Review: Endless Ocean Luminous Is a Shallow Dive Into a Disappointing Sea

Throughout my teenage years, the Limitless Ocean franchise was my go-to when unwinding after lengthy faculty days. The announcement the brand new installment Limitless Ocean Luminous, for the Nintendo Swap, crammed me with nostalgia and anticipation. Sadly, this new chapter falls quick in terms of a number of elements, leaving me craving for the allure of its predecessors.

The unique Limitless Ocean and its sequel Limitless Ocean: Blue World weren’t simply video games involving diving into the ocean and in search of creatures. I imply, they had been, however that they had such allure and a cute storyline to every of them. You can feed stated creatures and work together with them, and generally they’d work together with you too. Instantly inside my first quarter-hour of taking part in Limitless Ocean Luminous, it was clear that it lacked the character and depth that had been so entrenched within the earlier titles.

In Limitless Ocean Luminous, you’re a faceless diver tasked with exploring the Veiled Sea, an enormous ocean with over 500 species to find. As you encounter marine life, you scan it and uncover details about it. Some creatures are so tiny that you simply wouldn’t even know they had been there with out scanning. Discovering new life is the most effective a part of the sport, and virtually each inch of the Veiled Sea has some kind of creature dwelling in it, so that you’re hardly ever swimming together with nothing to see. But generally, I might go a very long time with out discovering something new.

Like in the actual ocean, the deeper you go in Limitless Ocean Luminous, the creepier the discoveries chances are you’ll come throughout. Swim near the floor, and also you’ll encounter dolphins. Dive deeper to the purpose the place the one gentle supply is your flashlight, and also you’ll discover the stuff of nightmares. On my first dive into the depths, I used to be really scared as a result of I had no thought what awaited me there. Would there be sharks? A large octopus who would wrap me up in considered one of its big tentacles and crush me? The latter didn’t occur, however there have been sharks and different disturbing creatures, akin to anglerfish and coelacanth.

The truth that one thing like that didn’t occur is simply it, although. Not that I’m anticipating to be swallowed entire by a whale, as this isn’t that sort of sport, however there’s little or no interplay between the participant and the marine life. It’s unsatisfying! The gameplay loop consists of diving, scanning, and selecting up salvage from the seafloor, which is nothing new to the franchise, nevertheless it does little to make the method gratifying. It lacks the soul that was so evident all through the Nintendo Wii titles. The ocean does nothing to acknowledge your presence.

I hoped that might change in Limitless Ocean Luminous’ story mode, nevertheless it didn’t. Most of the missions, which revolved round occurring analysis expeditions to save lots of the World Coral, had been shallow and ended after a few minutes. It felt jarring as a result of I’d get into the expertise, then dive would finish and lock me out of leaping into the following mission as a result of I hadn’t scanned a sure variety of creatures but. I perceive capping gamers from with the ability to full the story in a single go by encouraging them to go on extra dives and discover, however when virtually each story mission locked me out, it felt irritating.

Advertising and marketing supplies closely emphasised the Limitless Ocean Luminous dives for as much as 30 gamers, so I used to be excited to see if multiplayer was a extra enriching expertise than solo play. I used to be given an hour time slot to expertise a multiplayer dive, and I spent it doing precisely the identical factor I’d spent hours doing alone. There have been group missions, throughout which we needed to work collectively to scan sure marine life, which was enjoyable at first. Nevertheless, the identical mission looped twice in a row, immediately tarnishing the expertise. I seemed ahead to working into (or swimming into) one other participant so we might emote and wave to one another greater than the rest, which isn’t an expertise I’d pay $49.99 to have.

General, Limitless Ocean Luminous lacks coronary heart. It’s a shallow tackle a franchise with a whole lot of potential to be particular, particularly on a handheld console just like the Nintendo Swap. If you happen to’re in search of a chill solution to go the time or if in case you have a baby who’s interested by studying about marine life, I’d advocate making an attempt it out. However chances are you’ll be disenchanted should you’re in search of something greater than that.

Limitless Ocean Luminous will probably be launched on Could 2, 2024, on the Nintendo Swap.