Nintendo is actually conserving gamers on their toes with all method of shock releases in 2024, which many imagine to be the ultimate 12 months of the Swap. With titles akin to One other Code: Recollection and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the concentrate on remakes and remasters of much less well-known sequence signifies that almost something may very well be simply across the nook. Infinite Ocean Luminous, the third instalment within the Infinite Ocean franchise, is one other title that many in all probability weren’t anticipating. Over 14 years have handed because the Wii launch of the earlier instalment, Infinite Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep (Infinite Ocean 2: Blue World in North America). After so a few years of absence, is that this a sequence price diving into?
Infinite Ocean Luminous options three totally different modes: Story, Shared Dive, and Solo Dive. Story Mode serves primarily to introduce you to the gameplay mechanics and setting. As a brand new diver, your mission is to scan the varied aquatic life that inhabits the Veiled Sea, amassing the sunshine that emanates from them so as to save the declining World Coral. You’re assisted by Sera, your trusty AI companion, and likewise often joined by one other human diver, Daniel, as you discover and uncover the varied mysteries that encompass the Veiled Sea.
Regardless of the obscure promise of a deeper thriller, the Story Mode is sadly fairly disappointing. Some chapters are solely two minute cutscenes with no accompanying gameplay, and do little to progress the narrative. Upon finishing a chapter, to unlock the subsequent one additionally, you will have to scan creatures a particular variety of occasions, with the quantity rising bigger and extra onerous as you progress. The top result’s a disjointed, lacklustre expertise that always feels anticlimactic for the time you’ll want to speculate to witness all of it, however to its credit score, it is vitally clear from the outset that this isn’t the principle focus of the sport.
Luckily, the vast majority of your time in Infinite Ocean Luminous can be spent in Shared Dive and Solo Dive. In these modes, you’ll be deposited right into a procedurally generated map and left to your individual gadgets, free to take the sport at your individual tempo. These maps are gigantic, and although you’ll be able to traverse them from end-to-end comparatively shortly, it’s going to take a number of hours to discover them of their entirety. You’re given little or no course or help from the sport on learn how to finest make use of your time right here; as you discover, the map will slowly be uncovered, and also you’re given a proportion completion price for each the map and the marine life that you simply’ve managed to scan as the one indication of your progress. To help in your exploration, you could have a radar which is able to flash once you’re within the neighborhood of salvage. At occasions, this could make it tough to orient your self, and with salvage specifically, you may be looking an space for a tiny flash of sunshine that may be onerous to pick within the setting. Nevertheless, general I felt that this hands-off method facilitates the extra relaxed tempo of the sport, and it means that you can uncover issues in a manner that feels extra pure than in the event that they had been clearly marked in your map.Â
As is commonly the case with open world titles, the main target of the sport is extra on exploration and discovery than it’s on assortment. With that mentioned, Infinite Ocean Luminous is just a little too hands-off at occasions, and that is notably noticeable with the Thriller Board, a 99-square board that you’ll achieve entry to early within the story. That is integral to finishing the story mode, and also you’re given completely no steering on learn how to go about unlocking the squares. After fifteen hours of gameplay, I had simply managed to fill out a 3rd of the Thriller Board, and this was fully accidentally by means of amassing particular objects, unearthing small passages of lore in extremely conspicuous (however simply missable given the dimensions of the map) bins, or stumbling throughout hidden places. As these are all randomised components, this makes amassing them down extra to luck relatively than talent, which may be extraordinarily irritating. Hints on the Thriller Board about what you wanted to do to unlock that sq., or a further perform on the map or radar to point an goal, would have made the method much less arbitrary, with out compromising that ingredient of discovery.
Several types of terrain and environments inside each Shared and Solo Dive maps are additionally chosen from a restricted vary of choices, that means that you simply’ll expertise the vast majority of what the sport has to supply inside the first few hours. The situation of those miniature biomes might differ every time you begin a brand new map, however the species that inhabit them can be virtually precisely the identical, and after you’ve explored them a couple of occasions they start to lose their attraction. The fun of discovering a darkish cave crammed with prehistoric life is far much less impactful the third time, and it may be disappointing to discover a model new map solely to seek out that you simply’ve seen most of, if not all, of its distinguishing options in an earlier dive. However there’s nonetheless a wealth of content material that affords the sport a excessive diploma of replayability, and makes it appropriate for each shorter and longer play periods. You’ll by no means know fairly what you’ll discover when diving into the sport, and the lack of know-how makes every new discovery really feel that rather more satisfying. This isn’t a sport I’d suggest for completionists nevertheless, because the randomised nature makes new discoveries come by means of at a a lot slower tempo after your first few dives.Â
The principle attraction is, after all, the varied species of marine life that you simply’ll discover as you discover. A staggering 578 totally different species are current within the sport; freshwater and saltwater fish, mammals, crustaceans, and even a couple of prehistoric and legendary creatures are all ready to be found. Registering them in your log is so simple as holding down the L button while they’re in your sight view, scanning them in a manner that jogged my memory of the Metroid Prime sequence. It’s also possible to {photograph} them utilizing quite a lot of totally different filters and take them with you as you probe for a restricted time. Sadly, totally different species don’t work together with each other on the map, or show a really broad number of behaviour, swimming listlessly in a small space ready so that you can uncover them. Nevertheless, this does nothing to detract from the spectacular selection inside the sport, and every has an in depth entry within the creature log, providing you with some perception concerning its behaviour and historical past.Â
Regardless of the occasional lulls in engagement I discovered Solo Dives to be a particularly satisfying expertise, crammed with surprising surprises. There’s maybe just a little an excessive amount of empty area on maps at occasions, however particular areas are miniature maps unto themselves, crammed with numerous species to catalogue and salvage to gather, and so they’re by no means various minutes away out of your present location. It’s simple to get misplaced in a community of caves, or stumble throughout a hidden space. As creatures are rendered virtually fully to scale, greater than as soon as I discovered myself discovering a number of species when scanning a bunch of fish, or an space that didn’t seem to have something in it. On prime of that is the prospect of encountering a uncommon species or anomalies which, upon getting discovered a choose quantity on the map, will lead to a UML (Unidentified Marine Lifeform) showing someplace on the map.Â
Shared Dive follows a lot the identical format as Solo Dive, with a bunch of gamers being positioned into the identical map at totally different beginning places. With a view to work together with one other participant, you’ll want to seek out them first, at which level they’ll be registered as a Dive Buddy. You’ll then be capable of share map progress, see one another’s tags, and teleport to at least one one other’s location at any time. The shortage of voice or textual content communication makes it tough to really coordinate your efforts, however makes exploring a a lot simpler and customarily extra satisfying course of, particularly should you’re extra taken with discovering factors of curiosity as shortly as doable. As much as 30 gamers can discover a map on the identical time, and though I didn’t get to check this characteristic with the utmost capability previous to launch, I discovered the Shared Dive that I did take part in to be virtually a very totally different expertise to exploring a map alone. Regardless of the restricted communication, there’s a nice feeling of collaboration, and it makes the method of uncovering factors of curiosity and monitoring down anomalous marine life to trigger the UML to look a a lot quicker course of. Most notably, I didn’t expertise any efficiency points in the course of the occasion, which makes this a really interesting sport when you have mates to play with.
Infinite Ocean Luminous favours a extra muted color palette and I felt that its surroundings usually didn’t impress because of this, because it usually feels flat and missing intimately, even on an OLED display screen. In handheld mode, it may be particularly tough to make out what element it does have in additional packed environments. Nevertheless, that is maybe extra by design than it’s a lack of high quality, and the pure murkiness of the Veiled Sea makes draw distance and an absence of notable textures within the setting a non-issue. I additionally, fortunately, didn’t encounter any noticeable pop-in when exploring. The assorted creatures you’ll encounter are largely simple to identify due to the blue (or within the case of uncommon creatures, yellow) glow that they offer off till they’re scanned. The bulk are rendered to a sensible scale in comparison with the participant and have glorious (albeit considerably restricted) animations, which provides the sport a satisfying diploma of realism. When seen close-up, each in-game through the digicam and within the creature log, the fashions even have a powerful quantity of element. The sport has some glorious particle and lighting results at evening which assist to offer the setting a distinct ambiance with out compromising visibility. Though loading occasions can stretch on noticeably when getting into a map, the sport runs easily while exploring, making this fairly a nice expertise general.
The sport has a lightweight, ambient soundtrack which, though it doesn’t detract from the expertise, does little to enrich it, and it appeared to cease and begin at random occasions while I used to be taking part in. The one sound that may very well be heard was usually the rhythmic swimming of my participant character, which was extra unsettling than enjoyable when traversing the empty areas of the Veiled Sea. The choice to regulate the frequency of the music, relatively than simply the amount, would have been welcome. Infinite Ocean Luminous additionally options in depth AI voicework, which is each to its credit score and its detriment. Throughout the Story Mode, this feels unnatural and awkward, because the AI makes an attempt (relatively unsuccessfully) to seize human feelings and mannerisms, while your human companion, Daniel, is restricted to unintelligible effervescent sounds. Nevertheless, every entry within the Creature Log is absolutely voiced by the AI, making it a wholly comprehensible design selection within the face of the sheer quantity of knowledge introduced within the sport.Â
So long as you don’t method it with a completionist mindset, Infinite Ocean Luminous is a soothing and general fulfilling expertise that’s good for brief solo gameplay periods or group dives with mates. The restricted selection within the procedurally generated maps signifies that the novelty of exploration will doubtless put on off for many lengthy earlier than they catalogue every little thing, and the story mode is disappointingly sparse and disjointed, however what it lacks in depth it greater than makes up for in sheer quantity of content material. In case you are trying to strive one thing with a barely totally different move, this would possibly simply be price diving into.
6.5/10
A duplicate of Infinite Ocean Luminous was offered by Nintendo UK for the needs of this overview
Associated
