Beyond Blue review: Blue Planet II, the game

A mellow and overtly educational game about marine wildlife, Beyond Blue is an opportunity to submerge yourself in the expansive beauty of the Western Pacific. Futuristic technology enables our marine scientist to scan creatures, track whale calls and withstand the crushing pressures of the deep ocean as she follows a pod of sperm whales through seascapes taken from the BBC’s Blue Planet II, from shallows to open ocean to the toxic deep-sea brine pool that gave me nightmares for weeks after seeing it on TV.

Atmospheric though these watery places are, there’s no peril in this version of deep-sea diving, even when you try to manufacture it. Attempts to swim directly into the gaping mouth of a humpback or provoke a hammerhead shark yield nothing but the odd visual glitch. You can admire the impressively realistic sea life at leisure, panning drones around creatures to record their songs and examine their markings. Nonetheless, do not expect an entirely chill time beneath the waves. Inevitably for a game informed by the actual state of our oceans, there’s a touch of sadness here.

In between dives, on the small submarine that serves as home, phone calls between our diver and her family and colleagues add a superfluous touch of human drama. Beyond Blue layers a few different plot lines over the ocean exploration: a grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease, a fractious sibling relationship, unauthorised mining and sea pollution.

None of these is particularly well developed. The effort might perhaps have been better spent on interesting ways to deliver more information about the ocean creatures that take centre stage. Strangely, even though I spent most of my time in Beyond Blue obediently scanning wildlife, the in-game encyclopedia contains few facts about the many different species you encounter. Video clips featuring footage from Blue Planet II and insights from real marine scientists are more interesting, but, especially for curious children, this could have been a better repository of sea-life knowledge.

It doesn’t have the exhilarating freedom of movement, memorable score and eye-catching artistic direction of Abzû, 2016’s excellent tribute to ocean life and mythology, but Beyond Blue hews closer to reality, encouraging learning and reflection on the planet’s last unexplored frontier.