Limitless Ocean Luminous Evaluate – Vooks

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 very least heard, that the Limitless Ocean video games are a bit chill and relaxed, however these days, we’ve lots of video games that fill that area – you understand, “cozy video games”. So, can a grandparent of the style kick it within the trendy period? Let’s – dive into it. 

For a calming sort of recreation, 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 Mission, which is looking for out why the World Coral is dying. This huge invertebrate is important to a wholesome Veiled Sea, nevertheless it’s not doing nicely for the time being. Fortunately, you may assist by scanning over 500 species of marine life to gather “gentle”, which is able to assist the World Coral restore itself. 

The story is just a few chapters lengthy, and a lot of the missions serve to be not more than tutorials. A number of standout ones carry the story ahead, however total, the atmosphere and the experiences will drive you extra to play this one. Plus, the unlock necessities for every chapter are ridiculous; it is advisable to scan 1000’s of species of marine life to progress, and the ultimate chapter requires you to gather all of 1 explicit merchandise, which, in 20 hours of gameplay, I’ve solely discovered lower than half. 

The story is only a distraction from the actual 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 seek out are all randomly generated. Throughout the first dive I did, I used to be a bit anxious; it wasn’t till I rerolled basically and bought a extra thrilling map that it was extra enjoyable to play. A number of hours into the sport, I can see this method’s shortcomings as map components repeat, and there’s an absence of huge 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 enjoyable. 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 thing else below the ocean, you gather gentle 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 gather currencies to unlock extra outfits, stickers and emotes. The motion of your diver is admittedly nimble, and in contrast to the opposite video games, it’s not usually you’ll get caught and undecided which approach is up – the third time round, it’s fairly streamlined.

You possibly can scan batches of aquatic life fairly shortly; all of the fish (and I hold saying fish regardless of there being all types of underwater life) you might have but to scan are all glowing blue; it’s defined within the recreation as algae. It makes discovering all of the belongings you’re but to scan simpler. The one factor I discovered annoying was once you’re first beginning out and scanning issues for the primary time, you could scroll by means of every fish in a college to get to the one you haven’t logged earlier than for it to be added. You may also 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 spread of achievements to finish. There’s so much to do earlier than you 100% it.

So, what’s a typical dive like? Relying on whether or not you soar in solo or begin (or be a part of) a shared dive, the intention is to scan as a lot as you may to seek out as a lot treasure as you may and uncover the mysterious UML (distinctive marine life) creatures as nicely. These creatures are summoned by discovering one other sea life on the map that offers an odd sign. These usually gigantic or prehistoric creatures are large and delightful, and there’s an entire record of them to seek out – no matter one you get is picked at random. The opposite massive 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 individuals, something you discover or unlock carries throughout each modes. Should you discover a particular creature whereas taking part in with a buddy in a single dive web site, you don’t must do it once more by your self. That’s the place taking part in with others can turn out to be useful, as you may break up up the work and scour the map shortly with extra individuals. There was a dive session with different media varieties. Whereas just a few did try to assist full the missions on the dive, so much simply floated round – there’s no actual solution to set an goal with a gaggle of as much as 30 individuals, however you may tag objects of curiosity as you scuba round and see what others have tagged as nicely. 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 recreation that’s meant to be taking part in it nonetheless 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 might have individuals to dive with. The sport does provide you with 7 days free on-line to check out if you happen to’re not a Nintendo Swap On-line subscriber, however you may not get as a lot as you need out of this recreation if you happen to’re not taking part in with others. What begins as a chill diving recreation, the place you go round scanning, turns into an affordable scan fest to bump numbers up. Particularly when finishing every thing in a timed dive. The sport is at odds with itself on this regard. All on-line periods are timed, however there’s greater than sufficient time to seek out one UML. Solo dives are untimed and you’ll spend actually hours simply exploring a map (supplied its an excellent one).

Imagine it or not, that is the primary Limitless Ocean recreation 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 flawed, Luminous generally is a stunning recreation in locations, however at different instances, 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 right down to what look like lava are highlights. The sport by no means takes itself significantly; the variety of cross-species and extinct animals in the identical place, not to mention not ripping you or one another aside, needs to be an apparent inform. A lot of the marine line is modelled nicely, however some species have just a few low-resolution enamel or different odd issues. However truthfully, this recreation has so many species that it greater than makes up for it.

There’s blended information on the music entrance, too; the primary recreation belted out licenced music on repeat, and the second recreation 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 sentimental ocean-suited music; it’s not horrible; it’s suitably enjoyable and serene – nevertheless it feels a step again from the earlier recreation. 

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 recreation with over 500 issues to scan in and encyclopedic entries to learn out, utilizing an AI works positive – however they’re additionally utilizing it as the one voice within the recreation through the story; there’s one other character within the recreation 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 good work that has gone into cataloguing all these creatures and making a enjoyable recreation round scanning all of them and exploring with associates, it looks like corners have been lower, and the price range was only a bit scant. 

Limitless Ocean is the granddaddy of the comfy recreation, and there are some nice chilled experiences available right here. Diving with a bunch of individuals, uncovering mysteries, plus cataloguing and photographing a number of the ocean’s cutest and most disgusting creatures is lots of enjoyable. Nevertheless, the grating AI-voiced story and the near-essential requirement for on-line to get essentially the most out of it goes towards the chilled vibe for which the collection is thought. It’s a recreation considerably at odds with itself, however deep down, it’s a enjoyable, chilled expertise one that you may share with huge group of individuals.

Score: 3.5/5