Depth Hunter 2: Deep Dive (PC) Review

This is not a fishing simulation. Those expecting something relative to their passion for spearfishing will be disappointed, since this is mainly targeted at the freshwater maggots. In other words, it's casual and ardade-ish; something to pass the time. The concept: complete various objectives in three different locations, gather money and upgrade the available equipment, or just enjoy the environment. Honestly, part of the fun includes wandering around the place unintentionally, and getting absorbed in the scenery while doing so.

The shallow waters of Thailand, South Africa, and the Bahamas, are beautiful, filled with all sorts of sea creatures, like small fish, tortoises, manta rays and so on, and are decorated with corals, rock formations, age-old ships, and even WW2 airplanes - and if the magnificent sun rays and water ripple reflections weren't enough to create a feeling of relaxation, the soothing, ambient tunes will certainly do the trick. Unfortunately, Depth Hunter 2: Deep Dive suffers from a lack of variety, since all three chapters look pretty much the same.

Concerning the gameplay, it's simple, yet quite fun. Moving around and hitting the target with the speargun works fine for the most part, and while it's probably the least fine-tuned aspect here, it's not broken or anything. In terms of missions, each chapter consists of tasks of varying difficulty and length, which range from having to catch a certain number or type of fish, or catching any number in a matter of some minutes, to finding lost treasure, or getting some photographs.

Harpooning fish is a pretty straightforward and not exactly challenging job, and yet, it never feels like a chore. Treasure-hunting is much harder, though, because the various items that are scattered around the place frequently blend with the seafloor or the rocks, something particularly frustrating when searching for the last freaking item on the list - which translates to swimming around like an idiot for 10 good minutes. On the other hand, the general lack of hand-holding works in favour of the gameplay, with a marker showing the general area of the required fish/treasures, but leaving the rest to the scuba diver.

Is that all, though? Actually, yes. This is all about fishing and item-gathering, fishing and item-gathering. The acquired money enables buying better equipment (bigger oxygen tanks, more accurate harpoons, and so on), but in the end, everything feels the same. Furthermore, there are no real threats in here. The oxygen lasts for an adequate amount of time, a warning message appears when it gets below 10%, and refilling simply means going back to the surface for two or three seconds. As for the dangers of the deep, they aren't exactly that lethal; there are only a few and they only "bite" a tiny portion of the oxygen reserves.

Fun as this underwater journey is, it won't last long. An inexperienced child can finish it in a week or so, and a seasoned gamer in a day - and after that, the only thing to do will be replaying the same few chapters all over, for no other reason than to pass the time with something that's not as time-consuming as [insert The Elder Scrolls title here], as challenging as Dark Souls, or with the depth of Europa Universalis IV. Simple. Enjoyable. Forgettable.