Dave the Diver Review

What is Dave the Diver?

Dave the Diver is a game that combines action-adventure gameplay with management style gameplay. You play as the titular Dave as he is persuaded to join a start-up sushi restaurant as the diver who catches all of the fish used in the food, and then gets thrust into the role of restaurant manager. This game came out on October 27, 2022 and is available on Nintendo Switch, PS4 & PS5, macOS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems. I played it on PS5 through the PS Plus Extra subscription. The game costs $20 outside of a subscription service. It takes around 24 hours to beat according to howlongtobeat.com. I did not end up finishing the game but played through 6 of the 7 chapters.

Game Review:

Dave the Diver is a charming game that revolves around diving in scuba gear to collect fish and resources and then using those resources in a sushi restaurant and turning a profit. It takes a light-hearted tone and sprinkles comedic moments throughout the game. The game can be a very zen and relaxing game to play. You can slowly swim through the ocean, catching fish and collecting resources as long as you want. The only timers are Dave’s oxygen levels, which can be refilled in generous supply points, and Dave’s cargo limit, meaning you can only carry so much back to the boat. While it can be zen, it can also be very chaotic and frenetic. The restaurant management portion is fast-paced and all about getting orders out as quickly as you can so you can filter more and more customers in order to turn the highest profit. The money you earn then becomes your resource for upgrades to diving equipment which allows Dave to swim deeper and catch more challenging fish. I love this contrast between zen and chaotic, that change of pace keeps it engaging throughout.

There are a ton of minigames and mechanics that make up a small part of the game. Because of this, the game can feel very complex and convoluted with a ton of menus and icons. A lot of it isn’t required and is really there if you want to optimize your gameplay. As I got towards the end, I started ignoring certain parts of the game as they felt tedious and not important or fun. Some things are required so you won’t be able to only do the diving and restaurant management, but you quickly learn what is required and what is extraneous.

Dave the Diver does have a story, one that feels out of place and strange. It revolves around a lost underwater civilization of mermaids. I won’t spoil it more than that but it gets real goofy. The story and accompanying missions are frankly some of my least favorite parts. That’s where a lot of required gameplay changes happen, most of which just feel like a chore. The story isn’t very deep (pun intended) or narratively satisfying to me. I wish the game was simpler and focused more on diving/fishing and restaurant management. Those are the areas I enjoyed and I feel like they provided enough intrinsic reasons to play those aspects on their own. The story feels a little forced. I do appreciate the surface-level (puns strike again) commentary on environmental issues but that’s all it is, surface-level.

Like I said before, Dave the Diver has a very light-hearted tone. There will be over-the-top anime-esque cutscenes when someone does something relatively cool like when the chef discovers a new recipe. But there are also some moments that made me feel uncomfortable and seemed unnecessarily sexualized. For example, there is a stereotypical geek who has an obsession with some J-Pop star and there are moments that are just uncomfortable whenever he’s on screen. There isn’t anything explicit but I think the content that is hinted at is pretty low-hanging fruit and not particularly funny.

Dave the Diver feels long in the tooth. I decided to not finish it because towards the end of the game, the tedious story missions have been taking precedence over the fishing/restaurant management parts of the game which are the fun parts to me. I don’t know how much longer it will go on but I think I’ve enjoyed the game about as much as I would enjoy it and would rather move on to other games that are capturing my attention. 

Family Friendliness:

Dave the Diver has a nice pixel art style and in general is family friendly. There are minor amounts of blood when you use a harpoon on a fish but the violence is pretty minor. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a number of uncomfortable scenes that are unnecessarily sexualized but nothing explicit. Overall, though, I would say that the zen diving and the restaurant management are great family friendly content.

Features for Parents:

Dave the Diver is a very friendly game to parents. You can pause whenever and once you return to the boat you can save the game. There are a number of changeable settings to adjust the game however you need. And if you play on PS5 like I did, the console has a great sleep feature that lets you pick up right where you left off.

Final Verdict:

Dave the Diver is a lower budget indie game that starts off really strong. It expertly meshes zen diving with frenetic restaurant management. It overstays its welcome a bit and bombards the player with a bit too much tedious work towards the end of the game. It also has an uninteresting story that often has uncomfortable moments that seem out of place. Overall I would say this game is a good recommendation if you like indie titles and is especially worth it if you have PS Plus Extra.