Dave the Diver Review – A Refreshing Departure

Dave the Diver, like a strange and beautiful fish which has suddenly appeared on the surface is a pleasant surprise. Juggling two core systems that work in tandem, it’s a game that excels as both an exploration experience and as a management sim and does so in ways that are intuitive and easy to pick up. The real success is the constant focus on novelty, which is evident in the many unexpected twists and activities that are available. This makes for a fun and engaging adventure.

Dave, a professional scuba diver, is summoned by his boss to an odd blue hole filled with marine life. He’s there to help capture seafood for a local sushi restaurant and its eccentric but expert chef, and he’s soon drawn into the management of the business to an equal depth as his sea explorations. While the player’s underwater adventures take him further below the surface of the ocean, new elements, such as sea people and prehistoric creatures are introduced.

These underwater dives use an uncomplicated, but stunning, aesthetic, which uses pixel-art to display a variety of marine life as well as the constantly changing terrain of cliffs, tunnels, and chasms. Dave, using guns, harpoons or nets among other tools, must catch the best food to take back to the eatery while simultaneously monitoring his air tanks, avoiding dangerous species and collecting additional supplies. It’s fun to aim and shoot, and upgrading your equipment gradually gives you a sense of accomplishment. It’s the quest for new sights, and locations that makes it fun.

Dave, now back above the water, is forced to serve at the sushi bar with an oddball cast. Many of them drive home that people can be more than what they seem. Setting menu items, hiring and training staff, and pouring drinks give way to more activities, like running a farm and fish hatchery, competing in reality food competitions, and fleeing pirate boats to protect ancient relics – most with an attached mini-game or interactive component.

Dave the Diver becomes something special with these little but effective systems. It’s fun to switch between the diving and managing a sushi restaurant, but it could get routinized if there weren’t new and innovative ideas. Taking wildlife photos, halting invasive fish species, building new weapons, cataloging discovered creatures – everything works together to push the adventure forward while remaining forgiving enough in complexity that a player never feels overwhelmed.

Dave is charming, capable and kind. Dave loves to be with his friends. The story becomes more absurd, with bigger bosses and sillier stories, but the likable and grounded lead keeps me smiling. A few late-game activities, including some stealth and light beam puzzles, don’t completely hit the mark, but by that point, the investment is high, and it’s easy to push ahead to the end.

If you’re wondering if a management game that combines underwater diving with a simulation of manning a sushi bar is right up your alley, then you are missing the point. Dave the Diver is a unique and memorable vacation away from expectations, and it’s the very fact that you don’t usually play games like this that makes it so satisfying.