preview
This is exactly what a sequel should be like.
I didn't play much of the first installment of Endless Ocean, but I liked what I saw. It seemed like a chill experience in which you just kind of hung out with different marine life. I received the game's sequel, Endless Ocean: Blue World, from Nintendo recently, and I've really enjoyed what I've played so far.
The game begins with an interesting tutorial that seems to tease later developments in the game, as you finish the exercise by gazing upon a magnificent undersea structure. After that, you begin the game on a boat as you join L&L Diving Service. You're asked a series of questions in an Animal Crossing-like manner that determines your gender and looks, and then the story begins.
Unlike the first game, Blue World features a linear story that takes you all over the globe. So far, I've only gone from the South Pacific to the Aegean Sea, but supposedly you travel up to the North or South Pole and swim in icy waters. The story centers on a girl named Oceana, who is searching for the answers to some nagging questions that arose following her father's death. You team up with her and search for the answer to the mystery of the "Dragon's Song." It's not the most interesting or well-written story in the world, but it offers a sense of direction to a game that could easily devolve into haphazard exploration.
Aside from this story element, the sequel adds a lot more depth to the experience, especially with the addition of the Pulsar and Multisensor. The Pulsar is a small pistol that heals wounded animals and calms hostile ones. It makes Endless Ocean a little more of a game without compromising the exploratory nature of it. The Multisensor is used to look for underwater trinkets that can be sold for money, which can be used to buy new equipment and additions to Nineball Island.
Nineball Island is another one of the big additions to the game. The small island is the home base for the dive operation, and you can do various things there, such as play with your pet dolphin, examine your marine encyclopedia, develop the pictures you've taken, and work on developing your own private reef. As you journey through the game, you unlock more tasks to complete. I recently found a dog that washed ashore, and he's now lingering around the island.
When you're exploring the dark depths of the water, you can pop your head up out of it and look around, and even go on land and interact with birds and other land animals. You can also take pictures underwater and save them to the SD card so that you can post them on the Wii Message Board.
The controls aren't too different from the original, as you still use the Wii Remote to point at the screen and direct your diver. The latest game adds Classic Controller support, which is welcome, but you can't easily switch between the two. You have to back out to the title screen in order to change control schemes.
For the most part, this second iteration is full of additions that do nothing but open up the gameplay. Unfortunately, the ability to listen to MP3s off of your SD card has been removed.
I haven't been able to check out online co-op and the Wii Speak compatibility, but I'll comment on that and more when the full review goes up sometime in the next week or so.
Forever Blue: Umi no Yobigoe
Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep
Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep
