Deep Diving Simulator is a casual game about exploring the ocean and collecting treasures, but also has a strong emphasis on preserving our marine life and protecting their precious habitats. An important point to make is that this is not like a simulator, it is not open world and there is no free dive option.

Pros
+ 10 varied, beautiful environments.
+ Swim with marine life, heal them and remove debris.
+ Immersive soundtrack.
+ Strong focus on educating players about the plight of aquatic animals caused by mankind.
+ Level progression leads to better and different equipment.
+ Variety of items and lost treasures to discover.
+ 20 Steam Achievements.

Cons
- It is named as a simulator but instead the player has to complete specific tasks in order to proceed and unlock new environments.
- Sharks and orcas instant attack the player and is extremely frustrating when trying to explore an area, not to mention unrealistic and feeds into the misconception that sharks are all blood thirsty killers.
- Nitpick: The game did make me feel sick due to constant turning, camera angles and no ability to straighten up the character however I most likely just have a weak stomach.
- Nitpick: Professor Adam's voice is badly acted and made me cringe.

You play as a diver working for a Professor Adam and you assist him by bringing back treasures and goodies you discover and collect whilst diving. Each of the 10 areas have specific tasks which you MUST complete in order to progress and unlock the next area. Each area is extremely unique and a brief, educational description is given prior to commencing the dive.

As stated earlier, I found this games title to be misleading. It is not necessarily a simulator as the player is bound by specific tasks and progression is impossible without adhering to these. Nevertheless, the gameplay is solid and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It involves roaming the oceans for treasures, whilst healing aquatic life with your healing beam gun. Despite this, the areas are set within strict boundaries with the edge of the barrier conveyed as a red border line which you cannot cross and this does take away from the immersion of the game. While exploring the unique environments, there are various dangers lurking about that the player must be cautious with, such as spiky sea urchins, jellyfish, rays, sharks and orcas. Whilst avoiding these dangers, the player must be careful to monitor their oxygen and compression levels and rise to the surface before they are depleted. Colliding with these dangers is detrimental to your oxygen levels and it will remove anywhere from 4 seconds of oxygen to 100+ seconds, which obviously isn't beneficial when trying to explore an area, however it does make sense and worked well. To save your progress, you MUST rise to the surface, if you run out of oxygen, everything you found and all of the XP you have gained is lost. This may sound harsh, but it is relatively difficult to let your oxygen levels completely diminish and it did not cause me any issues.

I was shocked and delighted that this game chose to include such a heavy focus on marine life preservation and portrayed the effects of pollution first hand. Leaving the player no choice but to feel a sense of melancholy after exploring luscious and vibrant coral reefs, to then travel to an underwater grey world seemingly void of all lifeforms.
Although the gameplay is relatively repetitive and involves just searching around for items, the environments are all so diverse and I was always excited to see which underwater world I will be exploring next. It ranges from pirate wrecks, sea forests, heavily polluted areas and even to the city of Atlantis. Each environment also has different threats and wildlife which aids in keeping the game interesting and different.

Sharks and orcas did not add anything to the games wonderful message about marine life and exploration, instead it went in the opposite direction. It seems these highly volatile sharks and orcas were included to emphasise threats to the player but came across as a cheap way of attracting people who want to play an action-filled shark attack game. First off, I thought these sharks were pretty cool, but they ALWAYS will attack you, for no reason. I found this mildly infuriating as this is such a big misconception that media falls victim to every year and gives sharks a bad name. Not to mention constant shark attacks are annoying and oxygen consuming when I am trying to roam around. Although I understand why these predators are made so 'deadly' to cause some challenge to the player, it conflicted with the games core message about conservation. I would like to see an option to turn off the shark attacks or at least lessen the likelihood of it occurring.

For those wondering, you can 'stop' the shark from hurting you and thus leading to losing valued oxygen levels by a well timed knife attack and shooting the shark three times until it swims off for a few minutes. Both options I found difficult and bothersome to be on the constant look out to face the shark when it attacks, despite there being this 'jaws-esque' music whenever you're near a predator, signalling that it will attack. I ended up just ignoring the sharks and swimming along the bottom of the ocean floor, going about my business as usual.

Lastly in relation to sharks, I found that I could never 'heal' them. Despite being able to heal other larger marine life such as dolphins and turtles. It may be a bit of a nit-pick but just because these animals are predators, doesn't mean they should be devoid of having the healing option in game.

Deep Diving Simulator features beautiful graphics with vibrant colours and a great depiction of the many aquatic animals and environments included in this game. It ran flawlessly on my PC [RTX 2060, i5-9400, 16GB RAM]. Although it did make me feel slightly uneasy due to the tight turning and inability to straighten out my character. I don't believe this is necessarily a criticism, moreso an element to be aware of if you have experienced similar feelings in other games that have a lot of turning and differing levels of gravity.

It has an excellent, immersive soundtrack that makes the player feel like they're exploring some sort of magical realm.

I did not experience anything noteworthy.

I completed all areas in the game and it took me around 12 hours (with excessive exploration). Even so, I did not complete all areas to 100% so it does offer some replayability value.
Priced at $AU28.95 (full price) it is a fair price for those interested in exploring the depths of the sea and collecting treasure whilst taking in the beauty in the surroundings. However, it is worthy to note that it is NOT really a simulator title, so I would not recommend it at this price if that is what you are solely after.

Deep Diving Simulator is an excellent exploration title with detailed, varying environments and marine life, but its annoying and unavoidable shark attacks deduct from the games core conservation messages. Although not a traditional free-diving simulator, it does succeed in engrossing the player in the surreal world of underwater environments and made me eager to explore new areas to seek out the mysteries that lay below.

This review copy was provided to the SirAlexander Review Club curator.

Follow my curator page, Cookie Reviews, if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.

Deep Diving Simulator is a casual game about exploring the ocean and collecting treasures, but also has a strong emphasis on preserving our marine life and protecting their precious habitats. An important point to make is that this is not like a simulator, it is not open world and there is no free dive option. [u]Pros[/u] + 10 varied, beautiful environments. + Swim with marine life, heal them and remove debris. + Immersive soundtrack. + Strong focus on educating players about the plight of aquatic animals caused by mankind. + Level progression leads to better and different equipment. + Variety of items and lost treasures to discover. + 20 Steam Achievements. [u]Cons[/u] - It is named as a simulator but instead the player has to complete specific tasks in order to proceed and unlock new environments. - Sharks and orcas instant attack the player and is [b]extremely[/b] frustrating when trying to explore an area, not to mention unrealistic and feeds into the misconception that sharks are all blood thirsty killers. - [i]Nitpick[/i]: The game did make me feel sick due to constant turning, camera angles and no ability to straighten up the character however I most likely just have a weak stomach. - [i]Nitpick[/i]: Professor Adam's voice is badly acted and made me cringe. [h1]Story[/h1] You play as a diver working for a Professor Adam and you assist him by bringing back treasures and goodies you discover and collect whilst diving. Each of the 10 areas have specific tasks which you MUST complete in order to progress and unlock the next area. Each area is extremely unique and a brief, educational description is given prior to commencing the dive. [h1]Gameplay: An overview[/h1] As stated earlier, I found this games title to be misleading. It is not necessarily a simulator as the player is bound by specific tasks and progression is impossible without adhering to these. Nevertheless, the gameplay is solid and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It involves roaming the oceans for treasures, whilst healing aquatic life with your healing beam gun. Despite this, the areas are set within strict boundaries with the edge of the barrier conveyed as a red border line which you cannot cross and this does take away from the immersion of the game. While exploring the unique environments, there are various dangers lurking about that the player must be cautious with, such as spiky sea urchins, jellyfish, rays, sharks and orcas. Whilst avoiding these dangers, the player must be careful to monitor their oxygen and compression levels and rise to the surface before they are depleted. Colliding with these dangers is detrimental to your oxygen levels and it will remove anywhere from 4 seconds of oxygen to 100+ seconds, which obviously isn't beneficial when trying to explore an area, however it does make sense and worked well. To save your progress, you MUST rise to the surface, if you run out of oxygen, everything you found and all of the XP you have gained is lost. This may sound harsh, but it is relatively difficult to let your oxygen levels completely diminish and it did not cause me any issues. [h1]Gameplay: Environments[/h1] I was shocked and delighted that this game chose to include such a heavy focus on marine life preservation and portrayed the effects of pollution first hand. Leaving the player no choice but to feel a sense of melancholy after exploring luscious and vibrant coral reefs, to then travel to an underwater grey world seemingly void of all lifeforms. Although the gameplay is relatively repetitive and involves just searching around for items, the environments are all so diverse and I was always excited to see which underwater world I will be exploring next. It ranges from pirate wrecks, sea forests, heavily polluted areas and even to the city of Atlantis. Each environment also has different threats and wildlife which aids in keeping the game interesting and different. [h1]Gameplay: Sharks and Orcas[/h1] Sharks and orcas did not add anything to the games wonderful message about marine life and exploration, instead it went in the opposite direction. It seems these highly volatile sharks and orcas were included to emphasise threats to the player but came across as a cheap way of attracting people who want to play an action-filled shark attack game. First off, I thought these sharks were pretty cool, but they ALWAYS will attack you, for no reason. I found this mildly infuriating as this is such a big misconception that media falls victim to every year and gives sharks a bad name. Not to mention constant shark attacks are annoying and oxygen consuming when I am trying to roam around. Although I understand why these predators are made so 'deadly' to cause some challenge to the player, it conflicted with the games core message about conservation. I would like to see an option to turn off the shark attacks or at least lessen the likelihood of it occurring. For those wondering, you can 'stop' the shark from hurting you and thus leading to losing valued oxygen levels by a well timed knife attack and shooting the shark three times until it swims off for a few minutes. Both options I found difficult and bothersome to be on the constant look out to face the shark when it attacks, despite there being this 'jaws-esque' music whenever you're near a predator, signalling that it will attack. I ended up just ignoring the sharks and swimming along the bottom of the ocean floor, going about my business as usual. Lastly in relation to sharks, I found that I could never 'heal' them. Despite being able to heal other larger marine life such as dolphins and turtles. It may be a bit of a nit-pick but just because these animals are predators, doesn't mean they should be devoid of having the healing option in game. [h1]Graphics and performance[/h1] Deep Diving Simulator features beautiful graphics with vibrant colours and a great depiction of the many aquatic animals and environments included in this game. It ran flawlessly on my PC [RTX 2060, i5-9400, 16GB RAM]. Although it did make me feel slightly uneasy due to the tight turning and inability to straighten out my character. I don't believe this is necessarily a criticism, moreso an element to be aware of if you have experienced similar feelings in other games that have a lot of turning and differing levels of gravity. [h1]Sound[/h1] It has an excellent, immersive soundtrack that makes the player feel like they're exploring some sort of magical realm. [h1]Bugs and Glitches[/h1] I did not experience anything noteworthy. [h1]Price and Content[/h1] I completed all areas in the game and it took me around 12 hours (with excessive exploration). Even so, I did not complete all areas to 100% so it does offer some replayability value. Priced at $AU28.95 (full price) it is a fair price for those interested in exploring the depths of the sea and collecting treasure whilst taking in the beauty in the surroundings. However, it is worthy to note that it is NOT really a simulator title, so I would not recommend it at this price if that is what you are solely after. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Deep Diving Simulator is an excellent exploration title with detailed, varying environments and marine life, but its annoying and unavoidable shark attacks deduct from the games core conservation messages. Although not a traditional free-diving simulator, it does succeed in engrossing the player in the surreal world of underwater environments and made me eager to explore new areas to seek out the mysteries that lay below. This review copy was provided to the SirAlexander Review Club curator. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34936724][quote]Follow my curator page, [b]Cookie Reviews[/b], if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.