It would be unfair to give Stardew Valley all the credit for launching the new genre of life simulators, but we can say that in a way it was the launch, the great reviews from the press and the high sales , what users and in particular Developers reminded that creating this kind of experience is a real business.
Just looking at the vastly different mechanics and structure makes it clear that Dave the Diver is not Stardew Valley. However, the feeling of having to manage your life or a business is almost the same, and there are few other games that can even come close to replicating these mechanics, except perhaps for Kynseed.
In Dave the Diver, you’re… well, you’re Dave, the Diver. And not funny, but divers in English. You are a free diver, a spear fisherman who suddenly has an opportunity to take over a seedy sushi restaurant on the outskirts of a local tourist attraction called “The Blue Hole”, a lagoon where the landscape, flora and native fauna change daily. Dave must catch valuable fish and serve them as fresh sushi in the evening. He must run this restaurant and help the locals in a series of quests that may include, who knows, the discovery of a secret civilization beneath the sea.
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The story is simple, familiar, and fun (now it is), but since there’s no dubbing, you can find yourself hitting the X button repeatedly and not reading anything. Having said that, I have to say that the developers of MINTROCKET managed to create some great moments with sarcasm, self-awareness and irony. There are a variety of unique and authentic scenes filled with joy and creativity that have enough narrative undertones to make you want to follow the main story just for that.
Like many other games of the same genre, Dave the Diver simulates a real day. You can dive up to twice a day, and each night you must present a menu and serve your catch to customers who will hopefully be longingly waiting. All of this is presented with pixelated and colorful graphics, the latter making all the difference. Dave the Diver is mostly a very easy game to watch. While The Blue Hole is a little different each time, it’s not as quirky as MINTROCKET would like it to be, especially when you dig deeper because there comes a point where it seems like there used to be fixed sizes would have been the case with the block construction. The landscape images were too large and too easy to recognize.
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Fishing with a harpoon is very simple: you aim, shoot and although it sometimes takes several casts to catch the fish, in the end you get it without any problems. However, you can also try to face larger opponents, such as an infinite number of shark species. Of course, you can’t say that everything is “simple enough” either, because under the sea you also mix up the resources at your disposal. Tools found at the bottom of the sea include caches of weapons and oxygen bottles. These tools will help you progress, collect different foods or defend yourself.
Every night, Dave the Diver becomes a diner dash of sorts, where you have to hunt for employees to keep your restaurant running more efficiently. It doesn’t matter how many you hire, you’ll need to lead by example by serving green tea and beer, making sure there’s enough wasabi for future orders, and cleaning up after your customers. That means about two to three intensive minutes of worship, during which boredom is guaranteed. In addition, you can choose the menu, improve certain dishes from time to time or design the decoration of your restaurant. You have quite a bit of freedom and Dave the Diver keeps giving you alternatives over the course of around 25 to 30 hours of play.
In fact, it’s the side quests that often get you further. While helping a girl catch a certain species of octopus, I discovered a rather moving story about her late father. This in turn gave me the opportunity to use fishing nets to catch much smaller species, opening up a whole additional area at depth. And all in a single side mission! That happens a number of times in Dave the Diver, as the developer has taken the very satisfying “more is more” attitude, providing the player with curated and elaborate content just when they thought they were running out of amazing and novel ideas.
I wouldn’t say Dave the Diver is the most complex simulation I’ve played so far, plus you get tired of so many dives by the end of the game. It’s a bit like what happens when you’re harvesting your near-industrial-sized fields in Stardew Valley: It turns into something horrible at the end.
That doesn’t mean that Dave the Diver shows what type of player he is right from the start and puts all his cards on the table from the first minute. This is a complex gaming experience at its best, with a confidence that would suit many of the big studios perfectly.
