I love Dave the Diver. It’s one of my favorite random purchases on Steam over the past couple months, and I’m glad to see it’s getting some attention.
Apparently it’s been out for a bit? I saw someone randomly playing it last week and now half my steam list is balls deep in Dave.
It was in early access but hit 1.0 last week. Great game. Randomly bought it as well after hearing great things about it.
It really is an excellent game; It’s been in Early Access for a while and recently hit the big 1.0 milestone, so some friends and I all decided to pick it up. I’m now over 20 hours in and it’s still revealing delightful new mechanics, minigames, and systems even when I think I’ve seen everything. The personality and sense of humor throughout is just great, it never takes itself too seriously and wears its influences on its sleeve.
The personality and sense of humor throughout is just great, it never takes itself too seriously and wears its influences on its sleeve.
This is exactly why it resonates with me. There’s really nothing lately that does the same thing as well as DtD. I usually come away laughing or smiling at something.
Is it like Stardew Valley or more hardcore? My fiance loves casual games like Stardew, Harvest Moon, and Animal Crossing but hates anything where she could “lose” (basically).
On the one hand, it seems like it gives me Stardew vibes, but on the other hand I see the word “roguelike” and wonder if maybe she’s going to get frustrated and stop playing it.
I wouldn’t call it hardcore, or even terribly difficult. Your underwater time is limited by your O2 gauge, which drains faster when you sprint or take damage. You do have to be more careful during early dives because you can’t stay underwater for long but by midgame I found myself rarely worrying about O2. There are resources all over that give you full tank refills. Even reaching zero oxygen and getting a game over is more of an inconvenience than anything, you just resurface having lost most of your collected fish/items. It’s very hard to reach a true failure state, you’re always progressing somehow.
Like 18Rabbit added, some fish are aggressive but they’re always marked with a red diamond. If you keep your eyes peeled, you rarely end up taking fights that you don’t intend to. You also get better tools and weaponry to deal with them as you progress. The boss fights range from very easy to decently challenging; it’s mostly the optional bosses that fall on the higher end of that spectrum. If you lose during a boss fight, you’re able to retry from the start of the encounter.
Imo its greatest strength is that it caters to lots of different playstyles. If you want to focus on minmaxing your profits at the sushi restaurant, go wild. If you want to explore and collect, there’s plenty of that too. There’s challenging optional bosses and a pretty fun main storyline. Lots to enjoy without a ton of stress involved.
I’d put it about the same as Stardew. There are boss fights and there are some jerk animals that are dangerous and a PITA to kill but generally you can avoid them or develop ways to deal with them. Overall it’s a fantastic game with a great sense of humor and just when you feel like you’ve done all there is a whole new mechanic is unlocked.
Okay this is the second time seeing this game on social media of some kind and just watched the IGN review and I think I may have to pick it up. Between the humor, the diversity of gameplay mechanics and the cool pixel art it looks great.
It’s genuinely funny! And you’d be right, pixel art and animation is so good.
Really excited to try it out, but I’m deep into final fantasy still so it’ll have to wait. Hope it’s on sale by then too
It’s discounted right now as part of the steam summer sale
Is it that good? I don’t know what it is really but like all my friends are talking about it. And steam really wants me to play it; every page has it.
It’s pretty enjoyable, and surprisingly laid back for a game about diving into deeper and more dangerous waters. The core gameplay loop keeps introducing more fun mechanics even 9+ hours in, and it has an immense amount of charm that makes you excited for whatever characters or interactions are coming up next.
Some people say it’s kind of like stardew, and I have to agree, albeit with a lot more to do and explore, and more focus on action and exploration. Overall its just a really enjoyable experience for a pretty low price, especially for all the content packed in.
My wife has been waiting for this to come out of EA for awhile now and literally screamed when I told her it’s been released. She’s very excited for it.
She’s going to be so happy dude.
