Release Date: 11/06/2020
Played On: PS4
Available On: iOS / Lin / Mac / NS / PS4 / tvOS / Win / XBO
Time Played: 3h 41m
Progress: Completed
Developer: E-Line Media
Publisher: E-Line Media
I remember one of the first video games I ever played was an educational one in school, which was built to teach the difference between verbs and adjectives. It might have been primitive 1980s technology of the time, but I was fascinated by it and ever since, I wished that every subject could be delivered in the same way. After all, each of us learn through many different methods, and I've always been better when I can see and interact with the subject matter.
Not that it was anything fancy, as this "game" was basically an apple with arms, legs, and a happy face. If you typed in a verb like "run" the apple would start to run. If you typed in something else like "dance" the apple would start to dance. What made it genius to a kid like me, was that you could combine verbs and adjectives to augment how the apple responded to the input. Thus, "run" became "run fast", or "dance" became "dance slowly", with the apple responding accordingly and acting out whatever commands we could come up with.
At the time it seemed like magic, and the apple appeared to respond to anything we managed to enter, but in reality it was no doubt a lot more limited than that. In fact, it only had a few different animations it could perform, and it only recognised a handful of specific inputs that would make it move. Nevertheless, from that day forward I was always taken by any educational game I found, and was more than happy to be learning while I played.
Eventually things would get a bit more sophisticated, like the brilliant Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego, which is primarily responsible for my decent geographical knowledge. Over time I've noticed every now and then just how much we can learn from games that aren't even trying to be "educational", as games show us new information in such compelling ways. I often catch myself recalling a bit of trivia that I picked up somewhere in a game, which always makes me smile and appreciate the fact that gaming can be much more than simple escapism.
More recently I've thoroughly enjoyed exploring intricately re-created cities in the Assassin's Creed games, which have begun to recognise their value as educational software. The inclusion of exploration modes and the ability to take a history lesson through ancient Egypt and Greece, shows how much potential there is for these masterful works of art to deliver more than entertainment and gameplay.
However, those last few examples were games that were designed to be enjoyable first, leaving the educational aspect to appear as a happy side effect. Often when a game is built from the ground up to be educational, it manages to skip the part about making it enjoyable and does nothing more than dump a pile of information on a possibly unreceptive player. Clearly there is a balance to be found, such as in the excellent 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, which blended educational material and gameplay beautifully to offer a wonderful game that has a lot to offer on both accounts.
Without too much probing, Beyond Blue seats itself further into the educational column of video games, than that of pure entertainment. In fact, the game feels more like an interactive documentary a lot of the time, not least because there are a bunch of interesting live-action vignettes that deliver a lot of information between missions.
Essentially we play as a marine biologist who is on a mission to survey and track a bunch of different ocean wildlife in a handful of specific areas. Most notably, we are attempting to better track a pod of sperm whales and discover more about their breeding habits and social dynamics. At least that's what I remember, because there was a lot of stuff going on from a scientific perspective, but I spent most of the time just looking at the pretty scenery.
Everything in Beyond Blue is firmly lodged in realism, even though we are playing a scientist who somehow has access to all the latest gadgets and tools available. Although, I'm not sure if any of it's fictional, as the mission we do in-game is supposedly based on a real-world mission where the same events took place. It's one of those times when we just have to accept what the game is telling us and go with it, even if parts do seem like they've been given a little artistic license.
Even if it strays from realism a small amount, none of that matters as this is a game where you're invited to discover what it's like to be a scientist in these scenarios. It's the closest I will probably ever get to swimming with whales and other marine wildlife, and for that aspect alone, this is worth the time.
I have to add that I'm one of those people who has a fear of open water. There's nothing more terrifying to me than floating in a seemingly infinite expanse where I am unable to see the edge in any possible direction. It's the sole reason why I still haven't finished Subnautica, as the wide open water scares me a hundred times more than the big angry monsters.
So when I say that Beyond Blue was a complete delight to play, it's in spite of that fear, and a credit to the way the game was designed. I still had moments of needing to reassure myself that all was well, but ultimately the game does a good job of easing you through the different areas to explore. In fact, it starts you off in a shallow atoll, where there's plenty of sunlight and a coral reef to act as a floor between you and the water's surface. It's only later in the game that we end up in open water, and even at depths where sunlight no longer reaches.
From purely a gameplay perspective, there isn't all that much to do in Beyond Blue, at least not in the way that you would normally expect from a game. In keeping with its real-world design, most of your time will be spent observing and scanning wildlife in order to learn more about them, and there's definitely a whole bunch of wildlife to learn about. The main mission might concern whale families, but in every zone there are numerous other species to discover and scan with your gadgets and tools.
Hence why most of your time in Beyond Blue will be spent swimming around each open area, looking for plants and animals to scan as you travel between main objectives. Of course, you could ignore all of this as well, but I'd argue that you'll have a much richer experience if you take it upon yourself to role-play the scientist as much as possible. Otherwise all you get is a few different waypoints to investigate, which are far from stimulating.
The movement in the water is satisfying and easy to get used to, so before too long it's easy to fall into something of a meditative state as you swim about. The game's soundtrack is mostly ambient marine life noises; creating a dense landscape of life that surrounds us at all times. Plus, the graphics to a good job with lighting and refraction to convince you that what you're seeing is a fairly realistic depiction of what it must actually be like out there in the near-endless expanse of the ocean.
Not that Beyond Blue isn't without its shortcomings, which mostly raise their head when you look at animal animations a little closer. Most of the wildlife looks great on a moment-to-moment basis, but especially some of the larger species (like whales for instance) are let down by their limited animation detail. It's as simple as noticing that they were built with a primitive skeleton as opposed to a more detailed and articulate one. It's not all that surprising, as these kind of games are often built with limited budgets, but it's a shame that these simplified 3D models don't look so good when they're in motion.
Although, once again I would argue that if you let yourself believe that you're witnessing something accurate and true, it makes all the difference and the game manages to avoid being a letdown. In fact, by the time I was done with each mission in the game and explored every area it had to show me, I sat down and watched all the documentary pieces that are unlocked during progression. Everything they had to show me turned out to be interesting and very educational, as I learned a whole lot about whales and marine exploration that I knew nothing about before playing.
Like, did you know that whales are identified by the shape of their tail-fin? It has a specific name that I can't remember, but I scanned a bunch of them in the game to identify whales I found, so it kind of stuck in the old memory. What's more, there's an entire database on your little personal submersible that brings up an animated model of any animal you've discovered, and lets you select different movements and behaviours for it to emulate. It seems like the idea of the moving apple has stuck around all the way up to 3D models of fish and other marine life.
I think the key to enjoying Beyond Blue is to go into it with realistic expectations, as this isn't your typical video game, but it has a lot to offer those that are interested in learning about things they may never encounter in their regular life. While I found the gameplay to be relaxing, chilled out, and pleasant (despite the open-water self-talk), most of the meat in Beyond Blue comes from its educational aspects.
Thankfully though, all the information is broken up into a few different areas, such as the documentary videos and the species database. They serve as fantastic additions to the regular gameplay of swimming around under-water, without being annoying or constantly having to get in your way. Thus, I can highly recommend Beyond Blue as a fine educational experience that's also very calming and enjoyable to play.
After all, there's something about swimming around with gigantic whales that feels simultaneously euphoric, and terrifying. I know I'd probably never have the courage to experience the real thing, so I'll happily take a game like this one as some kind of serviceable alternative. I'm sure it pales in comparison to the real world, but as far as interactive experiences that are available for relatively cheap in your own home... this one's a solid winner.