, your job is to hang around the sea West of the fictional Pacific isle of Manauri, and have a good nose around beneath the waves. In this case, you’re a new diver joining an organisation that specialises in marine exploration.
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Not only is it not composed of a series of useless mini-games enclosed in a rather sorry soft-porn wrapper, but it gives you something worthwhile to do with your time. The Dead or Alive Extreme games tried something similar, but Endless Ocean does it all much better. Instead, think of it as a sort of virtual holiday not the sort where you visit sights or engage in dangerous activities, but the sort where you chill out, take things easy and soak up the sun. It’s bloodless, gutless and shockingly low in tension. It’s part of the reason why we all feel good after a bout of Half-Life 2, Resident Evil 4 or even Motorstorm.Įndless Ocean is not a cathartic game. In games, we generally take this to mean an almighty outburst of violence, but it can also be a climax of fear, excitement or tension. Aristotle coined the phrase around 335BC, meaning a huge emotional purge that’s supposed to cleanse you of your negative energies and restore your appetite for living.
Many games we play are basically cathartic.
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