With over a decade between Limitless Ocean outings, I wasn’t positive what to anticipate with a brand new one in 2024. Everyone knows, or have at the least heard, that the Limitless Ocean video games are a bit chill and relaxed, however these days, we’ve got a number of video games that fill that house – you recognize, “cozy video games”. So, can a grandparent of the style kick it within the trendy period? Let’s – dive into it.
For a soothing sort of sport, Limitless Ocean Lumious positive doesn’t kick off as easily because it ought to; you’re thrust proper into the sport’s story and launched to SERA (Survey, Explorations, Analysis and Assistant AI), the sport’s narrator and in-game AI who walks you thru the story. They welcome you to the Ocean Analysis Venture, which is looking for out why the World Coral is dying. This large invertebrate is important to a wholesome Veiled Sea, but it surely’s not doing effectively for the time being. Fortunately, you may assist by scanning over 500 species of marine life to gather “mild”, which is able to assist the World Coral restore itself.
The story is just a few chapters lengthy, and many of the missions serve to be not more than tutorials. A number of standout ones carry the story ahead, however total, the setting and the experiences will drive you extra to play this one. Plus, the unlock necessities for every chapter are ridiculous; you must scan 1000’s of species of marine life to progress, and the ultimate chapter requires you to gather all of 1 specific merchandise, which, in 20 hours of gameplay, I’ve solely discovered lower than half.
The story is only a distraction from the true meat of the sport, which is simply having fun with a dive with your self or others. Not like the final two video games, the place you go from location to location and dive, right here in Luminous, the Veiled Sea you dive into is completely different each time. The map has the identical grid sample, however the factors of curiosity, issues to scan, and treasures to search out are all randomly generated. In the course of the first dive I did, I used to be a bit nervous; it wasn’t till I rerolled primarily and received a extra thrilling map that it was extra enjoyable to play. A number of hours into the sport, I can see this strategy’s shortcomings as map parts repeat, and there’s an absence of massive set items – however on the similar time, it offers you the sensation of only one extra go.
However the diving a part of the sport is kind of enjoyable and stress-free. There’s no fish to pet, no sharks to subdue anymore – everybody within the Veiled Sea simply will get alongside. As you scan fish, sharks, and every part else beneath the ocean, you acquire mild to not solely assist progress within the story but additionally set a excessive rating, unlock extra tags to make use of to mark the map and acquire currencies to unlock extra outfits, stickers and emotes. The motion of your diver is basically nimble, and in contrast to the opposite video games, it’s not usually you’ll get caught and undecided which method is up – the third time round, it’s fairly streamlined.
You may scan batches of aquatic life fairly rapidly; all of the fish (and I maintain saying fish regardless of there being all types of underwater life) you will have but to scan are all glowing blue; it’s defined within the sport as algae. It makes discovering all of the stuff you’re but to scan simpler. The one factor I discovered annoying was if you’re first beginning out and scanning issues for the primary time, you need to scroll by way of every fish in a faculty to get to the one you haven’t logged earlier than for it to be added. It’s also possible to log a photograph of every one to fill out your logbook. The sport retains a powerful quantity of statistics on what you do and issues to; it additionally has a variety of achievements to finish. There’s quite a bit to do earlier than you 100% it.
So, what’s a typical dive like? Relying on whether or not you leap in solo or begin (or be a part of) a shared dive, the goal is to scan as a lot as you may to search out as a lot treasure as you may and uncover the mysterious UML (distinctive marine life) creatures as effectively. These creatures are summoned by discovering one other sea life on the map that offers a wierd sign. These usually gigantic or prehistoric creatures are large and delightful, and there’s an entire record of them to search out – no matter one you get is picked at random. The opposite large thriller of the ocean is the Thriller Board; discovering distinctive treasures in your dives or performing little missions across the map will unlock areas on the Thriller Board.
Whether or not you dive alone or with folks, something you discover or unlock carries throughout each modes. Should you discover a particular creature whereas enjoying with a good friend in a single dive website, you don’t must do it once more by your self. That’s the place enjoying with others can turn out to be useful, as you may break up up the work and scour the map rapidly with extra folks. There was a dive session with different media sorts. Whereas just a few did attempt to assist full the missions on the dive, quite a bit simply floated round – there’s no actual approach to set an goal with a bunch of as much as 30 folks, however you may tag gadgets of curiosity as you scuba round and see what others have tagged as effectively. There’s additionally a enjoyable function: after uncovering 80% of a map, you may share that map with others with a dive code. Right here’s one I fairly loved.
For a sport that’s meant to be enjoying it nevertheless you need and chill, the story mode necessities aren’t difficult to unlock the chapters, however there’s a little bit of grind. The grind is much less when you will have folks to dive with. The sport does offer you 7 days free on-line to check out in case you’re not a Nintendo Swap On-line subscriber, however you won’t get as a lot as you need out of this sport in case you’re not enjoying with others. What begins as a chill diving sport, the place you go round scanning, turns into an affordable scan fest to bump numbers up. Particularly when finishing every part in a timed dive. The sport is at odds with itself on this regard. All on-line classes are timed, however there’s greater than sufficient time to search out one UML. Solo dives are untimed and you may spend actually hours simply exploring a map (supplied its one).
Imagine it or not, that is the primary Limitless Ocean sport in HD, and being caught in SD on the Wii meant the low-resolution blurry visuals helped promote the underwater environment. Don’t get me fallacious, Luminous is usually a lovely sport in locations, however at different occasions, the map is a desolate underwater panorama with plops of coral and fish sporadically hanging round. The random nature of the map means there’s no thought into spacing issues out. The one or two factors of curiosity on the maps are nice; an ice cave, a sunken pirate ship, and the caves and ruins that go proper all the way down to what look like lava are highlights. The sport by no means takes itself critically; the variety of cross-species and extinct animals in the identical place, not to mention not ripping you or one another aside, must be an apparent inform. Many of the marine line is modelled effectively, however some species have just a few low-resolution enamel or different odd issues. However actually, this sport has so many species that it greater than makes up for it.
There’s blended information on the music entrance, too; the primary sport belted out licenced music on repeat, and the second sport toned issues down a bit volume-wise – however there have been nonetheless some licenced music tracks. All of that is gone in Lumiuious with a whole soundtrack of soppy ocean-suited music; it’s not horrible; it’s suitably stress-free and serene – but it surely feels a step again from the earlier sport.
There’s additionally an issue with the SERA AI character as a result of nobody voices it; it’s an precise AI voice (like that annoying TikTok voice). For a sport with over 500 issues to scan in and encyclopedic entries to learn out, utilizing an AI works effective – however they’re additionally utilizing it as the one voice within the sport throughout the story; there’s one other character within the sport who simply mute very like the earlier video games which had no voice performing. It feels low cost and weird when the AI tries to crack some jokes.
That’s the final vibe of Limitless Ocean Luminous. Regardless of the nice work that has gone into cataloguing all these creatures and making a enjoyable sport round scanning all of them and exploring with pals, it seems like corners have been lower, and the price range was only a bit scant.
Limitless Ocean is the granddaddy of the comfy sport, and there are some nice chilled experiences available right here. Diving with a bunch of individuals, uncovering mysteries, plus cataloguing and photographing among the ocean’s cutest and most disgusting creatures is a number of enjoyable. Nevertheless, the grating AI-voiced story and the near-essential requirement for on-line to get probably the most out of it goes in opposition to the chilled vibe for which the collection is thought. It’s a sport considerably at odds with itself, however deep down, it’s a stress-free, chilled expertise one you can share with large group of individuals.
Ranking: 3.5/5