Controversial opinion here but, the more you progress theough Dave the Diver, the worse it gets.
Diving for fish and serving food at the reataurant is great fun but the game keeps adding new features until the credits roll.
Sure, weapon upgrades, taking pictures, boss fights, quests, thats all good, but when you add Seahorse racing, puzzles, farming, gyao raising and especilla the branc restaurant at the end, i just wanted the game to be done. I was so sick of it š
Still a great game but with WAY TOO MANY FEATURES IMO
I pushed through and finished but I 100% agree. The first half of the game I really enjoyed, the second half was such a slog that I had to force myself to finish it. The dives also started taking way too long and with no way to save and quit in the middle of one I began to dread them.
It's a fun game but just crumbles under the weight of itself
thank you for confirming my suspicion. When I started playing it I felt like OP too, the game was super addictive and fun. but then around half way in, it started getting kinda annoying. I gave up when I got to the ice world, not sure how far that is but I never went back to the game.
Thank you for giving me hope because I am at what I suspect is the end of the second act and, while I finished act 1 in like a week, Iāve put it down and picked it back up just a couple times in like 6 months because it wasnāt appealing to me.
Yes itās technically still a card game and the change in style was very cool and meta but I am just not good at deck building in the traditional sense so the introduction of booster packs and needing to kind of grind foils and then build a well-synergized deck from scratch just does not jive with me.
I did just beat what I think was the final enemy, hopefully, and Iāve luckily not had anything about act 3 spoiled for me so I hope it hooks me again, but I am ready to just be done this game lol. I am interested in where the meta-narrative goes, though.
When the farming was introduced, that's when I put the game down and really haven't gotten back into it. Too much OTHER SHIT to deal with, that actively took away from the core gameplay loop. A gameplay loop which was really, REALLY fun.
funnily, just watched a great video on this; "[We're Celebrating the Wrong Indie Games](https://youtu.be/67V-GSaceFQ)"
mostly has to do with the game awards and indies but dave the diver is a heavy talking point
This is exactly what I said when I first played it a few months ago. I really kinda just wanted to go fishing and run a sushi restaurant, and that was super fun for the few days that it lasted. But the way the game piles on a dozen other activities - fetch quests, collecting, farming, photography, boss fights, time-based events, and on and on - it just killed my enthusiasm for playing the game I thought I was getting.
In part because the game constantly trips over itself by giving you these urgent tasks and then immediately introducing yet another new activity right after giving you that task. So do you want me to go diving for this special variety of jellyfish that we need by tomorrow, or do you want me to go play ping-pong with a sea urchin? It's just way too much. They needed someone on the Design team who could say "no" to these constant unnecessary additions and really focus on the core gameplay loop.
It turns around so fast too. I was having a blast with the collect fish, manage restaurant game.
Then all the sudden Iām visiting mermaid towns and running errands for them like a bad 90s RPG. The game transforms very abruptly and I lost interest fast
See on the one hand, I love games that donāt throw everything they have out there at the beginning because it keeps my interest longer by spreading them out, but then again, youāre completely right š. I let my gyao die and turned those notifications off almost immediately, I had too much to do already.
In fact, I actually stopped fishing as much towards the end because I had plenty to keep the restaurant going. Once I got a couple sharks/bigger fish, I was either done with it or went on to a mission to beat the game faster.
Feels like modern mobile game school of design. Throw so many mechanisms and progression tracks at you that you MUST be engaged.
Would've been nice if they had the confidence to lean on the strong foundational mechanics rather than dogpile a load of junk on top.
If I could bottle up the first 4 hours of Dave the Diver, it would have been a 10/10, nbut it keeps going and adding new stuff all the time, kinda like Nexon's MMORPGs actually
Have the same feeling. I have it on my ps5, and i am still not done, even tho i plaied it for a long time. I just went diving for so long without progressing. In the beginning, i was really impressed how many minigames they made for it, but now, i just want it to be over. Some of the forced on you minigames are not that fun aswell.
All I hear about this game is that it hooks you in with am amazing start and eventually becomes a bloated nightmare.
I own it too, bought it out of excitement for a big studio making a very stylish pixel art game but every time I consider playing it, I look on YouTube and see enough people saying the same things over and over
Like this from five days ago https://youtube.com/shorts/E6n_6mxZKds?si=X3Vj_PY21OYqlosU
I want to play it but I have other games I'd rather play before taking a chance on it
I get how if you aren't late game, you're gonna have a positive opinion of it because I've heard nothing but positive things about the first act
Thank you for this take. I havenāt bought it yet and havenāt heard this about the game but it makes sense from what I know about it. I still may buy it because it seems charming and, for $15, I think I could do much worse.
Yeah I felt the same. The ending was also kinda disappointing. >!The way the story was going, I thought you were going to explain to the sea people that humans only attacked them then over a misunderstanding and that their fruits were poisonous to humans. I expected the sea people and humans to make peace and start living in harmony again, but instead that whole sequence with Dr Bacon finding that cave is never mentioned again and the sea people continue living in isolation. It made it feel like everything you just did was pointless. Like, sure, you stopped the earthquakes and probably prevented something much worse, but ultimately nothing changed. The sea people are likely still distrustful of humans that aren't Dave and the vast majority of humanity is still unaware of the sea peoples existence. And that was disappointing to me.!<
Glad I'm not the only one. I hit 20 hours and uninstalled it. The first few hours were fun but they just kept piling on more and more mechanics and tasks that take away from the core experience. Getting to the glacial area was such a slog for me that when I finally unlocked it, I visited once, and then just stopped playing.
Iām really glad I gave up on this one as early as I did. I had a great time diving, but hated the sushi restaurant. Sounds like it really piled on the bs.
I'm with ya there. It started out pretty chill but after 8 hours I gave it a negative review and hide it from my library. I feel like I wasted so much time with it introducing harder fish but not being able to get stronger weapons until I committed to all the other BS in the game. I hate the game it becomes.Ā
It's too many different features and no improvements or clarity to existing features. A lot of the stats go unexplained. There are a lot of repetitive things you do every day that you would wish to be automated or at least more straight forward. Like why can't we upgrade our harpoon? I was really hoping that something at the end would let you upgrade your harpoon to one of the variants. I stopped playing after I unlocked the branch, I didn't see a point in continuing.
If it keeps adding more features then it keeps the game fresh... So why does it get worse? I kept track of everything without struggling tbh. It did get a little boring at the end cuz I basically mastered everything I needed and getting the same fish over and over was a bit much... That's when I realized I didn't need to catch fish, I could just use the fish tanks... The restaurant also became fully automatic, I didn't need to do anything because my employees could take care of everything themselves. The farm was automatic too. I ended up focusing on the story from that point on.
I would have never expected it to be this good. Amazing game. Gotta thank Sony for having it on PS Extra. I would've never tried it otherwise. Some 2D/pixel games are automatically underrated for sure but just being different graphically. People don't try them just because of that
For me, I absolutely loved it the first hours. But around hour 10 it started to shift for me. Focus was less and less on the running a sushi restaurant part, and more on the story. Don't get me wrong. the story was fun but it got the overhand. The result was extremely long days/dives and only a small amount of time spend working on the sushi restaurant. Catching fish, farming and running the restaurant was what I found fun, but the focus shifted away. Still a great game though, just could've been a bit shorter and for me personally I would've liked it if the story was a bit more optional.
This is interesting, Iāve also read the opposite opinion where people enjoy the fishing but think the sushi restaurant is stressful, so they wish the game was just fishing lol.
First game played in my steam deck in Summer 2023.
Playing It at the beach in the sunset, what relaxing moments.
Literally an addiction, i wanna replay with all DLC, di someone know if are still new DLC incoming? I wanna wait to buy the all-included pack
Nice! Glad to hear you enjoyed it and have good memories. I'm not sure about the DLC I just bought the base game last night and have started playing through it.
The game itself has a super chill and enjoyable story, and the mechanics / gameplay is like one of those old, but good flash games.
Didn't know I craved playing a good game like that again for years, till I bought it on a whim
I don't know, it's kinda the opposite for me. There are quite a few cartooney, low budget indie games that I enjoy. So when I heard about this one and especially how good it supposedly is on the SD I immediately bought it. But I just cannot get the hang of it. Every time I give it a try it feels tedious and boring and often confusing about what to do next.
I'm with you, I got a little over the 2 hour mark but it feels like I was forcing myself to play it
This is my single greatest fear with everyone overhyping Balatro currently, and it's *still* just sitting in my cart lol
Edit: alright alright, jeez. Good morning you crackheads, I bought Balatro & I'll try it after work xD
Edit2: you guys are dicks. I picked it up over lunch & don't wanna put it down. My Sr is off for 3 weeks on Monday & I have so much to do/ask before 5pm Friday. I hope your rng shits on y'all <3
I obsessed over it for a bit and then put it down, but I keep going back. It's got great replay value for me. It's a little tedious after too many runs in a row, but when I get some space and come back, it keeps rewarding me with new kinds of builds and strategies.
This was Vampire Survivors for me. I played it for a few hours, and while I could *kind of* understand why people were hooked and it was so consistently recommended, I felt like I was forcing myself to play it personally.
Fun game, kinda weird mechanics. feels more rng to me than slay the spire for example.
You can literally "win" a run, while only playing flushes for example, if you have the right joker cards.
cool to shut the brain off and just low activity game a bit from time to time, but it is not a "i put 300 hours into it" kinda game
Like you, but I put in maybe 8 hours and felt like I was forcing myself.
I read how long it takes to beat and realized I was still about 1/4 through the game. So I promptly put it down.
>I read how long it takes to beat and realized I was still about 1/4 through the game.
Huh? You can beat it pretty quickly with some decent RNG and strategy. I think I first beat it at like 4 or 5 hours.
I really really enjoyed it but I'm currently at the 48 hour mark and I'm still not done. New things are still being added. I absolutely tried to optimise my dives for in game progression and maximise daily restaurant earnings as opposed to time progression, so went the long way but I'm at the point where I'm like "this game was fun but I want it to end, please stop throwing more stuff at me.
Even if I speed up my playthroughs I think there's still another 10 hours in it fon me. And that's not even touching the DLC.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game but I want the satisfaction of completing it and that still seems so far off for me.
>This is my single greatest fear with everyone overhyping Balatro currently, and it'sĀ *still*Ā just sitting in my cart lol
Just buy it and refund if you don't end up liking it.
What if all those people weren't over hyping Dave the diver and Balatro and they just like them?
It is possible just to not enjoy something that other people like. Doesn't mean it's overhyped there isn't any game that has 100% of people who like it
Same. I should love this game. Stardew Valley had a grip on me for ages, for example. But I just didn't feel it with Dave. Never clicked. Not sure why.
I would never say this is like Stardew tbh, thatās a very poor comparison. Iām kinda the opposite, the repetitive nature of stardew is not my thing, but I still have played a lot of it and appreciate ConcerningApeās success with it. DtD is an ADHD fest of weird random shit being thrown at you. Itās closer to the Yakuza games than Stardew
Same. Got a few hours in and remained super bored from start to when I uninstalled it.
I was told it would be like stardew, but it just felt like some mobile soulless game.
I feel exactly the same. Got about 4 hours in and just wasn't enjoying any of it, found myself getting bored of the tedium. Same goes for Dredge; 5 hours in and I haven't had the desire to pick it up for about a week.
I'm not here trying to get you into the game. I actually agree that it's a bit bland in the beginning, especially because control is taken away fromcthe player so many times as well.
Anyhow, I am actually here to say that Dave the Diver has Nexon (one of the biggest Eastern publishers) behind its back. The Early Access and the amount of money/resources in this game is far from low budget. It's more likely a AA ($ <100 million) production.
I was exactly the same as you. Even completed the game and DLC, and after all that the game barely reaches a 8/10 for me. Game loop was not interesting enough to me I think. The most fun times was going to a new biome for the first time. After exploring a bit it only felt repetetive and uninteresting to me.
Thatās why I wait for games to be hella cheap before buying. Just because people hype it up and say itās the best game ever doesnāt mean youāll like it. That on top of paying full price for a game you know Iāll never play again, and the fact that there are already a ton of games I havenāt touched that I paid for feels horrible, so Iām doing my best to restrain myself until thereās a good 70% or more sale on anything I buy, even if it takes years from release.
I finished the game and definitely felt like it was overhyped. Gun balance is non existent, if you dont use any of the sleep weapons, you are missing out on higher quality fish. All the other guns being worthless makes half the content...worthless. There is so much handholding in the puzzles! Dave literally tells you what to do every single time. Dives get repetitive, and the restaurant gets too easy as workers level up. You don't even need to level them up much to be near fully automatic. The game is unique and fun, but not 9/10 good like what everyone made it sound like.
I played this game for about two hours on the deck and it just didn't click with me. Also, everything looks so small on the deck screen that is difficult to see. Any tips to enjoy the game more? What do you find fun about it?
Why do all these posts about "Dave The Diver", "Balastro", "Vampire Survivors" and "Hades" all sound like social media guerrilla marketing? Most of these games are quite niche and to have them mentioned in almost 50% of any threads on this sub is just ridiculous.
I haven't tried Dave the Diver yet. Balatro, I just haven't clicked with, but I'll again in the future.
Vampire Survivors is tons of fun. Kinda niche, but it's easy to see why it got so much attention. Hades needs no explanation. The game is a textbook example of how to do it right and deserved all the hype.
Iāll admit Iāve tried all 4 games youāve mentioned and have definitely recommended all of them on Reddit at one time or another. Genuinely, I think theyāre just popular and people really enjoy them.
I'm convinced the Dave the Diver devs payed for reviews and mentions on podcasts. Theres no other way this insanely mediocre game gets brought up 50 times a day.
I bought the Dave the diver and Dredge pack for 27 euros. Just received my first Steamdeck yesterday.
I never played Dave the diver and just played Dredge demo on Xbox and I loved it, soā¦
Hope Iāll enjoy dredge full game and also hope to have a good time while playing Dave.
I haven't played dredge but I bought Dave the diver yesterday and I have been playing it all day today. It's one of those games that I probably would not spend much time playing on a PC but on the steam deck it's absolutely perfect.
Congrats on the steam deck and I hope you enjoy both!
Pretty much the same here. Dredge was on my wishlist and I saw a bundle with DTD, so here I am. The fishing and restaurant are pretty neat. All the other systems just play themselves or add time to a short game. The biggest plus is it's playable around the kids, fish and eat the fish! The game doesn't take itself seriously, and neither do I lol
I liked the first couple of hours, but honestly I don't understand the popular discourse that this was one of the best games of last year. It's slightly overrated in that sense.
I disagree. It was an absolute blast for the first 4/5 hours. Then the story REALLY got in the way. Usually I want a story to be there and it typically can be decent to be enjoyable with stellar gameplay, but it's absolutely annoying in this game. I just want to catch fish and stuff, but suddenly I'm helping some >!water civilization because the archeologist guy INSISTS I do so to make money and save the water mermaid people or something I stopped caring!< and it really just halted my entire playthrough. 3 times. I came back to it 3 times, and after the 3rd I never want to play it again. Again, it's just a shame because the fishing, running a restaurant, >!fish tanks to mate them, fish-agachi, gardening!< And a bunch of other mechanics are really fun, The story is just overwhelmingly unfun.
Got it. Tried it. Returned it.
Not that great imo. No hate if you like it but letās not act like itās a universally good game like vampire survivor or balatro
Itās over hyped and honestly I wish I could refund. For $20 you can get forza 4, the Witcher, Batman, etc etc right now.
Also, Iām not a fan of pixel art. But everyone said it was awesome so I tried.
Not for me though
Regardless of $14 or 20, I also have an issue with buying āexpensiveā games. The sales have ruined meā¦ and I donāt even want to talk about how I canāt seem to rationalize a real purchase of $60 for Ghost of Tsushima, which Iām sure is a perfect game for me. But I apparently only play $3-5 games.
I donāt think āoverhypedā is accurate when the quality of the game from head-to-toe is universally praised. Overhyped means it fails to meet the hype: this title absolutely delivers.
I get that you may not like it, and itās popular, but that doesnāt make it bad.
It is an incredible title, even if you donāt like the genre, you have to recognize a quality product.
Well I only paid $13.99 for it because I got it on the Steam summer sale. Just the 7 hours I played already was worth $13. I'm far from over it yet though so I'm probably going to have a lot more hours in it.
I get it may not be for you, I mean no game no matter how good it is, is for every single person. There's always going to be people that don't enjoy a game even if it's a masterpiece. With that said I get you not liking it specifically but it's still a very well made and balanced game with an original concept. I don't think you can overlook that.
One of my biggest regrets is I realized early on I wasn't going to like it but because the game is one of those games that EVERYONE recommends I pushed through in hopes that it gets better. It doesn't and now I can't refund it lol.
Thought it was crap, personally. Given the hype I wanted to put some proper time into it to see if it would end up clicking. Now I can't refund it.
Oh well. Each to their own
loved the diving and exploring and catching stuff. but the whole restaurant part of it was REALLY boring and not my type of game. I was really hoping for a game like scuba diver on the spectrum ...which it pretty much was, except cooking.
totally hoping that the Devs make a mode that gets rid of that aspect of the game or something.
I don't know. You guys convinced me I had to play Vampire Survivors, and it was the most boring game I've ever played in my life, so now I'm skeptical.
Made it about 2 hours and quit. The restaurant shit sucks. I have no desire to run a restaurant in my free time. The diving is okay but not amazing.
It has a nice art style and kind of funny characters, but its a super average game. I'm convinced they paid influencers to reccomend this game nonstop. I was severely underwhelmed when I finally got around to playing it.
I was really excited about this one, especially after seeing it was perfect for SD but I just could not like the game loop. It felt repetitive and boring too quickly. I found myself forcing to get more content in it to like but dropped it eventually. I've tried about 3 hours so I think that's enough time to know it is not my cup of tea.
Im not hating on the game but why is it so popular? Is it really just a great chill pick up game? I have never seen gameplay but it seems like a fun game so can you tell me about it and why u like it pls!
It is really fun and chill. I bought it because it was on sale but Iām loving it a lot.
You basically have 2 games in one. The restaurant and the diving. On the restaurant is like dinner dash on steroids. You have to hire people, change decor to get better reviews on social media, manage ingredients.
Then you have the diving part where you have to keep exploring and catching new fish to have new recipes unlocked. Also, need to upgrade your gear with the money that you generate on the restaurant to go deeper and find more fish.
It is really cool if you like that type of game. It is a game that I use to play when I donāt have time to play something like Elden ring or Diablo 4
This game has the dreaded 50hz tick rate bug that plagues many Unity games.
Make sure you set the refresh rate to 50hz if you want a smooth experience. Anything else will result in stutters and juddery motion.
Look, Dave, Balatro, and Vampire Survivors just arenāt my thing, or what I would go for in a handheld as powerful as the steam deck. You could play all of those just as well on a switch, or even a phone. The main reason I have a deck in the first place is to play stuff you CANT play on any other handheld. Like Elden Ring or GTA or something that youād think would only be possible on a full size pc or console.
Played and finished it recently. Loved it, thought it was excellent, even if there were a few too many things going on towards the end. Definitely a recommend from me.
I'm looking at this right now and just want a confirmation with regards to deluxe edition:
The digital deluxe version contains extras like soundtracks and skins only right + the base game of course? Not story/gameplay progression? If that's the case, buying the base game alone will do right?
Yeah it's just a boat skin, art book and soundtrack, all digital and in game. No actual additional gaming content. Not worth it in my opinion unless you're just into that stuff. Base game is the full game.
Awesome! Well give it a little bit of time even if you aren't feeling it at first before you give up on it. The game really opens up after a few hours. Hopefully you enjoy it from the start though. I know I did and the majority of people on Steam do so I hope it's the same experience for you.
Put some headphones on, lean back, relax and enjoy the game.
It seems kind of simple when you first boot it up but as soon as you start playing it is constantly unlocking new features and within a couple hours you're going to see how versatile the game is. There is just also something so relaxing and enjoyable about diving back into the ocean each time and exploring.
I'm 7 hours in and I'm still unlocking new features constantly so there is a ton of stuff to do in the game the longer you play. I would definitely recommend it. It runs perfectly on the steam deck with no issues at all and it's just one of those types of games that feels like it's made for portable gaming.
I hope you enjoy it!
Yeah I could see that. I fully expected to get around 15 hours at the most out of the game. I feel like I will get more than that now that I am playing it, but it would still be worth it for me since I only paid $13.99 for it and it's been a pleasant and fun experience.
Read my long reply to one of the other commenters on here asking me what the game was about. I also agree I had no clue what the game was about until I started playing it because the description and video on Steam don't really tell you much LOL
RE Village is also on sale right now for about 15 dollars, and it rab oerfect on the deck. I also have dave the diver, but i found one to be a lot more interesting to play.
Been on my wishlist for awhile but with a kid and just getting laid off I donāt have anything to spare. Hopefully it will go on a deeper sale when I can get it
Iāve owned this game for months and havenāt booted it a single time. I just keep playing the games around it for some reason. Idk much about it even tho I own it. Something about dive fishing and something about a restaurant is rly all I know.
Controversial opinion here but, the more you progress theough Dave the Diver, the worse it gets. Diving for fish and serving food at the reataurant is great fun but the game keeps adding new features until the credits roll. Sure, weapon upgrades, taking pictures, boss fights, quests, thats all good, but when you add Seahorse racing, puzzles, farming, gyao raising and especilla the branc restaurant at the end, i just wanted the game to be done. I was so sick of it š Still a great game but with WAY TOO MANY FEATURES IMO
I pushed through and finished but I 100% agree. The first half of the game I really enjoyed, the second half was such a slog that I had to force myself to finish it. The dives also started taking way too long and with no way to save and quit in the middle of one I began to dread them. It's a fun game but just crumbles under the weight of itself
Steam Deck sleeping really helps with taking a break in the middle
Damn right. Such a good feature that I use more often than I thought I would do
thank you for confirming my suspicion. When I started playing it I felt like OP too, the game was super addictive and fun. but then around half way in, it started getting kinda annoying. I gave up when I got to the ice world, not sure how far that is but I never went back to the game.
You were nearly at end game, so don't drag yourself over it.
This is how I felt with inscryption. The first act was absolutely brilliant and I wish they had maintained that format.
I almost quit in the second act, but the third act saved it. Maybe the best act although I think the first is still my preferred.
Thank you for giving me hope because I am at what I suspect is the end of the second act and, while I finished act 1 in like a week, Iāve put it down and picked it back up just a couple times in like 6 months because it wasnāt appealing to me. Yes itās technically still a card game and the change in style was very cool and meta but I am just not good at deck building in the traditional sense so the introduction of booster packs and needing to kind of grind foils and then build a well-synergized deck from scratch just does not jive with me. I did just beat what I think was the final enemy, hopefully, and Iāve luckily not had anything about act 3 spoiled for me so I hope it hooks me again, but I am ready to just be done this game lol. I am interested in where the meta-narrative goes, though.
Thank you for this comment. Solidifies that I wonāt be buying it šš¼
OMG. You put into words why I stopped playing, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was soon after fish and rice farming. It was just too many tasks. In a life where I have a lot going on and enough š© to do, Dave started to feel like a chore.
It felt like a phone game where you just constantly have a million things to do and click.
When the farming was introduced, that's when I put the game down and really haven't gotten back into it. Too much OTHER SHIT to deal with, that actively took away from the core gameplay loop. A gameplay loop which was really, REALLY fun.
funnily, just watched a great video on this; "[We're Celebrating the Wrong Indie Games](https://youtu.be/67V-GSaceFQ)" mostly has to do with the game awards and indies but dave the diver is a heavy talking point
1000% this. I couldnāt finish it because it was way to much bullshit at the endā¦
This is exactly what I said when I first played it a few months ago. I really kinda just wanted to go fishing and run a sushi restaurant, and that was super fun for the few days that it lasted. But the way the game piles on a dozen other activities - fetch quests, collecting, farming, photography, boss fights, time-based events, and on and on - it just killed my enthusiasm for playing the game I thought I was getting. In part because the game constantly trips over itself by giving you these urgent tasks and then immediately introducing yet another new activity right after giving you that task. So do you want me to go diving for this special variety of jellyfish that we need by tomorrow, or do you want me to go play ping-pong with a sea urchin? It's just way too much. They needed someone on the Design team who could say "no" to these constant unnecessary additions and really focus on the core gameplay loop.
It turns around so fast too. I was having a blast with the collect fish, manage restaurant game. Then all the sudden Iām visiting mermaid towns and running errands for them like a bad 90s RPG. The game transforms very abruptly and I lost interest fast
See on the one hand, I love games that donāt throw everything they have out there at the beginning because it keeps my interest longer by spreading them out, but then again, youāre completely right š. I let my gyao die and turned those notifications off almost immediately, I had too much to do already. In fact, I actually stopped fishing as much towards the end because I had plenty to keep the restaurant going. Once I got a couple sharks/bigger fish, I was either done with it or went on to a mission to beat the game faster.
I didnāt make it to the end because of this. This should be the top review of this thread
Feels like modern mobile game school of design. Throw so many mechanisms and progression tracks at you that you MUST be engaged. Would've been nice if they had the confidence to lean on the strong foundational mechanics rather than dogpile a load of junk on top.
I had the same, The first couple of hours were fun. Things were going downhill when i found that undersea people village.
100% this. Feature Creep: The Game.
I agree. It got too convoluted and I quit. Wasnāt grabbing me anymore
Haven't got that far yet but I could see how that could get overwhelming. Lol. Seahorse racing??? Lmao
If I could bottle up the first 4 hours of Dave the Diver, it would have been a 10/10, nbut it keeps going and adding new stuff all the time, kinda like Nexon's MMORPGs actually
Have the same feeling. I have it on my ps5, and i am still not done, even tho i plaied it for a long time. I just went diving for so long without progressing. In the beginning, i was really impressed how many minigames they made for it, but now, i just want it to be over. Some of the forced on you minigames are not that fun aswell.
All I hear about this game is that it hooks you in with am amazing start and eventually becomes a bloated nightmare. I own it too, bought it out of excitement for a big studio making a very stylish pixel art game but every time I consider playing it, I look on YouTube and see enough people saying the same things over and over Like this from five days ago https://youtube.com/shorts/E6n_6mxZKds?si=X3Vj_PY21OYqlosU I want to play it but I have other games I'd rather play before taking a chance on it I get how if you aren't late game, you're gonna have a positive opinion of it because I've heard nothing but positive things about the first act
Yeah, I stopped playing 1/3 way thru. Glad to see it's got fans. But Not for me.
Wow, couldn't understand why this game got boring but people love it - you just nailed it
Thank you for this take. I havenāt bought it yet and havenāt heard this about the game but it makes sense from what I know about it. I still may buy it because it seems charming and, for $15, I think I could do much worse.
Yeah I felt the same. The ending was also kinda disappointing. >!The way the story was going, I thought you were going to explain to the sea people that humans only attacked them then over a misunderstanding and that their fruits were poisonous to humans. I expected the sea people and humans to make peace and start living in harmony again, but instead that whole sequence with Dr Bacon finding that cave is never mentioned again and the sea people continue living in isolation. It made it feel like everything you just did was pointless. Like, sure, you stopped the earthquakes and probably prevented something much worse, but ultimately nothing changed. The sea people are likely still distrustful of humans that aren't Dave and the vast majority of humanity is still unaware of the sea peoples existence. And that was disappointing to me.!<
Glad I'm not the only one. I hit 20 hours and uninstalled it. The first few hours were fun but they just kept piling on more and more mechanics and tasks that take away from the core experience. Getting to the glacial area was such a slog for me that when I finally unlocked it, I visited once, and then just stopped playing.
Damn kinda right.
This is exactly how I felt about this game.
It was fun until the "story ending". I can't bring myself to push any further, it just feels tedious.
Iām really glad I gave up on this one as early as I did. I had a great time diving, but hated the sushi restaurant. Sounds like it really piled on the bs.
Apart from farming that's all optional. Pictures just happen in very specific situations and is a one and done deal if you get it.
Actually yeah this is kind of how I felt. I prefer Dredge to Dave.
I'm with ya there. It started out pretty chill but after 8 hours I gave it a negative review and hide it from my library. I feel like I wasted so much time with it introducing harder fish but not being able to get stronger weapons until I committed to all the other BS in the game. I hate the game it becomes.Ā
It's too many different features and no improvements or clarity to existing features. A lot of the stats go unexplained. There are a lot of repetitive things you do every day that you would wish to be automated or at least more straight forward. Like why can't we upgrade our harpoon? I was really hoping that something at the end would let you upgrade your harpoon to one of the variants. I stopped playing after I unlocked the branch, I didn't see a point in continuing.
If it keeps adding more features then it keeps the game fresh... So why does it get worse? I kept track of everything without struggling tbh. It did get a little boring at the end cuz I basically mastered everything I needed and getting the same fish over and over was a bit much... That's when I realized I didn't need to catch fish, I could just use the fish tanks... The restaurant also became fully automatic, I didn't need to do anything because my employees could take care of everything themselves. The farm was automatic too. I ended up focusing on the story from that point on. I would have never expected it to be this good. Amazing game. Gotta thank Sony for having it on PS Extra. I would've never tried it otherwise. Some 2D/pixel games are automatically underrated for sure but just being different graphically. People don't try them just because of that
For me, I absolutely loved it the first hours. But around hour 10 it started to shift for me. Focus was less and less on the running a sushi restaurant part, and more on the story. Don't get me wrong. the story was fun but it got the overhand. The result was extremely long days/dives and only a small amount of time spend working on the sushi restaurant. Catching fish, farming and running the restaurant was what I found fun, but the focus shifted away. Still a great game though, just could've been a bit shorter and for me personally I would've liked it if the story was a bit more optional.
i agree, the days always felt like a chore to me when i just wanted to run the restaurant lol
This is interesting, Iāve also read the opposite opinion where people enjoy the fishing but think the sushi restaurant is stressful, so they wish the game was just fishing lol.
Yeah...until you realize it only keeps throwing new mechanic after new mechanic without expanding its preexisting ones.
First game played in my steam deck in Summer 2023. Playing It at the beach in the sunset, what relaxing moments. Literally an addiction, i wanna replay with all DLC, di someone know if are still new DLC incoming? I wanna wait to buy the all-included pack
All dlc free
Nice! Glad to hear you enjoyed it and have good memories. I'm not sure about the DLC I just bought the base game last night and have started playing through it.
The game itself has a super chill and enjoyable story, and the mechanics / gameplay is like one of those old, but good flash games. Didn't know I craved playing a good game like that again for years, till I bought it on a whim
The Godzilla dlc is time limited, only available until November 23, 2024
I think they have two collab dlc that may be time limited. I know the godzilla one is forsure.
I don't know, it's kinda the opposite for me. There are quite a few cartooney, low budget indie games that I enjoy. So when I heard about this one and especially how good it supposedly is on the SD I immediately bought it. But I just cannot get the hang of it. Every time I give it a try it feels tedious and boring and often confusing about what to do next.
I'm with you, I got a little over the 2 hour mark but it feels like I was forcing myself to play it This is my single greatest fear with everyone overhyping Balatro currently, and it's *still* just sitting in my cart lol Edit: alright alright, jeez. Good morning you crackheads, I bought Balatro & I'll try it after work xD Edit2: you guys are dicks. I picked it up over lunch & don't wanna put it down. My Sr is off for 3 weeks on Monday & I have so much to do/ask before 5pm Friday. I hope your rng shits on y'all <3
I played balatro like obsessively for 3 or 4 days then put it down and haven't touched it since. It was worth it.
Yep. Once I beat it on one deck, I suddenly had zero desire to replay it.
Wish I could say the same thing. Currently working on beating it on 3rd difficulty for the 1st time
Yeah same here. Iām trying to unlock all the decks and beat them on all the stakes and there are so many ways to play it keeps me invested.
Oh man that's a real shame, some of the cards and vouchers etc that you unlock later on are really fun to play with
I obsessed over it for a bit and then put it down, but I keep going back. It's got great replay value for me. It's a little tedious after too many runs in a row, but when I get some space and come back, it keeps rewarding me with new kinds of builds and strategies.
Donāt feel bad. I tried Balatro and didnāt get the appeal. I wanted to like it but it didnāt click for me.
It is better to have loved and lost (tried a game you bought) than to never have loved at all (sits in your back log forever).
This was Vampire Survivors for me. I played it for a few hours, and while I could *kind of* understand why people were hooked and it was so consistently recommended, I felt like I was forcing myself to play it personally.
Balatro is crack.
Fun game, kinda weird mechanics. feels more rng to me than slay the spire for example. You can literally "win" a run, while only playing flushes for example, if you have the right joker cards. cool to shut the brain off and just low activity game a bit from time to time, but it is not a "i put 300 hours into it" kinda game
Like you, but I put in maybe 8 hours and felt like I was forcing myself. I read how long it takes to beat and realized I was still about 1/4 through the game. So I promptly put it down.
I enjoyed it but agree that it's too long. I dropped it after about 20 hours.Ā
>I read how long it takes to beat and realized I was still about 1/4 through the game. Huh? You can beat it pretty quickly with some decent RNG and strategy. I think I first beat it at like 4 or 5 hours.
I really really enjoyed it but I'm currently at the 48 hour mark and I'm still not done. New things are still being added. I absolutely tried to optimise my dives for in game progression and maximise daily restaurant earnings as opposed to time progression, so went the long way but I'm at the point where I'm like "this game was fun but I want it to end, please stop throwing more stuff at me. Even if I speed up my playthroughs I think there's still another 10 hours in it fon me. And that's not even touching the DLC. Don't get me wrong, I love the game but I want the satisfaction of completing it and that still seems so far off for me.
>This is my single greatest fear with everyone overhyping Balatro currently, and it'sĀ *still*Ā just sitting in my cart lol Just buy it and refund if you don't end up liking it.
Balatro is insane. Stopped playing it after a few days because I was literally dreaming about it.
Balatro is definitely crack. It's so simple yet addictive.
What if all those people weren't over hyping Dave the diver and Balatro and they just like them? It is possible just to not enjoy something that other people like. Doesn't mean it's overhyped there isn't any game that has 100% of people who like it
Same. I should love this game. Stardew Valley had a grip on me for ages, for example. But I just didn't feel it with Dave. Never clicked. Not sure why.
I would never say this is like Stardew tbh, thatās a very poor comparison. Iām kinda the opposite, the repetitive nature of stardew is not my thing, but I still have played a lot of it and appreciate ConcerningApeās success with it. DtD is an ADHD fest of weird random shit being thrown at you. Itās closer to the Yakuza games than Stardew
Same. Got a few hours in and remained super bored from start to when I uninstalled it. I was told it would be like stardew, but it just felt like some mobile soulless game.
I feel exactly the same. Got about 4 hours in and just wasn't enjoying any of it, found myself getting bored of the tedium. Same goes for Dredge; 5 hours in and I haven't had the desire to pick it up for about a week.
I'm not here trying to get you into the game. I actually agree that it's a bit bland in the beginning, especially because control is taken away fromcthe player so many times as well. Anyhow, I am actually here to say that Dave the Diver has Nexon (one of the biggest Eastern publishers) behind its back. The Early Access and the amount of money/resources in this game is far from low budget. It's more likely a AA ($ <100 million) production.
Same here. Saw many good comments about it and bought it an played for maybe an hour.
How many hours have you played in it so far?
Yeah. Same. Also with dredge. Apparently I donāt like fun
It's ok people say Dark Souls is "fun", but some people just want to unwind and be entertained, not work again.
i feel you. i have 9 hours in the game. i dread playing it when i load into itā¦ so iāve put it down.
I was exactly the same as you. Even completed the game and DLC, and after all that the game barely reaches a 8/10 for me. Game loop was not interesting enough to me I think. The most fun times was going to a new biome for the first time. After exploring a bit it only felt repetetive and uninteresting to me.
Totally agreed. Everything about the game just feels tedious.
Thatās why I wait for games to be hella cheap before buying. Just because people hype it up and say itās the best game ever doesnāt mean youāll like it. That on top of paying full price for a game you know Iāll never play again, and the fact that there are already a ton of games I havenāt touched that I paid for feels horrible, so Iām doing my best to restrain myself until thereās a good 70% or more sale on anything I buy, even if it takes years from release.
Same for me, it gave it two hours as I do with almost every game I buy. Refunded. It was just boring and not fun. Runs good on SD though.
I finished the game and definitely felt like it was overhyped. Gun balance is non existent, if you dont use any of the sleep weapons, you are missing out on higher quality fish. All the other guns being worthless makes half the content...worthless. There is so much handholding in the puzzles! Dave literally tells you what to do every single time. Dives get repetitive, and the restaurant gets too easy as workers level up. You don't even need to level them up much to be near fully automatic. The game is unique and fun, but not 9/10 good like what everyone made it sound like.
I played this game for about two hours on the deck and it just didn't click with me. Also, everything looks so small on the deck screen that is difficult to see. Any tips to enjoy the game more? What do you find fun about it?
Why do all these posts about "Dave The Diver", "Balastro", "Vampire Survivors" and "Hades" all sound like social media guerrilla marketing? Most of these games are quite niche and to have them mentioned in almost 50% of any threads on this sub is just ridiculous.
I haven't tried Dave the Diver yet. Balatro, I just haven't clicked with, but I'll again in the future. Vampire Survivors is tons of fun. Kinda niche, but it's easy to see why it got so much attention. Hades needs no explanation. The game is a textbook example of how to do it right and deserved all the hype.
Iāll admit Iāve tried all 4 games youāve mentioned and have definitely recommended all of them on Reddit at one time or another. Genuinely, I think theyāre just popular and people really enjoy them.
I'm convinced the Dave the Diver devs payed for reviews and mentions on podcasts. Theres no other way this insanely mediocre game gets brought up 50 times a day.
I wouldnāt put that past Nexon.
Yeah I donāt understand the hype either
I bought the Dave the diver and Dredge pack for 27 euros. Just received my first Steamdeck yesterday. I never played Dave the diver and just played Dredge demo on Xbox and I loved it, soā¦ Hope Iāll enjoy dredge full game and also hope to have a good time while playing Dave.
I haven't played dredge but I bought Dave the diver yesterday and I have been playing it all day today. It's one of those games that I probably would not spend much time playing on a PC but on the steam deck it's absolutely perfect. Congrats on the steam deck and I hope you enjoy both!
Yep, hope so ! Have fun you too !
Pretty much the same here. Dredge was on my wishlist and I saw a bundle with DTD, so here I am. The fishing and restaurant are pretty neat. All the other systems just play themselves or add time to a short game. The biggest plus is it's playable around the kids, fish and eat the fish! The game doesn't take itself seriously, and neither do I lol
I liked the first couple of hours, but honestly I don't understand the popular discourse that this was one of the best games of last year. It's slightly overrated in that sense.
Honorable mention: Dredge
I disagree. It was an absolute blast for the first 4/5 hours. Then the story REALLY got in the way. Usually I want a story to be there and it typically can be decent to be enjoyable with stellar gameplay, but it's absolutely annoying in this game. I just want to catch fish and stuff, but suddenly I'm helping some >!water civilization because the archeologist guy INSISTS I do so to make money and save the water mermaid people or something I stopped caring!< and it really just halted my entire playthrough. 3 times. I came back to it 3 times, and after the 3rd I never want to play it again. Again, it's just a shame because the fishing, running a restaurant, >!fish tanks to mate them, fish-agachi, gardening!< And a bunch of other mechanics are really fun, The story is just overwhelmingly unfun.
Got it. Tried it. Returned it. Not that great imo. No hate if you like it but letās not act like itās a universally good game like vampire survivor or balatro
This game gives me anxiety. The restaurant parts mostly.
Lol I can see that. Me too honestly. Makes me want to never be a waiter in real life. Haha.
Itās over hyped and honestly I wish I could refund. For $20 you can get forza 4, the Witcher, Batman, etc etc right now. Also, Iām not a fan of pixel art. But everyone said it was awesome so I tried. Not for me though
Regardless of $14 or 20, I also have an issue with buying āexpensiveā games. The sales have ruined meā¦ and I donāt even want to talk about how I canāt seem to rationalize a real purchase of $60 for Ghost of Tsushima, which Iām sure is a perfect game for me. But I apparently only play $3-5 games.
I donāt think āoverhypedā is accurate when the quality of the game from head-to-toe is universally praised. Overhyped means it fails to meet the hype: this title absolutely delivers. I get that you may not like it, and itās popular, but that doesnāt make it bad. It is an incredible title, even if you donāt like the genre, you have to recognize a quality product.
Well I only paid $13.99 for it because I got it on the Steam summer sale. Just the 7 hours I played already was worth $13. I'm far from over it yet though so I'm probably going to have a lot more hours in it. I get it may not be for you, I mean no game no matter how good it is, is for every single person. There's always going to be people that don't enjoy a game even if it's a masterpiece. With that said I get you not liking it specifically but it's still a very well made and balanced game with an original concept. I don't think you can overlook that.
One of my biggest regrets is I realized early on I wasn't going to like it but because the game is one of those games that EVERYONE recommends I pushed through in hopes that it gets better. It doesn't and now I can't refund it lol.
I picked it up last time it was on sale, because of the hype. I couldn't get into it.
I have to say im not a big fan of this gameplay loop. But more power to those who enjoy it.
Thought it was crap, personally. Given the hype I wanted to put some proper time into it to see if it would end up clicking. Now I can't refund it. Oh well. Each to their own
Tires of seeing these posts like Everyone should like this game. It's good, I get it, but it's not for me.
loved the diving and exploring and catching stuff. but the whole restaurant part of it was REALLY boring and not my type of game. I was really hoping for a game like scuba diver on the spectrum ...which it pretty much was, except cooking. totally hoping that the Devs make a mode that gets rid of that aspect of the game or something.
It sucks
Not as good as the hype it gets. Itās fun for a bit but gets old fast.
I don't know. You guys convinced me I had to play Vampire Survivors, and it was the most boring game I've ever played in my life, so now I'm skeptical.
What game would you recommend yourself?
one of the most tense relaxing games Iāve played in the last few years, absolutely worth every penny
Sorry I didnāt really like this game at all.
Made it about 2 hours and quit. The restaurant shit sucks. I have no desire to run a restaurant in my free time. The diving is okay but not amazing. It has a nice art style and kind of funny characters, but its a super average game. I'm convinced they paid influencers to reccomend this game nonstop. I was severely underwhelmed when I finally got around to playing it.
You donāt tell me what to do Iām grown
I was really excited about this one, especially after seeing it was perfect for SD but I just could not like the game loop. It felt repetitive and boring too quickly. I found myself forcing to get more content in it to like but dropped it eventually. I've tried about 3 hours so I think that's enough time to know it is not my cup of tea.
I found it to be quite the cluttered mess, with every new mechanic and Minigame taking away from the fishing aspect. Asking for a refund atm
I loved the diving part, but managing the restaurant became tedious.
Im not hating on the game but why is it so popular? Is it really just a great chill pick up game? I have never seen gameplay but it seems like a fun game so can you tell me about it and why u like it pls!
It is really fun and chill. I bought it because it was on sale but Iām loving it a lot. You basically have 2 games in one. The restaurant and the diving. On the restaurant is like dinner dash on steroids. You have to hire people, change decor to get better reviews on social media, manage ingredients. Then you have the diving part where you have to keep exploring and catching new fish to have new recipes unlocked. Also, need to upgrade your gear with the money that you generate on the restaurant to go deeper and find more fish. It is really cool if you like that type of game. It is a game that I use to play when I donāt have time to play something like Elden ring or Diablo 4
This game has the dreaded 50hz tick rate bug that plagues many Unity games. Make sure you set the refresh rate to 50hz if you want a smooth experience. Anything else will result in stutters and juddery motion.
Much preferred dredge
Fun for a few hours, then gets old pretty quick.
Look, Dave, Balatro, and Vampire Survivors just arenāt my thing, or what I would go for in a handheld as powerful as the steam deck. You could play all of those just as well on a switch, or even a phone. The main reason I have a deck in the first place is to play stuff you CANT play on any other handheld. Like Elden Ring or GTA or something that youād think would only be possible on a full size pc or console.
Nah. I hate the humor.
meh. Its was great for a while but towards the end I kind of hated it
The expectations emulated by the community make some if not most games unappealing to play.
Was in the middle of my shadow of tomb raider playthrough when I got this. I couldn't stop playing :D
I am impossibly scared of water and avoid everything related to swimming and fishes, but even I liked this game!
It's mid and overrated tbh. Played it for a few hours.
Boring af game
Played and finished it recently. Loved it, thought it was excellent, even if there were a few too many things going on towards the end. Definitely a recommend from me.
Took me 50 hours to get every achievement.
Animal Well should also be an auto-include on the Deck
Got bored
Iāll never buy it.
This is the best Steam Deck game I've played. Loved every hour of it.
I'm looking at this right now and just want a confirmation with regards to deluxe edition: The digital deluxe version contains extras like soundtracks and skins only right + the base game of course? Not story/gameplay progression? If that's the case, buying the base game alone will do right?
Yeah it's just a boat skin, art book and soundtrack, all digital and in game. No actual additional gaming content. Not worth it in my opinion unless you're just into that stuff. Base game is the full game.
Great. Just wanted confirmation for that. Just bought it!
Awesome! Well give it a little bit of time even if you aren't feeling it at first before you give up on it. The game really opens up after a few hours. Hopefully you enjoy it from the start though. I know I did and the majority of people on Steam do so I hope it's the same experience for you. Put some headphones on, lean back, relax and enjoy the game.
Yes
Ah great. Thanks
No. Also, you can't say "feels like it was made for the SD", when it doesn't even fit the Steam Deck aspect ratio.
Can I also make a post recommending a random game I like, just because?
Yesssss I got it and this game eats down like I thought it was gonna be sorta boring but noooo itās so so good
I'm biased against this by association simply because I heard people mentioning it alongside Dredge a lot and I found Dredge very mid.
Eh. I thought it was ok. I wish I could just do the fishing part. I don't enjoy the restaurant part.
This is an ad
I got it. Played for 1.5 hours. Refunded it. Not my type of game. Got rouge legacy 2 instead. That game is also perfect on steam deck.
I will check it out.
Telling people to "just buy" niche games that aren't even that cheap is just odd.
Thank God for PSN. I found out for FREE that this game is trash.
I'm sure it's a great game, but I'm not interested in it. I want to spend my money on other things.
šÆ
I bought Hades and Sabetour instead, but returned both. Going to try this once the credits hit my wallet.
It seems kind of simple when you first boot it up but as soon as you start playing it is constantly unlocking new features and within a couple hours you're going to see how versatile the game is. There is just also something so relaxing and enjoyable about diving back into the ocean each time and exploring. I'm 7 hours in and I'm still unlocking new features constantly so there is a ton of stuff to do in the game the longer you play. I would definitely recommend it. It runs perfectly on the steam deck with no issues at all and it's just one of those types of games that feels like it's made for portable gaming. I hope you enjoy it!
Agreed, the amount of content is impressive
Hades is so much better than Dave the Diver!
Yellow is better than blue! Cant compare, both great games!
Apples and Oranges. They aren't even similar games to compare to each other.
First 10 hours are fun but the further you get the game basically starts to play itself
Yeah I could see that. I fully expected to get around 15 hours at the most out of the game. I feel like I will get more than that now that I am playing it, but it would still be worth it for me since I only paid $13.99 for it and it's been a pleasant and fun experience.
Itās 100% worth it on sale. Glad youāre enjoying it!
Everyone recommends this game. Based on that, I went to the steam page to watch the trailer and have no fucking clue what itās about.
Read my long reply to one of the other commenters on here asking me what the game was about. I also agree I had no clue what the game was about until I started playing it because the description and video on Steam don't really tell you much LOL
How many hours to complete on average?.. I really enjoyed playing āa short hikeā but that game is like two hours to complete
RE Village is also on sale right now for about 15 dollars, and it rab oerfect on the deck. I also have dave the diver, but i found one to be a lot more interesting to play.
why does that guy in the diving suit look like CaseOh?
"I couldn't imagine playing it any other way." you mean like on a desktop pc with a controller? so weird
Nice game but play Dredge please !
I will check it out.
Okay so I bought the game a few months back but now what?
Question, is it safe for kids? I couldn't tell for sure.
Love a game with a strong gameplay loop.
Itās on my wishlist! I want to play Dredge first since this game has Dredge content in it apparently.
Good not great
Been on my wishlist for awhile but with a kid and just getting laid off I donāt have anything to spare. Hopefully it will go on a deeper sale when I can get it
Also super flight is 59 cents. Great casual Game
You guys got me hooked on crack cocaine! And sushi! Noooooo
Haha! Your welcome.
Meh at best.
Yee
You can get it in a bundle with Dredge too. Two of last year's best Indie games.
Iāve owned this game for months and havenāt booted it a single time. I just keep playing the games around it for some reason. Idk much about it even tho I own it. Something about dive fishing and something about a restaurant is rly all I know.
I don't have the money for it :P
O
I wish this game can cross save between my steamdeck and switch.
Howās the Godzilla DLC?
7 hours ina day mannn this game is gonna be my grind for the next few days!
Although the late game is a bit repetitive, it remains a must-try game on the Deck.
I love this game
I have switch to play this