Very nice game

This review was made possible by IndiePromo.
I received a reviewing copy of this game for free. However, my review is honest.

Skip to the bottom for my Final Thoughts

Reef Shot is an underwater photography/exploration game recently re-released on Steam (initially released in 2012). Reef Shot is a combination of games like Pokemon Snap and ABZU, however, has aged horribly.

Like I just mentioned, Reef Shot was initially released in 2012 so don't expect new looking graphics. That being said, the graphics are still just mediocre for its time. Although you obviously can't expect AAA graphics for an indie game, the graphics are below average and overall look boring. The environment is composed of mostly the same textures spread out over a weird looking underwater terrain with lots of jagged edges. Due to the overall lack of different textures throughout the whole game, the visuals become very repetitive and thus boring.

My biggest complaint about the visuals in Reef Shot is the camera movement. I had to close the game after an hour to rest my eyes because the game was giving me motion sickness due to the awful camera movement. It might not be the same for everyone (perhaps it's just my monitor?) but personally, it made the game very hard to play.

The music in Reef Shot is surprisingly well done. It fits the casual theme of the game and is quite relaxing. The music is similar to hotel lobby music but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. At times I found the music to be quite cheesy but for the most part, it was nice to listen to. The voice acting is... decent to say the least. Rénee, the voice you hear the most, is pretty well done with a few weird lines of dialogue here and there. The narrator at the beginning and end of the game, however, is horrendously done and had me cringing the entire way through.

Like I mentioned in my introductory paragraph, Reef Shot is an underwater photography walking game/simulator similar to what you would get if you somehow combined Pokemon Snap and ABZU. You spend the entirety of the game underwater, swimming at a mind-boggling slow rate (which was infuriating) taking pictures of the fauna and artifacts you come across. To be honest, taking pictures of the wildlife at the beginning of the game was alright, didn't feel out of place and helped me get used to the photography mechanic of the game. However, the story flow was constantly interrupted by forced fish photography that was necessary to progress in the story which seriously hindered the overall smoothness of the gameplay.

Reef Shot is also horribly optimized. Despite being released 6 years ago, my computer actually struggled in some levels while absolutely demolishing in others. While I don't have a supercomputer like some might have, I have a pretty decent rig and I can run most AAA games at 60 FPS+. In some levels I was getting over 300 FPS, however, on some other levels, I was getting a nearly unplayable 20-40 FPS. The lack of a real options menu was also a detriment to my overall perception of the game because I was unable to play around with the settings to try to fix the horrendous FPS I got on some maps.

You play as Scott, an underwater diver/photographer who works alongside Rénee and Professor Hernandez in finding the lost city of El Dorado (which just so happens to be underwater, perhaps they mixed it up with Atlantis?). You start off in a regular expedition capturing photos of fish however you quickly discover clues that eventually lead you to the lost Mayan city of El Dorado with Rénee awkwardly translating Mayan glyphs you come across. The story is a nice addition to the game, and because the game is a walking simulator, gives you something to think about while you're swimming in the open ocean and through caves. I completed the game in around 2 hours with another 30 minutes of revisiting a level.

Reef Shot is one of those games that I would give an "In the Middle" option if it existed. Overall Reef Shot is a mediocre walking simulator but has aged horribly. The game's horrible camera movement gave me motion sickness after an hour of gameplay, forcing me to take a break before continuing on to be the game in about 2 hours. If you wish to purchase Reef Shot then I highly suggest you wait for a sale.

Rating:
Graphics: 6.0/10
Audio: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 7.0/10
Storyline: 7.5/10
Overall: 7.0/10

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Reef Shot (Photography Adventure)
Game provided for Curator review

Options include separate sliders for Music, SFX and Voice, Resolution, Language and Controller Sensitivity (if applicable). Partial controller support - only responds when you are on your dives. Save Photos is OFF by default, but I can't find where those photos might be stored, so it didn't really matter. No saving during chapters. You'll have to complete the chapter you're on to save your progress.

This is a flawed title, which I enjoyed to a point.

There is a short tutorial telling you the basics of the game, and a lot of hand-holding. This isn't an exploration game where you can take your time and look at everything, as you have defined tasks that have to be completed before you run out of air. You CAN get more air, but you'll have to "buy" it, and if your don't have enough stars to purchase it (I'll come back to this,) it's level-over and you'll have to restart that section from the beginning.

The Basics:

On your dives you will be tasked with taking photographs of different kinds of sea life, as well as artifacts that you come across along the way. You can see the items/fish that you need to take pics of at the bottom right of the screen. Later on you'll see some stars under each pic representing the photo quality required in order to pass the task.

Movement is slow, but you CAN swim more quickly by holding down a button. I'm not sure which button for the keyboard, but on the controller, you have to push down on the directional stick - a bit unwieldy with the other things you have to do, but at least the option is there!

The story is thready and unrealistic, but good enough that I wanted to keep playing.

How to earn stars:

Stars are earned by taking photographs. The better the quality of your photos, the more stars you'll earn. To get the best quality photos on fish, the motion-sensor has to be at three bars, AND it has to be in focus. This isn't that bad in the beginning, but as you get better-quality cameras, it becomes increasingly difficult. At my last upgrade, there was a swiftly-changing focus meter that I had to monitor, along with the motion sensor and moving with the fish, and in the end, it became well-nigh impossible for me to complete the shots with high enough quality for the game to accept them, and then there's the problem of running out of film...

For the archeological finds (still pictures), there is no motion sensor to tell you the quality of your shots. Even worse was the chapter where I had to take 3-star quality pics of something, but there were at least twelve of those things present, and no indication of which ones I should be taking the pics of! :gah: They were gravestones It only got worse from there, as sometimes the shots don't count unless you take them at the right angle.

Spending stars:

There are quite a few things that you can spend your stars on that will make the game easier, but you have to EARN them first.

• Extra photos
  
• Refill air tank
  
• Find artifact
  
• Find fish
  
• Auto-focus
  
• Unlock bonus tasks (not required to finish the chapter)

What would make the game better:

• Ability to turn off HUD for screenshot-taking
  
• Casual mode (no air or film restrictions)
  
• Ability to PAUSE the game. As it stands, you can bring up the menu, but it doesn't pause... You'll still run out of air.

Achievements:
There are 17 Achievements, but you MUST complete the bonus tasks in order to get them all.

I will give this game a passing grade because I enjoyed what I was able to play of it, but my frustration with the latter levels definitely colors my overall feelings about the game. If the devs address the issues with the game, I will happily give it a stronger recommendation, but for now, it's a "proceed with caution."

Here lies a game that could be good with enough time put into it. As it stands, it is an average escape into a world within our grasp with all the enthusiasm of a school-sponsored field trip. Nice enough in its presentation, it could use much more work in terms of world-building and character development, if not giving a reason for the viewer to care about anything that happens at all. Reef Shot is a nice shot, yet blurry from age and a lack of development. Only those with a background in scientific fanaticism, and a penchant for a more story-driven video game experience, should be willing to take that initial dive.

+ Good visual appeal
+ Almost corny enough to be charming
+ Effectively immersive soundtrack

- No reason to care outside of innate curiosity
- Areas become repetitive quickly
- Renée

Read the full review at https://www.keengamer.com/article/17567_reef-shot-review

I paid $2.24 for Reef Shot. That might have been a fair price.

I had a small idea what I was getting into - some kind of mashup of Afrika on PS3 and the Endless Ocean series on Wii with far lower production values. Unfortuntely, Reef Shot eschews the laid back, kinda open world, collectathon-with-light-story format of those games and strives for something more like a mobile device find-the-things-in-the-picture idea.

It's unfortunate, and, by the fourth level, it's just annoying and not worth pursuing. It's irritating enough to search for the photography targets as they are drip-fed to you, unable to approach the dive how you would prefer. But then the game feels the need to pile on immersion-breaking rhythm game timing challenges as well as weird, exceedingly gamified resource limitations. Who, in this day and age, can't fit more than 35 shots on a digial camera? Why am I buying additional oxygen, autofocus uses, and film (!?) with in-game currency while still underwater? It's so dumb that it boggles the mind.

I wasn't expecting a hardcore simulation here, but the game's internal logic is so bizarre that it's distracting, and the emphasis on twitch gameplay and resource management over exploration and enjoyment is a crazy choice, given the way the game is framed and themed.

Reef Shot very much suffers from its own mechanics, as well as unfavorable comparisons to Subnautica and Abzu, which far exceed its depiction of underwater life in both higher and lower fidelity presentations.

This is just not a good game. The environments are very sparse and poorly designed. There's only a few plants here and there, with just a lot of featureless grey rock everywhere else. Barely any sea life. In fact the only fish you'll see are the ones that were specifically put there for you to take a picture of. Swim off the path and you'll see just...nothing. Completely linear. The waypoints guide you from one place to the next and there's nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Even worse is the "manual focus" mechanic introduced later in the game that requires you to perform a quicktime action every single time you want to take a picture. Oh and it's only 1:30 hours long.

Do yourself a favor. If you're interested in these types of games go play Everblue 1 & 2 on the PS2, or the Endless Ocean games on the Wii. Those are the games this game tries and fails to copy.

The game is about diving around underwater scenes searching for stuff the game tells you about (fishes, ruins, etc) and take decent photos of them, meaning you need to find the right angle, zoom, etc to have your pic rated with more stars.
From time to time it's hard to understand what or how you need to take a pic to have better rating, fishes move a little too much in the later levels but the game is short (in three hours you can do everything) so probably it was made just to create a bit of challenge.
Overall i liked the experience, maybe bigger levels with no or less air limit (a bit annoying but as i said levels are quite short so it wasn't much an issue in the end) would also have helped enjoy it more.

good

RECOMMENDATION: YES

Diving game for OCD Photographers. Discover different fishes and artifacts, unravel a mystery...
There is a survival aspect to this as well, you need oxygen to survive, which you can buy with the stars you earn by photographing items which are quested. Has some extra approaches which makes the game interesting, BUT I recommend not playing this game longer then 1 or 2 hours per day, because... Well... It gets boring very fast if you do spend too long hours on it.

:)