role-playing

If you want a non violent, open ended game with a ton of stuff to do, then Everblue 2 is the game! It offers a ton of missions from salvaging to photographing fish. With 70 different fish, thousands of items to collect and a growing cast of characters, Everblue 2 will offer you a ton of gaming.

Under the sea, you will see schools of different fish. From Moorish Idols to Hammerhead Sharks, there is plenty of life under the sea. You will also explore sunken ships, planes and even an underground shrine.

The game is a mixture of a RPG as you level your character up and an adventure game as you explore your surroundings. There is also thousands of items to collect. From ancient treasures to modern trinkets, there is so much to find that it will take you months to find everything.

While the game is not for everyone as there is no fighting and parts can get a bit repetitive, it does offer alot for the gamer who craves something different.

Ok, I'm one of those types who LOVE Aquanaut's Holiday. I've only played the first AH and was expecting Everblue2 to be similar and it is in many regards however one essential difference is that you can die in this game either by getting attacked by a shark (which a touch of red in the water, it's not violent), or by going deeper than your suit is rated for too long or by running out of air.

Yes, a suit. You're not in a submarine in this one and unlike AH you are not just roaming around looking at things. In Everblue2 you're assigned tasks like retrieving things from the ocean, using your sonar. There are several RPG elements involved as well as you start out on dry land on an island with a Mariachi band which struck me as odd.

Graphically it's beautiful and the controls are easy enough although I'd like to be able to swim up and down rather than sticking to the bottom of the ocean. Also, when you "look" around with the right stick it snaps back into a centered view and there's no option to change that.

You get a camera at one point and can take and save images which is kinda neat.

Basically understand that you can "die" in this game, are limited initially by your equipment where you can swim and how long you can stay down. It's a strange combination of AH and an RPG which is fun, but if you're expecting the total Zen experience of wandering around the ocean looking at and for things at your own pace with no regard for safety Everblue2 will slightly dissappoint.

It can be stressful a bit to have to find someone's lost ID, or that chemical to mix with some other chemical to make a third chemical to help a sick person.

At the $$$ price point though, if you truelly liked AH you'll probably like this in the long run. An interesting story develops once you join the "Amigos", a local diving team comprised of kids. Managing your inventory is fun for a bit, and the way finding items works is you "set" your sonar to look for metal, or glass or both or other things and swim around near the bottom of the ocean. You "ping" with the L1 button and if you get a faster return you keep swimming in that direction until you get a sound which tells you you've found something.

Tapping X picks up the item. If you've never seen that item before you put it in your bag (providing there's enough room in it as objects have a weight and your bag can only hold so much until you upgrade it - holding more than your bag can carry decreases your health faster- which costs money) and bring it to an appraiser who tells you what it is. After that if you find another one, say a steel plate, you'll know while you're underwater.

Then you take your object, and if it's not wanted by some person, you can sell it at another shop for some money then use that money to buy better gear.

Oh, one annoying thing is that after every dive you've lost Air and Health Points. To replentish them you MUST stay a night at a hotel and each stay costs a small amount. If you're like me, you'll forget to do this and find yourself underwater with less than full stats.

The 2Dish interface to the town and it's various areas is a bit lacking. It's similar to the point and click adventures of LucasArts days of old and games like Broken Sword.

There are a few rough edges on it, but all in all it's fun if you enjoyed games like Aquanaut's Holiday and you can get past the goofy music in the town.

This game is fun. You have alot to do. There are 70 different type of animals you can photograph, and you can have 20 saved pictures (as far as i know). The deep sea diving is fun(but can be scary at times.)You can look for tresures(it isn't that hard once you got the hang of it). You can make the people in the game happy if you get or do something for them. You even search ships, airplanes. There is hardly (if any) violance. There are Sharks that will attack you(the Great White Shark will go after you.)The music gets more inteance if there are sharks in the area.
Over-all this game is fun.

Added June 6th, 2003

I beat the game (not today but awhile back) yet there is still things you can do. You meet another person. A diver you meet in the middle (or so) gives you a chllange to do. You get a better boat plan (maybe after you beat the game) Even after you beat it there are still things to do. This is one game where it may take you a long time to beat (like Ecco the Dolphin for PS2).