Endless Ocean Luminous

Genre: Misc.

Players: 1-30 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

The Endless Ocean series started out with a release on Wii in 2008, with a second game releasing on Wii in 2010. Then, in 2024, the series jumped to Nintendo Switch with Endless Ocean Luminous. For those unfamiliar with this series, in this family-friendly game, players take the role of a scuba diver exploring the undersea environment and cataloguing the sea life they find there. Luminous introduces a few new elements to the series, including online multiplayer co-op and procedurally-generated areas.

In theory, this procedural generation means you could have limitless very large (but finite) square sections of ocean to explore. However, as is so often the case with procedural generation, it results in an expanse of area as wide as eternity to explore, but deep as a puddle as you see areas constantly recycled.

Sadly, even that is overselling it. At least in a game like Minecraft, the procedural generation means you truly do have a limitless expanse to explore, but in Endless Ocean Luminous, pick a direction to swim in and you’ll hit an invisible wall within a few minutes, atop a dropoff into nothingness below you. Heck, you aren’t even able to raise your head above the water, with all of this only adding to the artificial feeling of the game.

It’s a shame too, because the fish themselves are nicely detailed, and the roiling waves above your head look great. Unfortunately, the seascapes below aren’t nearly as nice, with large stretches of nothing only occasionally interspersed by something interesting like a coral reef or a sunken ship. However, just as often you’ll find inexplicable underwater cliffs as if the procedural generation decided that one space should be lower than another, and couldn’t be bothered to make any sort of believable-looking transition. Given how this game isn’t exactly going for complete realism, this could have been a chance for some really fantastical undersea landscapes like what can be found in Abzu or the Subnautica games, but the way the procedural generation ultimately works out here is large stretches of boring nothingness with occasional but brief spots of visually-interesting terrain.

But the fish themselves look good, right? That is the point, after all. Well, yes, the fish are nicely detailed and have good 3D character models, but they’re poorly-animated in a way that’s lifeless. Most undersea life doesn’t react to your presence at all, making for odd situations where fish pass right through your body, or a shark blindly pushing you around with its nose (you cannot get hurt, so feel free to stick your head right in its mouth – it’ll just turn intangible when it shuts again).

Did I need to go to such lengths to trash the way this game looks when at least parts of it looks really good? I think so, yes, since half of the selling point here seems to be for players to immerse themselves in the wonder of the undersea world, but this game repeatedly pulls you out of it. Heck, you can’t even use first-person perspective, so immersion doesn’t seem like it was especially high on the list of priorities for this game’s designers.

The problem is, if you can’t see this as an immersive interactive experience, if you have to view it as an actual, you know, game… then it’s absolutely terrible. A repetitive slog where you scan fish, and then scan more fish, and then scan more fish, and then pick up a piece of trash on the ocean floor, then scan more fish… and so on. You need to scan certain numbers of fish to pass thresholds needed to progress the story, but beyond this there doesn’t seem any benefit to doing so here. You don’t gain better abilities, or even have any real control over what fish you do find, making scanning only the lightest of interactive actions in what is otherwise an extremely passive experience.

Oh, and the multiplayer. Well, take the above experience I just described… and imagine subjecting all your friends to that experience. Oh, and because it’s Nintendo you won’t have any of that pesky “voice chat”, either.

Are there any bright spots in this game? A few, yes. As I mentioned, there are brief moments of beauty in the visual design. Even more than this, the sound design in this game is excellent, really breathing life into this underwater world (even if your “AI companion” sounds like a second-rate Alexa, and other humans speak in incoherent mumbles). Also, the soundtrack here is wonderful too, with great New Agey themes like Sea 02, Sea 06, and Sea 08.

I really wanted to like Endless Ocean Luminous, and I approached it with an open mind, but no matter how I tried to enjoy this game, it failed to live up to my hopes and expectations. As an interactive experience it fails due to areas that repeat visual elements, undersea life completely lacking any sort of liveliness, and multiple artificial videogamey elements. But as a game it fails because of how utterly soul-crushingly repetitive and dull it is. Whether you’re looking for a beautiful underwater experience or an underwater exploration game on Nintendo Switch, you have multiple better options – I already mentioned Abzu and the Subnautica games, and there’s also Deep Diving Adventures. Needless to say, you should be playing one of those games instead of this one.

tl;dr – Endless Ocean Luminous is a family-friendly ocean exploration game where players explore the ocean depths and catalogue sea life. Unfortunately, the underwater wonder is undone by lifeless undersea life and repetitive and empty environments, and as a videogame this is as dull and repetitive as they come. There are already multiple better underwater exploration games on Nintendo Switch, regardless of what you’re looking for. Don’t waste your time and money on this.

Grade: D+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Disappointing

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