As an occasionaly scuba diver with a passion for deep blue depths, I was eager to play EverBlue 2, a February 2003 PlayStation2 release from Capcom.

The game is an odd mix of console-style Japanese RPG and first person underwater exploration. Not poorly executed either! There are definitely some limitations on the "freedom" of swimming around underwater, and the game takes broad liberties with scuba diving. But the gameplay of searching out sunken wrecks, exploring and excavating them, and helping people on shore with lost items - it's all good times.

I wanted to review EverBlue 2, but I didn't want to review it in the context of being a video game, I wanted to review the game's capacity to reflect the experience of scuba diving.

I contacted Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine, a publication that concerns itself with hot diving spots and new rebreathers. I pitched them their first video game review.

Here's a draft I submitted to them as a review back in April. I was working here to be straightforward and descriptive, from a diver's perspective:

Landlocked divers yearning for deep water might find their fix in a new video game. Capcom's Everblue 2 won't train you on the proper use of dive gear, but it does capture some of the fun and feeling of diving.

Think of Everblue 2 as arcade diving - diving lite. This is a game you can play with little knowledge or experience. Push a joystick to move around underwater, while keeping an eye on your oxygen meter. That's about all you have to worry about, until eels, sharks and deadly currents appear late in the game.

Everblue 2 is based on earning access to the dangerous kind of fun. As a young man on a Caribbean island, you begin diving in twenty feet of water, with a scrap detector and a camera. Computer-generated fish dart or glide past - you can position them properly for a picture that might please a photo collector on the island. But you'll probably spend more time pressing the salvage detector button, hopingas their response:

Yes, it is the first game review we've run. But we see it more as a "new product" story than a review. Our audience consists of divers (mostly middle-aged men), not gamers. That's part of the reason we reworked it -- to show our readers how their favorite sport is reflected in an area of pop culture they may not be familiar with.

That was precisely my agenda as well. If I had my hands on my prose now, and a chance to fill their magazine again, I think I would venture more into poetic description of diving and compare that to the sensation of sitting on a couch steering with my thumbs. Everblue 2 presented me with an important chance to compare a familiar experience with a video game reproduction. Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine won't be the last place I consider this game.

Moreover, I'm excited to see more video game reviews appear in publications that don't consider video games. How about an interior decorating magazine review of Animal Crossing?

Posted by justin at August 18, 2003 08:37 PM