Are you looking for a good console game that combines your love for gaming as well as your love for Scuba Diving? Well look no further than Endless Ocean, the unique Scuba Diving simulation for the Nintendo Wii which is sure to have any Scuba Diving enthusiast intrigued at the least.
Endless Ocean is not a new release for the Nintendo Wii, and in fact was released in early 2008 by Arika and received high accolades for its ability to offer unique and unorthodox game play experiences on the Wii Console.
The setting for the game takes place off the coast of the fictitious island of Manoa Lai where you play the role of a diver on a liveaboard and possess the ability to explore the waters of Manoa Lai from shallow reefs, underwater caves, wrecks and underwater cities to the deep blue hole which is a 500 foot abyss. The game doesn’t offer any set objectives to accomplish other than exploration the stunning simulated waters of Manoa Lai and identify various marine life while simply enjoying your dive. The lack of game direction and the laid-back nature of the game tend to frustrate several gamers, however we still feel it is a Scuba Diving game designed for true fans of scuba diving.
Diving in Endless Ocean is a relatively simple process, you point which direction you wish to fin to using your wii-mote and click, and your diver will move to the selected area. You can also interact with several of the fish and marine life you across, from petting the fish to feeding them.
The visuals in Endless Ocean are simply stunning and perhaps what drives the game. As a Scuba Diving enthusiast, you’d be pleased to discover the wonderful variety of marine creatures you come across from Napoleon Wrasse and Dolphins to enormous Blue Whales that simply glide on past. The game really helps you with marine life identification, as there is an in-game fish ID log that helps you identify new fish you come across and also provides you with a description of that fishes behavior, habitat and identification help. Additionally Endless Ocean features a cooperative online mode where, you team up with a buddy to explore the sea.
Despite the unique concept and game play, Endless Ocean still has several inconsistencies with reality that are bound to annoy the true Scuba Diver such as not worrying about running out of air, decompressing, monitoring surface time between dives, petting fish to ID them, diving solo without a buddy and being able to dive to ridiculous depths. However once you get past these annoyances, Endless Ocean offers a great way to sharpen those Fish ID skills, and while away a lazy week-end when you can’t go out and experience the real thing.
We rate Endless Ocean a 4 out of 5 as we love the fact that game developers are finally looking into creating great Scuba Simulations.
