Beyond Blue is an immersive diving game that has you exploring the ocean and swimming among all types of ocean life. It’s available on most major platforms.

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Reviewed on iOS through Apple Arcade.

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Beyond Blue was such a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know what I was getting into, and when I figured it out, I was hooked and fully immersed. You play as a diver and scientist named Mirai. As Mirai, you will begin your dive, and have communication with your research team. They will point you in the right direction for what you need to explore and discover on your dive, but you are free to do it at your own pace, and take your time exploring.

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I was having a great time exploring, but not knowing anything about the game before starting it for myself, I was just waiting for some sort of combat, or a giant fish to attack. This is not the case and became apparent when I came across a shiver of sharks. My video game brain said “Ok here we go they will attack” but they never did. You can swim right up to them and they will never harm you. That’s when I fully learned what this game is.

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Developer E-Line Media partnered with BBC Studios to bring us an educational experience. You swim around and scan all different marine life and learn all about them. When your dive is complete, you go back to your sub; here you can see everything you scanned and continue your learning.

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While on the sub, you speak with your research team, and this is where you get the story of what’s going on with all your dives. You also make phone calls to your sister and get filled in on Mirai’s personal life for extra exposition to the game. Mirai is dealing with a lot and the importance of her work is only magnified because of what she is dealing with personally. It’s a great story and has a lot more to it than I initially expected.

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After completing the final dive, I still find myself going back to the water to keep swimming and learning. Me personally, I love aquariums, and this is a giant virtual aquarium I can explore at my own pace and have a blast while doing it.

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Since I reviewed this on iOS, I played both with a controller and touch controls; the game plays great both ways. I saw no advantage to play it a certain way, so you are free to enjoy the game the way you like, with nothing holding you back.

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Verdict

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Beyond Blue is an excellent educational game. There is no fail state or combat, just exploring the ocean. There is a good story to be told here, but the best part is just treating the game like a virtual aquarium, and swimming with all different types of marine life. I have spent hours swimming around and I expect to spend even more hours, I strongly recommend this game.

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Final Score: 8.5/10

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For more reviews, be sure to check out my thoughts on Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman World of Assassination, and Watch Dogs: Legion and my new podcast: Game Bites, the latest entry in The Spinchoon Podcast Network (check out Flix & a Six). We also started a new review series on The Spinchoon: Game Club. Check out our first entry on Sleeping Dogs here As always, check us out on Twitter @TheSpinchoon and I’m @Big_Broonsn