Beyond Blue is a narrative game where you play a diver who belongs to a group that studies sperm whales in particular.

The story is quite interesting because it tells real facts about the dangers threatening this species. The gameplay is quite relaxing and very easy and what's more is accompanied by beautiful graphics ! You will have the opportunity to unlock small documentaries on a lot of things mentioned in the story and a catalog of fish with rather interesting data (once these have been scanned).

Unfortunately the game has certain weak points including the impossibility of completely removing the HUD from the game, the sound (excluding music) which is not excellent, the character being quite slow in the submarine or even some bugs like the "Continue" button which does not work ! (You have to manualy load your previous save)

Despite these weaknesses, I highly recommend this game for its touching story, its educational side and its pleasant and relaxing gameplay !

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3151695280
No achievements are missable, you can clearly do the story and then do the rest of them
You will need do some actions on the submarine and scan every creatures and items (all of them are marked on the map, difficult to see them on some maps, you had to zoom or put the cursor on the edges of the map)
~5h to 100%

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"The sea, which no one tends, is also a garden."

Just launched into the game, the wide variety of fish swimming peacefully above the reef as well as the graphics, which are not the best, but remain quite neat, make the game magnificent to look at ! With that, you will have a scanning function that will allow you to discover little by little all the creatures in the game !

The gameplay is very easy to learn, swimming can be done slowly or faster depending on your choice and you don't find yourself bothered by the story throughout your exploration : you can very well spend 2 hours searching and wander around the area without advancing the story ! I have to say that I really appreciated this detail.

Speaking of the story, the latter surprised me quite a bit because I was not at all expecting a story largely inspired by real current facts concerning certain species in the game. It goes so far as to tell some quite dramatic events and touching which mobilizes against animal benevolence while remaining soft, which is quite pleasant.

Linked to the story, the voices of the actors are quite successful in my opinion. The discussions are not useless and even if at times the details can be complicated, most of the data received is very interesting! To this we can also add the documentaries unlocked as the adventure progresses, as well as quotes and references to research related to this game.

The availability of markers on the map to know where the last scans to be done are located, which is very practical, but which also hides sad management...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152503343
“The ocean is an unfathomable mystery.”

The first thing that frustrated me quite a bit was the lack of accessibility and display options... No color blindness or gamma options, no adjustment for the HUD and to remove it, no switch camera in first person (which would have been excellent in this game) and no way to remove the interface in the cockpit of the submarine when you are seated, even after the game ends ! I find these features quite important in a game of this magnitude and especially for such a recent game... This didn't stop me from taking a lot of screenshots but I must say that the compass is really frustrating !

The ambiant sound ! I must admit that I removed the music very quickly, not that it was poorly done, but I wanted to enjoy the sounds of the ocean, swimming, whales, etc. Except that the latter are not all very successful... Swimming makes practically no noise in general, some fish no longer have even if they can pass by you quite quickly or even some elements of the scenery which don't make any noise more than a few meters away (volcanic explosions must still make quite a bit of noise at a few dozen meters right?! haha). It's quite disappointing on this point.

Some bugs in the call, notably the bug not corrected for more than 2 years : infinite loading when you press "Continue". You should know that at present, if you want to continue a game you must not load the save game. This isn't the end of the mode but it's still annoying, knowing that a lot of people have reported it !

The speed of the character in the submarine is also excessively low, it feels like he is moving through water... Which is quite ironic x)

No indication of the existence of the scan marks : this is what made me waste hours looking for the last specimens missing in my register... How did I not see them? Because of their very pale color on the fairly white and bright maps... Which requires putting the cursor in the possible ends of the map to really see them, or really zooming in! It was a frustrating discovery I must say (5 hours wasted looking for a jellyfish haha)

Finally, we can talk about the lifespan. The game will only last a few hours, between 4 to 5 hours (unless you don't use the scan benchmarks, that's another story), which is quite short for a price of this magnitude but is quite made up for by the content of the game: documentaries, educational facts, interesting data and a constructive and touching story!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152497315
I'll be honest, I really liked the game and I recommend it !

Certainly I was quite disappointed with the lack of functionality or the rather short lifespan but being amazed by this underwater world, I enjoyed swimming in an adventure in the heart of the ocean, surrounded by creatures, in a pleasant ambiant, accompanied by this love for whales and their relaxing songs !

Thank you for this game ❤️