This game is fantastic! Beautiful graphics that really immerse you in the water. Lots to do and explore.
This is a very fun relaxing game. It's somewhat educational too, I feel like I can identify a lot more sea creatures now! The music is nice and the story lines are fun. It's a really fun distraction but easy to walk away from as well.
The game is basically an adventure game, with missions to fulfill and "prizes" (=honors) just for exploring all corners and "making acquaintance" with all to-be-cataloged species. The visuals and the music are great and they will entice anyone to actually try diving.
It is similar in structure to "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix", regarding the freedom it gives the player on choosing in which order to undertake the missions. Different, for instance, of "Zelda - Twilight Princess" which had a more linear structure.
I recommend this game specially for young people, up to 13 years, as it will sooth them and instill good values. (Teens on the range 14 to 18 will probably find the game too slow for their adrenalin-rushed pace.)
Thumbs up!
This game is quite fun. If you're considering buying it, just do it already. It's such a unique experience that you won't regret it. It's crazy how relaxing it is to be underwater exploring different regions of the world, all to the sound of you slowly breathing through your air tank. You definitely get a sense of wonderment each time you discover a new creature or new hidden area. When you play this, do it on on a big screen television with all the lights off -- and just relax.
I am not a "gamer" but I love this wii game because it's so fun "play scuba diving" - learning interesting things about ocean critters, diving in all different parts of the world. I love that there's a story that you follow that keeps you wondering "what's next". The grandkids just watched as I played this last time but they were so into the story and what was happening next. Finally, it's just total escapism and the perfect antidote to winter blahs to snorkel in this amazingly realistic graphic animation. Looks like a movie and sometimes it's so realistic it looks like a video. Well worth the price!
I generally concur with all the other rave reviews (amazing graphics: check; lots of levels of exploration: check; peaceful experience with soothing music: check; meandering exploration permitted and encouraged: check), but write to note how much my 6 year-old daughter LOVES this game. It has many educational features including compass reading, marine biology info, puzzle solving (how to break the ice pillars?), spatial-memory skills (where was the Wreck of the Emerald Lady?), time management (there's always that ticking air-tank!), geography, and reading. But it never feels like an educational "game" in which learning is the whole point. It's also nice that the violence is minimal (indeed, unnaturally so - my daughter asked me the second day why none of the animals in the game eat other animals) and there's nothing I worry about my daughter seeing in the game if I am not watching her play. I usually do watch her play though because she derives such joy from it. She is really excited about our next snorkeling trip, and it has been amazing to hear her at aquariums name 100s of fish by sight alone. (i can't say the same for myself, but it really struck a chord with her!) Buy it for your kids and enjoy it as a mini vacation for yourself.
I am totally hooked on this game. I've been playing video games since Pong, Odyssey and Atari 2600, so I'd say I have some experience.
Pros:
The graphics are excellent (for a Wii). For instance, watch the water when you are interacting with a dolphin partner (training or giving a show), especially when s/he enters the water after a jump. Or watch the diving boat rise and fall with the waves, when it's at the dock.
It is totally unbelievable how interesting this game is and how many features it has. There are hundreds of species of fish/birds/mammals to "collect" in my handbook. There are 200 salvage items to pick up + 100 coins I have to find.
I have to collect different styles of haircuts and pieces of clothing/diving gear. I have to collect pieces of maps until they are complete and interact with every different species of animal. I have to build a coral reef and train multiple dolphins different tricks. I have to take pictures and submit them to magazines for publishing. I have to design exhibits in an aquarium. I have to earn and be awarded 155 different titles. I can take visitors on diving tours and take orders to search for hidden treasure.
You can change your clothing and hairstyle, take a shower, nap in a hammock, build a bonfire and sit and watch the coastline. Not only that, but you can earn a jukebox and change the background music. (I read somewhere that you can load MP3's onto an SD card and play your own music, but I haven't tried this yet.) Most of these options either help you to earn, or spend, money.
There are multiple story lines that can be taken in or out of order, which is a blessing, because some of the puzzles are a little difficult to figure out. So it would be nice to have some type of game guide made.
If you look at all of the awards you can earn, you'll see that this game will take a very long time, if you wish to get every one. (I still have to earn 1 million 'dollars,' which I then have to spend and then will have to earn 2 million more to earn another one of the titles. I only hope it means I have to earn a total of $2 mil, not have that much in the bank at once.
Cons:
After a while, it gets a little monotonous, however. Especially if you play more than a couple of hours a day. Plus, you'll probably get tired of having to watch EVERY VISITOR arrive on a jet ski without being able to click past the scene.
The game does promote evolution in some of the comments, which I don't personally believe, so that's a little bit of a pain. I'd consider that minor, though.
Plus, when you have to find and heal some animals, the game makes the cause "those thoughtless humans." Granted, humans have polluted and continue to pollute the earth, for the most part, but humans are also the only creatures doing anything about it.
The game is a little unrealistic:
-You meet dolphins around the world (the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Amazon, to name a few) and just kidnap them back to your tropical paradise/base of operations. So this only supports the other side of the "thoughtless human" theme. As in, "Oh, yeah. I befriended a dolphin. Let me take him home whether he wants me to or not. Not to mention whether he can thrive or even survive in water that is a different temperature from his normal habitat."
-Not to mention, all of the ladies/men that come to the island have "perfect 10" bodies. I mean, seriously, where are the beer-bellies & baby-weight?!
-I won't even mention the unrealism of the Pulsar, as this has been mentioned in other reviews.
It seems almost impossible to get an A or B grade on the photo publishing. And you have to get 20 of these to win one of the awards. Really, some of the fish you can only zoom in so far, and they still say that you need to focus on the subject. C'mon!
Finally, this game can take over your life, if you let it. There are so many requests coming in (dolphin show requests, salvage requests, guided-tour requests and picture requests) that you can't do them all, but if you try, you spend all of your time doing that and not doing any diving.
I'm sure I've missed something. But I guess you'll just have to get the game to find out what! :)
I'd love to go diving someday, but I'd probably not get to do more than a day of diving on a vacation. This game is about as close as I'll ever to living a worldwide underwater documentary.
This is a game that builds your underwater imagination and gives you true adventures. Movies and video games teach our kids that there is no adventure without stuffing every moment with action and explosions. Instead of shoving entertainment down a kid's throat, this game brings back memories of exploring the woods behind my house when I was younger and creating my own experiences. Teenagers who've already been brainwashed into modern movie ideology might find it too dumb because of it's lack of violence or their type of "action", but imaginative kids will have exciting trips into underwater worlds!
It's fun to play, and the only violence is when a shark or something attacks (and you subdue them in a non-violent way). I could swim for a few hours in the area I'm in now and not cover the same ground twice! The little bad I can say about the game is really irrelevant compared to the good!
The good:
-large areas to explore with lots of stuff to find.
-goals and freedom. A better non-violent sandbox game than animal crossing! (ok, low violence)
-while the graphics won't knock your socks off, they're great wii graphics.
-I like the relaxing music. A lot of people say it's new-agey, but I think of new-agey being all synthy and blobus. But it just seems to be relaxing music that fits the pace of the game.
-$30. I mean really, this is a full game being released at a budget price.
The bad:
-The story isn't so amazing.
-No spoken text.
The not sure yet:
-There's some fantasy in the special tool you have to heal and calm fish and the story has some supernatural influences. At first I thought I thought the stuff took me out of the reality of the game, but the story and the tool are starting to grow on me.
-You don't swim very fast. But this both relaxes you and adds more tension to when you're low on air (even though there isn't much of a penalty to run out of air).
-Haven't had time to try the multiplayer, but I hope to soon! I'm sad that you can't complete the game co-op online, but it still sounds cool.
A small note is that I was concerned because the box's ESRB rating says "mild suggestive themes" for playing with my nephews and nieces. I looked it up on the ESRB website and the mild suggestive theme is: "And a collection book containing information about constellations and legendary Greek gods includes the following passage: 'Apollo, god of the sun, was deceived by the raven, who acted as his messenger, into believing that his lover had been unfaithful to him.'" So there seems to be no real "suggestive themes".
I've only had this for today, so I know my review is only based on the beginning of the game. I promise to update in a week or so when I'm much deeper into it. But, I do suggest you pick this up while it comes with the free wii speak since the wii speak is currently $16 alone. $30 for both is a steal!
I really didn't expect much from this game except having some fun swimming in the ocean. It turned out to be so much more than that. There were so many fun quests, treasure hunts and secret places to find. It just goes on and on with new twists and turns. I was addicted and my husband even poked fun at me. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes a more layed back game with lots of fun.
I wish there were more games like this for the Wii. This is an excellent game as is the first version. I would recommend to anyone that enjoys games outside of first person shooters. Any real gamer should enjoy this. Its also a very nice game to look at especially at the moment; its a grey dull winter outside currently.
One problem, that might not bother some, is that this game references global warming and other environmental BS. I really do not like it when people put messages into things to brainwash young minds that might be playing this. I have to explain to my kids that global warming fake and make them understand that these message are put into things because nut jobs cant back up their claims with evidence, so they repeat the message again and again. Then people start to believe it and the nut jobs start raking in the money (al gore). This is the reason I took of a star on the rating.
If you have a mind and can see past the propaganda there is a great adventure game here.
After completing the first game, I was looking forward to this game and pre-ordered it. After it arrived, I played it almost every day and yet I am still playing it as there is so much to do.
The main storyline is quite straightforward and easy to follow. Unlike the first game's storyline, there were some tense moments in this game which just added to the fun. Some of these tense but memorable moments included being attacked by a giant pulsar immune shark for the first time and being trapped underwater while air is running out and everything is collapsing.
The bigger draw of this game occurs outside of the main storyline. Even after the main storyline is completed, the game continues with a new goal which takes awhile to complete (unless one is obsessive about it). In addition, there are many side quests such as Salvage quests, Treasure Hunts, and animal investigation. Of course, there is the usual request fulfillment (photos, guided tours, and salvage requests) and the usual search to fill up the marine encyclopedia/coin collection/salvaged items.
Even if the above is not enough, I know there are quests involving the dolphins as there is a massive checklist of titles that lists mini goals to complete and I'm not even a quarter done with it.
And before I forget, something that I wanted in the first game that I finally found in this game was the ability to take photos of the wildlife and scenery. Instead of just saving it into the album like the first game, the photos can also be saved on a SD card for outside viewing/blogging!
I was searching for a game that is not fighting or racing but had objects and worlds that are unlocked throughout the game. This is it. It is SO much fun. I'm about 12 or 13 hours into the game and just love it. This game actually scares me at times to the point where my heart is POUNDING. I never thought a game would do that...but you see a shark or an eel and you think it's going to kill you and you are just frantically trying to find somewhere to go to get away from whatever is about to kill you. It's a really fun game. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a game that is more "mature" if you will and more for adults. I'm only 25 so I like both kids and adult games and this one is probably more adult than kid-ish. Love it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first Endless Ocean, but found that once I had explored all the areas on the map, the game became a bit repetitive. The sequel corrects most of the gripes I had about the original. Improvements include:
- No more having to repeatedly "touch" or feed new creatures in order to have their names appear. Simply hitting the 'A' button when a creature is selected focuses on the creature and shows its name.
- A more expansive storyline. Still a bit simplistic, but more interesting than the original.
- A much larger world to explore. I am several hours into the game, so I don't know just how much more there is to be revealed, but already there are far more diving locales, than the single one in the original. You can also go exploring on the shoreline. This is how you discover new marine mammals, as opposed to having them randomly pop-up on your boat in the original.
- More to do. There are side quests, and special requests that are separate from the main storyline.
- Some dangers are present. Diving is an inherently dangerous pursuit, something not apparent in the original. It took forever to run out of air in the original, and there were no creatures that posed any danger. Now you need to plan your dives more careful, as air doesn't last as long (though you can earn money to upgrade your gear and get longer dive times). There are encounters with dangerous creatures that you can calm with your "pulsar" tool. Coming into contact with them hastens the use of your air. This adds some more excitement value.
I have not yet tried the Wii Speak feature, nor cooperative online play. I don't believe either feature is necessary to enjoy the game, though they may be nice extras.
In summary if you liked the original, I expect that you will like the sequel even more. If you like role playing and quest driven games, you will probably enjoy this. It is a nice way to unwind, as opposed to the typical more frantic game. This is a single player game that all ages can enjoy.
I generally concur with most everything that has been mentioned in the other glowing reviews, I just wanted to add my own personal perspective. I'm 33 and have a high-stress job, and I use my Wii to unwind after a hard day at the office. However, I don't always feel like jumping into the gore-fest of Resident Evil 4, nor do I always have the mental focus for a strategy game or something that requires intense concentration. I was initially skeptical about Blue World and thought the concept sounded ridiculous, but I decided to take a chance on it anyway. What I have found is a game that is oddly addicting and very hypnotic. It is such a great way to relax and unwind that I find myself sticking it in nearly every day. It's a total brain massage. There's enough of a linear storyline to keep me interested in progressing forward, but the game allows you to go at your own speed without being rushed. I never thought that just swimming around interacting with animals and collecting treasure would be quite so fun. I was amazed that what generally look like pretty simple maps are actually filled with lots of little nooks and crannies to explore that you won't find unless you just get out there and explore. I'm not always in the mood to identify every variety of sea slug or flounder, but there are occasionally times that the completionist in me wants to work on finding all ~300. If the game were entirely pointless and one's time and effort were not rewarded it would not be able to sustain my interest as a diving simulation alone, but there are enough unlockables and equipment upgrades and new missions/maps available that it's enough of a motivating factor to keep me interested in accomplishing everything. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the online play is pretty poor. You can't save your progress or accomplishments in multiplayer mode? Lame. I suspect no one is buying it for that purpose though, I was just expecting it to be a cooler feature. Be forewarned that there you must know someone who owns the game and you must exchange unique in-game codes if you plan to play together. It's a bigger pain than it's worth, trust me.
it is a wonderfull game where you just wander the oceans ,and discover new fish and whales and sharks.
