One of the more popular third party games of the Wii era returns, with a multiplayer mode for 30 people and over 500 fish to photograph.
The Wii will be 20 years old in a couple of years and that’s just about the right time for nostalgia to start kicking in, for those that remember it fondly. Despite its great success at the time, outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and creating a fad for both motion controls and causal friendly games (and non-games), it’s difficult to say what the Wii’s legacy really is.
Even the Switch doesn’t have games like Wii Music anymore and the New Super Mario Bros. series and Wii Fit have both been superseded by much more gamified equivalents on the Switch, with Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Ring Fit Adventure. Even Animal Crossing was a bigger hit on Switch than Wii. With much of the casual audience from the Wii and DS now served purely by mobiles, the Wii’s revolution turned out to be a very short-lived one.
And yet here we are with a sequel to the two Endless Ocean games from that period, in a new title that is just as passive and laidback as ever. It’s certainly a change of pace, compared to much of modern gaming, but unfortunately it hasn’t seen the increase in quality enjoyed by other franchises on Switch.
Although they’re published by Nintendo, the Endless Ocean games are by Japanese developer Arika, who also made the very similar Everblue 1 and 2 for the PlayStation 2. All the games are essentially scuba diving simulators, with no goals more urgent than looking for sunken treasure or taking pictures of marine life. In fact, most of the pleasure in the game derives from simply pootling around the underwater world and exploring.
Given how often Arika has tried to push the same basic premise, it’s no surprise to find that Endless Ocean Luminous is pretty much the same thing again. The big difference this time is a 30-person multiplayer mode, but otherwise it’s the same routine of photographing wildlife, including several extinct and fictional creatures, and looking for treasure on the seabed.
There’s an unlikely story connecting everything, involving a magic coral construct that you’ve got to bring back to life, which is in turn used as an excuse for the game to create a new randomly-generated map every time you visit. The obvious problem with that is that it’s difficult enough making underwater locations look varied and interesting as it is, without removing so many of the hand-crafted elements that could’ve given it more prominent landmarks.
There are various shipwrecks and underwater temples you can investigate, so it’s not all just procedurally-generated mush, but it’s a very weak story mode that is nonsensical in terms of plot. It’s also partitioned off into chapters that have some very strict requirements, that suddenly turn the casual exploration and cataloguing into an annoying grind.
The other problem, as you might imagine, is that the gameplay is very simplistic, with neither the swimming or the photography requiring any real skill. The fish and other creatures can be a bit skittish, so you have to approach slowly and at a distance, but beyond that it’s pretty much point and snap.
Photographing and scanning new creatures is addictive and fun, especially with the little nuggets of scientific information provided for them, and it’s impressive that there’s over 500 in total. But once you’ve scanned one fish you’ve scanned them all and it’s not hard to see New Pokémon Snap as a far more entertaining take on the same basic idea.
You might have more freedom of movement in Endless Ocean, but by orchestrating the action like a lightgun game, with a strict time limit and route, Pokémon Snap feels far less aimless, and much more exciting, than Endless Ocean.
Despite all the creatures you’ve been sent to catalogue Endless Ocean feels strangely lifeless, with very artificial backdrops, even though the graphics themselves are good for the Switch. The water effects are impressive and the animals generally move believably, but it’s all so inconsequential.
There are many different modes, including the multiplayer, but what you’re doing never changes and the game never finds a way to make it seems more interesting or varied. All the technical elements that accompany scuba diving are ignored and in order to stop people getting overwhelmed, at moving around in a 3D space, you swim at a snail’s pace.
If you’ve played and enjoyed previous Endless Ocean games then Luminous will not disappoint you but it adds very little of note and is still stuck in the mentality that the best way to appeal to casual gamers is to provide them with as little challenge and complexity as possible. That always seemed patronising, and the Switch has finally disproven it for good, especially when you consider the popularity of something like the new Zelda games.
If you want to play an underwater game it’s not an oversubscribed concept but while it’s still not great, something like ABZÛ is a more entertaining experience, while still being very laidback. Subnautica demands more of you, but you can still play it at your own pace and have a lot more fun doing so than anything in Endless Ocean.
Endless Ocean Luminous review summary
In Short: As laidback and undemanding as the Wii originals but in the modern age it seems restrictive and repetitive in a way that’s unnecessary and even patronising.
Pros: The graphics are impressive for the Switch and there’s hundreds of different creatures to catalogue. Plenty of game modes and unusual multiplayer options.
Cons: Dull, repetitive, and overfamiliar. The game trivialises the diving unnecessarily and the randomly-generated maps drain it of character.
Score: 5/10
Formats: Nintendo Switch
Price: £39.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Arika
Release Date: 2nd May 2024
Age Rating: 3
mail gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
MORE : Fallout 4 next gen update review – the post-apocalyptic in high-res
MORE : Another Crab’s Treasure review – the Dark Souls of kids’ games
MORE : Sand Land review – demons of the desert
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.
from Metro https://ift.tt/7CTWwJ3
via IFTTT
0 comments: