Dave the Diver: Cute, colorful and charming, but Dave sure knows how to overstay his welcome. Variety becomes “too much of a good thing”, and eventually you're bogged down in so much managerial work that Dave the Diver can feel like a series of chores that will, interestingly enough, have you opt out of the diving portion most often.
If you know this game, you know you dive for fish by day and manage a sushi restaurant by night. “Cool,” you're thinking, “I loved Moonlighter!” Well, Dave is comically ambitious, as he chooses to moonlight as many different things: waiter, bartender, busboy, and photographer; he'll farm eggs, vegetables, fish, and underwater crops; occasionally hunt terrorists and ancient leviathans. Really, Dave does it all while managing to hang onto his curvaceous figure much like Hurley from “Lost”.
So there's lots going on, but that's good, right? You just gotta trust me: this game goes on far too long and is crammed with too much stuff. Dave the Diver is very good until it isn't, probably around the one third or halfway mark is where there's too much you "have" to do.
The diving part of Dave the Diver becomes almost an afterthought; you'll be overflowing with fish from your farms at a certain point so that when you do finally dive, it's to grab something specific that of course you'll then have trouble finding. You just saw a cookiecutter shark last time, where are the bastards, now?!
Despite looking like a game that your grandma might play, Dave the Diver is surprisingly cruel to you, too. When you die diving, you can only bring back one thing and the rest is wasted time. This is far too brutal, when your weight is high enough you may have dozens of things you were hoping to bring back (this is of course before your farms are self-sustaining).
The decision to tie your health to your oxygen was probably a poor one, as you may look over at your O2 and say “90? Plenty of time!” but then a narwhal only has to bump into you for an instant death, losing all the rare minerals you'd just grabbed that run. Bringing back a single item is almost worse than nothing at all as you're forced to go through your entire inventory and see exactly what you won't be bringing back home.
Dave is far too sluggish in the water for this lousy combat system. He can barely dodge (if you even equip the right necklace, that is) and his aiming is terrible, he can't aim up or down. Are his weapons good? Well, you'd be a fool to bring anything other than the dart gun or net launcher, as those get you the three star fish with the added chance of eggs for your farms. So even though there are sniper rifles and grenade launchers, you'll very likely not even upgrade them, cause why bother? Maybe you'll bring a rifle if you know you're headed for a boss fight, but that's about it.
My favorite part of this game was the sushi restaurant managing. I liked enhancing my food options before choosing the menu then kicking things off, watching my freshly-upgraded staff help me sling expensive dishes and clean up messes to make room for the next sucker I could rip off. It's good, but it's only a fraction of the game. Everything becomes a small fraction and you can't really skip much of anything if you want to make money and get Bancho his five star ratings each night. You can let your Tamagotchi die, but you won't miss out on vegetables and fish, those are big bucks.
I had a good deal of fun with the restaurant, but the other main reason for giving it the high(er) rating despite not loving too much of the game is the incredible pixel art. The cutscenes are phenomenal and even the “simple” pixelated models of characters look great against their 3D backdrops. The sounds are lacking, especially compared to the visuals; I don't think a single musical track is worth listening to and none of the sound effects are particularly good. The journalist's “voice”, god, was that painful to hear over and over.
You definitely get a lot of bang for your buck with Dave the Diver, but I doubt many people will enjoy new minigame after new minigame. If you were hoping to just dive and serve food, you might hate how convoluted this game becomes. I just got sick of it eventually.
I wouldn't really recommend the game.
If you know this game, you know you dive for fish by day and manage a sushi restaurant by night. “Cool,” you're thinking, “I loved Moonlighter!” Well, Dave is comically ambitious, as he chooses to moonlight as many different things: waiter, bartender, busboy, and photographer; he'll farm eggs, vegetables, fish, and underwater crops; occasionally hunt terrorists and ancient leviathans. Really, Dave does it all while managing to hang onto his curvaceous figure much like Hurley from “Lost”.
So there's lots going on, but that's good, right? You just gotta trust me: this game goes on far too long and is crammed with too much stuff. Dave the Diver is very good until it isn't, probably around the one third or halfway mark is where there's too much you "have" to do.
The diving part of Dave the Diver becomes almost an afterthought; you'll be overflowing with fish from your farms at a certain point so that when you do finally dive, it's to grab something specific that of course you'll then have trouble finding. You just saw a cookiecutter shark last time, where are the bastards, now?!
Despite looking like a game that your grandma might play, Dave the Diver is surprisingly cruel to you, too. When you die diving, you can only bring back one thing and the rest is wasted time. This is far too brutal, when your weight is high enough you may have dozens of things you were hoping to bring back (this is of course before your farms are self-sustaining).
The decision to tie your health to your oxygen was probably a poor one, as you may look over at your O2 and say “90? Plenty of time!” but then a narwhal only has to bump into you for an instant death, losing all the rare minerals you'd just grabbed that run. Bringing back a single item is almost worse than nothing at all as you're forced to go through your entire inventory and see exactly what you won't be bringing back home.
Dave is far too sluggish in the water for this lousy combat system. He can barely dodge (if you even equip the right necklace, that is) and his aiming is terrible, he can't aim up or down. Are his weapons good? Well, you'd be a fool to bring anything other than the dart gun or net launcher, as those get you the three star fish with the added chance of eggs for your farms. So even though there are sniper rifles and grenade launchers, you'll very likely not even upgrade them, cause why bother? Maybe you'll bring a rifle if you know you're headed for a boss fight, but that's about it.
My favorite part of this game was the sushi restaurant managing. I liked enhancing my food options before choosing the menu then kicking things off, watching my freshly-upgraded staff help me sling expensive dishes and clean up messes to make room for the next sucker I could rip off. It's good, but it's only a fraction of the game. Everything becomes a small fraction and you can't really skip much of anything if you want to make money and get Bancho his five star ratings each night. You can let your Tamagotchi die, but you won't miss out on vegetables and fish, those are big bucks.
I had a good deal of fun with the restaurant, but the other main reason for giving it the high(er) rating despite not loving too much of the game is the incredible pixel art. The cutscenes are phenomenal and even the “simple” pixelated models of characters look great against their 3D backdrops. The sounds are lacking, especially compared to the visuals; I don't think a single musical track is worth listening to and none of the sound effects are particularly good. The journalist's “voice”, god, was that painful to hear over and over.
You definitely get a lot of bang for your buck with Dave the Diver, but I doubt many people will enjoy new minigame after new minigame. If you were hoping to just dive and serve food, you might hate how convoluted this game becomes. I just got sick of it eventually.
I wouldn't really recommend the game.