Beyond Blue Review
With gorgeous seascapes, nuanced writing and a heart the size of a whale’s, Beyond Blue sets a new bar for educational games – but as pure entertainment, it has its limits.
- Developer: E-Line Media
- Publisher: E-Line Media
- Release: Out now
- On: Windows
- From: Steam, Epic Game Store
- Price: £15.50 / $20 / €16.80
So many are the dignities heaped upon Beyond Blue, that it’s somewhat hard to get at the game beneath. When I began playing, I knew that it had been made in association with the filmmakers behind the Blue Planet II series, and in consultation with a host of marine scientists. I knew that it promised a sober and ultra-realistic exploration of the oceans, and that the Flaming Lips were on the soundtrack. I knew that it would feature whales in some capacity.
I didn’t actually know what it was, you know, as a game. That was fine, though. The sea and its contents are possibly the most potent preoccupation in my overly-preoccupied life, and so I was open to whatever these people wanted to sprinkle on me. The answer, it transpires, was a very simple diving simulator, about swimming up to a range of extremely realistic marine animals and clicking on them.