I've played this for almost ten hours, so I feel like I've given it its dues. I put it down for a while to play something else and, coming back to it today, I've decided I can't be arsed. For all its charm and generosity, ultimately I just think the central gameplay mechanic - diving for fish, that is - is just a bit boring and repetitive. I posted as much in a thread I made the other day, but I need my games to grab my attention if they're going to keep me interested, usually by being quite mechanically or narratively involved, and Dave the Diver doesn't fit the bill on either count - I'm not one for these 'turn your brain off and zone out' sort of games.

There's also such a thing as a game being too generous, and I think this is definitely the case here: you're given a hundred and one mini gameplay chunklets to be getting on with, whether diving, hunting, waitering, fish breeding, farming, photographing, seahorse racing or fetch questing, but they all feel superficial, with nothing to properly sink your teeth into. (If I was a massive wanker, at this point I'd highlight how ironic it is that game which involves you travelling to the bottom of the sea lacks depth, but I'm not, so I won't.)

Disappointed after all the praise it received, especially when there were several other games released last year made by small teams that were more worthy of the positive attention