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A new 2D diving RPG by the name of Dave the Diver has emerged out of early access into a full release this week on PC, and it’s already getting rave reviews from critics thanks in no small part from its eye-catching looks.
Dave the Diver is described by the developers as a ‘casual, singleplayer adventure RPG featuring deep sea exploration and fishing during the day and sushi restaurant management during the night’, immediately drawing surface comparisons to recent indie fishing hit Dredge. Of course, a big difference here is you actually go under the water to catch the fish. Fishing is just one small part of this game though, with the underwater exploration portion acting more like a dungeon crawler.
Meanwhile, on a night, players then take their gains from their undersea adventures and turn them into food as you attempt to run a sushi restaurant. There’s a farming aspect for the ingredients you can’t find under the sea, actually prepping the dishes, satisfying customers requests and a bunch of other mini-games too, up to and including even a dancing mini-game. And as per the game’s Metacritic scores so far, it seems the critics are loving it.
“Watching sales charts climb and building a better business is a dopamine hit that kept me up late into the night and repeatedly drove me back into the ocean to collect ingredients,” says IGN in their 9/10 review. “Especially once the complexity of my business swelled to insane proportions when my success required me to open a branch location.”
There’s also quite a few comparisons to Stardew Valley, as GameReactor notes in their verdict: “Dave the Diver is not Stardew Valley, and indeed many of the mechanics and structures are fundamentally different, but the feeling of managing a life, managing a business, is the same, and there is almost no other game, except possibly Kynseed, that comes close to emulating that quality.”
One thing many of the reviews have in common is the depth of content in this ‘casual’ game, with CGMagazine stating “There’s actual farming, like in order to get ingredients for the restaurant (not to mention fish farming as well, to take some of the pressure off those dives), boss battles galore, underwater mining (yes, really), a full crafting and upgrade system, a full underwater civilization to discover, and even seahorse racing! That’s just cracking the surface, and Dave The Diver really continues to surprise even hours and hours into a playthrough. Such variety, and it’s all done at a high level.”
It certainly looks like Dave the Diver will be a game to watch going forward and could be the next big indie hit of 2023. The game is out today on Steam, and is set to come to the Nintendo Switch later in the year.
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