Beyond Blue is this week’s Epic Games Store free game

If you like fish, the Epic Games Store free game this week, Beyond Blue, is sure to be a favorite. While educational games can be a chore to slog through, Beyond Blue has much more polish than many — but not as much as we’d maybe expect from a game that doesn’t have that focus.

• Beyond Blue
  • Release Date: June 11, 2020
  • Game Type: Simulator, Educational
  • POV: Third Person
  • Party: Single player
  • DLC: None

Looking through the stills and gameplay videos, the thought that immediately struck me was, “ah, dollar store Subnautica.” Although the hook of exploring an ocean to scan creatures seems to be similar, and there is a sub in play, the rest of gameplay diverges completely from the iconic ocean exploration survival game. There are no minerals to grab to build things, no building things at all actually, and you certainly aren’t expected to literally chew your way through a smorgasbord of wildlife to survive. And Beyond Blue doesn’t have that air of dread fueled by nothing but your own psychology, until it suddenly isn’t just in your head. You know, all the elements that make Subnautica the enduring icon it is.

However, a core reason this game was made at all was to showcase the real creatures on Earth’s oceans, as the dev team partnered with not only game makers, but OceanX and other unnamed ocean experts to get things right. It’s a relatively short, mission-based game, where you’re tasked with — perhaps allowed to — explore the ocean from the comfort of your swivel chair, without getting your hair wet. There are several short documentary videos throughout, just to drive the educational angle home a bit further. And while it’s engaging in the short term, I do think the player needs to be very into exploration as a gamer, but also open to the idea of educational game from the start, or it may fall flat.