MeinMMO editor Lydia was skeptical whether the summer hit Dave The Diver (Steam) was right for her. Now she is excited about the diving game and wants to share her experiences with you.
The diving game “Dave The Diver” was probably the surprise hit of summer 2023: A week after its release on June 28, it had sold over 1 million copies; during the summer sale in early July, it ranked in the top 5 of the best-selling games on Steam (via SteamDB).
If you haven’t heard of this amazing game yet, I’ll summarize the key points for you:
- You take on the role of the titular diver, Dave
- During the day, you dive into the depths of the mysterious Blue Hole, which is home to all kinds of fish – and, so they say, mermaids
- At night, you sell your catches at the sushi restaurant you run with your buddy Cobra and the chef Bancho
Dave The Diver is essentially a Roguelite, even if it doesn’t market itself as such. A dive corresponds to a run, where you encounter various smaller and larger opponents and must eventually face a gigantic boss.
Between runs, you can upgrade your equipment to dive deeper, have more oxygen (a.k.a. health), carry more weight, or deal more damage.
The concept is very well received: On Steam, Dave The Diver has a status of “Extremely Positive” with 97% positive reviews. The standard version costs €19.99, and in the Deluxe Edition, in addition to the game, an artbook, the soundtrack, and an additional skin for your boat are included.
You can see for yourself in the trailer:
Love at First Click?
I snagged Dave The Diver during the summer sale on Steam because the enthusiastic praise intrigued me, and I can’t say “no” to a good deal. However, it ended up in my “Pile of Shame” for a while.
Even though my heart is for unusual games and I have a weakness for pixel art – and even though my colleague Nicole enthusiastically recommended it to me – I was unsure if this game would really be for me.
Since fishing games had hardly played a role in my gaming life until now, I thought after Dredge, there was no way a second fish game this year could fascinate me, right? Well, I was wrong.
From the opening sequence on, Dave The Diver captivated me with its charming characters. Once I could start exploring the diverse underwater world, I didn’t want to put the game down.
It started on Tuesday with an article by Benedict Grothaus:
In my Steam tip, I constantly have to rebuild a village because a storm destroys it
Time Flies Between Fish, Farming, and Serving
I would most likely compare it to Moonlighter, where you descend into dungeons at night to sell your loot in your shop during the day. By the way, it’s available on Steam for a bargain until November 2.
However, Dave The Diver doesn’t stop at the simple premise, but gradually introduces new mechanics: You quickly manage your own fish and vegetable farms, collect fish like Pokémon cards, and raise a Tamagotchi-like pet.
Moreover, there are sections where you need to infiltrate an enemy base, escape in a boat, or switch between two characters to solve simple puzzles. Oh, and there was also a rhythm game. Some of these levels were so well designed that I would have loved to play them multiple times.
And then there are the massive bosses that await you at the end of each chapter and after some side quests. These special opponents are diverse and usually require mechanics introduced in the previous sections.
Especially towards the end, I needed several attempts with some bosses until I learned their attack patterns after being caught off guard by a second phase. And yes, in the end, the bosses also drop ingredients that you can use to create unique dishes.
However, this should be well thought out, as far as I know, these items only drop once.
Like a Warm Sea Breeze for the Soul
Overall, Dave The Diver is not a difficult game and is generous with checkpoints in sections that use different mechanics than the tried-and-true gameplay loop. However, in typical Roguelite fashion, your first runs may end quite abruptly until you can improve your gear.
However, there is really no stress involved. Except maybe that one time I completed three long missions including boss fights in a row without returning to save in between – only to be killed by a simple shark when I surfaced because I was greedy and wanted to catch him too. But we won’t talk about that.
Instead, the game is perfect for letting your soul chill a bit. Especially now, as the days are getting shorter, grayer, and rainier, I enjoy diving a little deeper into the tropical-feeling game world and soaking in the summer vibes.
“Oh come on, I’ll just do this … when did it become night?”
Theoretically, Dave The Diver is perfect for dipping in for a round or two, since you can determine when to return to the surface. However, there was always something that triggered this “Just a little longer…” for me:
- “I’m so far now, I can do the boss fight too.”
- “I’ve gathered all the ingredients, I want to serve the VIP customer his special menu.”
- “I can’t possibly stop without putting the arrogant opponent in his place during the cook-off.”
- “The event is over now, but the next story chapter has been unlocked, I want to check it out.”
Thus, it rarely happened that there was a short gaming session. Currently, I am in the postgame, the story is completed, I just have some loose ends to tie up. At this point, I usually get restless and feel the urge to finish everything quickly and move on to the next game.
Instead, I don’t want my adventure in the Blue Hole to end just yet. I’m still diving to work on my fish collection and earn money to improve my farms, level up my employees, or treat myself to power-ups that would have made the main story easier.
If you don’t feel like dreary autumn weather, I can only recommend giving the friendly diver a chance. And even if you already took a look at the game during the big Dave hype in summer, it might be worth another visit.
Since the update on October 11 has just added some new content, including new side quests and crab traps, which allow you to catch shellfish.
If you still can’t get into Dave The Diver, you’re objectively wrong, but I want to recommend the previously mentioned Dredge to you instead. Because that is also said to be supplied with new content this year.
What our editorial director Schuhmann is playing, you can find here: In a new strategy game on Steam, I sustainably conquer the galaxy
