Unprofessional Video Game Writing

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, hoping to find old dogtags, expired medicines or ancient coins. In town there's someone who will want whatever you find - if they pay you enough you'll be able to upgrade your equipment and take on some wrecks.

This is where Everblue 2 is the most fun - flashing a narrow flashlight beam around the hold of a downed airplane, a submarine, a wrecked pirate ship or a luxury cruiser. Now you are dodging deadly creatures to hunt down famed treasures - all to the sound of your own rebreather. It can be haunting and exciting - I found myself twisting my body around to try to avoid the shark in the old cruise ship office, as I was trying to swim under him for an important key. I found the key and then whirled around for a quick snapshot - I thought the shot of a shark with a chandelier in the background would make a great addition to my photo album.

Between naturalism, archaeology and paddling around in the Caribbean blue, there's a lot here for divers to love. But it is a game first and foremost, so they've taken many liberties. People interested in a realistic diving simulation will be disappointed, and will find much to mock here. But people who don't mind playing around with undersea exploration should have a good time.

(Requires a Sony PlayStation 2 game console hooked up to an ordinary TV)

This is what they condensed all that down to:

Maxed out on bottom time? Grab your controller and keep on diving. Tap your dive experience and show Junior who's boss in the videogame "Everblue 2." The objective: Guide a digital diver in the hunt for killer underwater photos and sunken treasure, then trade your treasures for better equipment and access to more challenging dives. At the advanced levels, he'll be chum in the face of eels, sharks, deadly currents and dangerous wreck penetrations. - Justin Hall.

It appeared on page 28 of their July 2003 issue. I asked if this was the first game review Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine had run; here was 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 | TrackBack