Nice moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of a few of our favourite gaming recollections.
Dave the DIver
Developer: Mintrocket
Yr: 2023
Once I first sat all the way down to play Dave the Diver I hoped it will be my new nightly zone-out recreation. All I actually knew was that it was an journey recreation the place you went fishing throughout the day and served your catches in a sushi restaurant at evening. That every one sounded enjoyable within the form of repetitive and senseless method I used to be in search of, only a busy little recreation to play for an hour an evening after an extended day. Mind off, fingers on.
It did not prove that method in any respect. Dave that Diver is without doubt one of the greatest video games of 2023, largely as a result of it is something however a senseless button-mashing time-killer. Certain, you dive into the identical patch of ocean each morning and serve prospects the fish you catch each night, however it’s a recreation that’s unrelenting in its quest to present you one thing new to do nearly each time you play it.
Catching a seahorse ultimately results in a seahorse racing and administration recreation. Assembly a personality opens up a farming system for rising additional substances. There are stealth missions. Speedboat chases. Collectible playing cards. Boss fights. Music rhythm video games.
Fairly shortly I had so many new actions it felt laborious to search out time to, y’know, go fishing, which is the primary exercise of the sport. Fortunately sufficient a personality I met launched me to those large fish-breeding tanks so I might gather fish eggs and begin rising my very own fish to make up for the times the place I did not have time to catch fish in individual. That, too, led to a brand new administration system as I hatched eggs and picked up fish non-lethally to breed increased high quality fish to make use of as new substances.
Regardless of being an informal fishing recreation it might really feel a bit overwhelming. There have been instances the place I merely did not need to be taught one thing new. I simply wished to go trying to find shrimp as a result of my restaurant was having a shrimp-themed sushi evening. Then one thing would inevitably occur, like a psychotic “environmentalist” attacking me in a mech swimsuit, or a girl asking me to search out the shark that had killed her husband, or a rival chef throwing down the gauntlet of a sushi problem. I might sit there staring on the display pondering, please, please simply let me shut off my mind and swim round catching shrimp tonight.
However even after I wasn’t ready for what Dave the Diver was serving up, I all the time discovered myself shortly having fun with it, whether or not it was being chased by means of undersea tunnels by an offended ocean god or sneaking by means of a manufacturing unit stuffed with gunmen like I used to be Stable Snake or fixing puzzles with a merman in a long-forgotten temple. Catching shrimp might wait a bit. I used to be in the end completely satisfied to have one thing new to do.
There are many video games that begin off easy and slowly introduce new techniques and minigames and actions as you play, however sometimes after 5 or 10 hours they stage off and you have discovered nearly all the things you want.
Dave the Diver, splendidly, by no means ranges off. 15 hours, 20 hours, 25 hours in, it was nonetheless throwing utterly new stuff at me. Heck, even after I completed the story after about 30 hours, Dave the Diver nonetheless wasn’t accomplished: it even gave me a brand new exercise to be taught and play throughout the credit. Actually, it is a recreation that by no means desires you to show your mind off and mindlessly click on.