Dave the Diver Reviews
Dave The Diver is a true indie gem. The story acts as the glue that holds things together while most of the weight of the game is on the shoulders of gameplay mechanics that are gradually added, new areas that are unlocked in each chapter of the story, and new weapons and equipment that can be found in boxes scattered in the Blue Hole. This game is a simple delight like a cup of coffee in the morning or an ice cream in the summer heat; its true value is felt only when you taste it yourself.
Dave the Diver is a whacky, 2D/3D game that mixes several genres to form a fun adventure with silly characters and never a shortage of things to do. Each trip into the mysterious Blue Hole is different, and you'll have plenty of quests and upgrades to work on. Spend your days diving, and your nights running a sushi bar. If you are looking for a great balance of not too hard, not too easy, Dave the Diver is it. While some of the missions can get kind of hairy, managing your resources is what it's all about. The story is fun, and I really enjoyed the MarinCa app that gives us facts about sea creatures we catch!
Dave the Diver is a huge surprise this year. The game just came out of nowhere and was fantastic. The seemingly primitive title has much more to it than one might expect, so we strongly recommend not underestimating it. If you like underwater adventures with good humor, this will be the game for you.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Dave the Diver is all about what the name says, Dave being a diver. During the day he explores the sea and hunts for fish to have them prepared in the evening at the sushi restaurant. Although it sounds so simple, it is more than that. It's simplistic, which is why this game works so well. You are thinking about your equipment, but also about the menu for that evening. Dave the Diver is an ideal snack that is unfortunately only available on PC for the time being.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Wholesome, harmonious and completely unwilling to settle, this is one of the most generous games in years.
Dave the Diver is a game that presents you with the experience of diving and fishing in the deep sea and managing a seafood restaurant in the background of a pixel art painting. If you embrace your curiosity like me, you'll find yourself engrossed in this underwater adventure and the unique restaurant management aspect for hours on end.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Dave The Diver offers an enthralling blend of adventure, strategy, and humor, all wrapped up in a tale of bravery and discovery. With its unique Combat and Capture gameplay, charming characters, and innovative dual-mode progression, this game provides a fresh and exhilarating gaming experience that is sure to keep you hooked from the very first harpoon throw.
No matter what I was doing, me and Dave were having a pretty good time and along the way a strange little family of misfits was born, all based around my own favourite food: sushi. Dave the Diver isn’t as deep as the ocean, but it’s deep enough and casts its net wide to drag in all manner of crazy elements. The mix of underwater water adventuring and sushi bar management is like a sumptuous piece of salmon nigiri: simple yet elegant, basic and yet somehow so effortlessly tasty. The game’s other elements serve as the soy sauce for dipping and wasabi for that little touch of tingle on the tongue
Dave the Diver is a product of unrivaled brilliance for the whole package it offers. It is a passionate adventure capable of stimulating the player through a comfortable and inviting atmosphere, which gives us all the time we want to explore and experience it at our own pace. Charismatic, warm, welcoming and thought-provoking, Dave's adventure will certainly be canonized in the same pantheon as other indie classics, responsible for unique experiences that raise the bar for video games as multisensory forms of entertainment.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Dave the Diver, needless to say, was an absolutely delightful surprise that I would recommend to just about anyone. It offers so much variety in gameplay ideas that there is something here for everyone. I’d love to express everything I absolute loved about the game, but what impressed me so much was not knowing all the things this game offered, and I wouldn’t want to strip you of that. This may have not been the mindless fishing exploration game I was expecting, but it became so much more than I even initially wanted.
Dave the Diver deserves to be a hit of summer 2023. He does not innovate and does not offer new gameplay mechanics, he is "only" concerned with giving ten hours of superfine quality and succeeds with a style and lightness from which one immediately becomes addicted. It is a much more accurate work than it seems, an experience in magnificent balance between its two souls, characterized by an immense heart and continually able to amaze you as it drags you deeper and deeper into the abyss of the "another dive and I shut off" loop.
Review in Italian | Read full review
DAVE THE DIVER is one of the surprises of this year. Fun and with an endless number of mechanics that will catch you.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Dave the Diver is a delightfully delicious game packed full of charm. It’s a title that doubles up as both an adventure sim and a restaurant tycoon, and harmoniously blends both beats together to create one of the best symphonies of 2023. This is an an absolute must-play.
Dave the Diver is one of the most interesting games of this year. From such a simple concept – bring some fish to your restaurant! – the game keeps building on its gameplay and deepening the experience, captivating the player in an enjoyable and magnetic loop that you will find hard to jump off from.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Games are often referred to as mixing the right ingredients and mixing the best recipe. But in the case of Dave the diver, the ingredients and recipes on the plate are the most important thing, not metaphorically, but completely practically. And the resulting food tastes so good that you will lick your fingers.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Dave The Diver very much deserves the enormous success it’s received in its first month, selling over a million copies, and hopefully making developers Mintrocket enormously rich. They’ve created something really special, an RPG-meets-Diner Dash-meets gentle SCUBA sim, that manages to feel utterly crammed to the gills with things to do, yet joyfully relaxing to play.
Dave the Diver is a game with a distinctive style that demonstrates the potential of the medium with its comprehensive and varied gameplay. While the late-game mechanics may feel repetitive in the full version, the enjoyable fishing experience for the first ten hours makes it worth the price of admission.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
DAVE THE DIVER begins off pleasantly and lays out new mechanics at a steady pace. The joy never dwindles and it’s a pleasure to play through. Whether you’ve settled in for a long or short session of play, you will get a sense of achievement thanks to the structure of the day and night cycles. I played this primarily on Steam Deck and it feels right at home there. An incredibly endearing adventure and one of the easiest game recommendations of the year.
Dave the Diver combines two excellent gameplay elements, but still feels like more than the sum of its parts. Deep sea diving and sushi restaurant management are equally enjoyable and complex, making for a supremely addicting gameplay loop. Not only is it the surprise hit of the summer, but it’s one we’ll be having a discussion about when it’s time to look back on 2023’s best games.
Dave the Diver is a magical, mesmerizing, unforgettable gem. Mintrocket’s debut game isn’t just one of the best indie games of the year—it’s also quickly become one of my favorite games of the last decade. Its world is beautiful, tantalizing, and surprisingly dangerous. Dave and the cast are well-written and meticulously animated. The sushi makes me hungry every time I play. Dave the Diver more than delivers on its promise as a fun maritime adventure and role-playing game. Part salt-water exploration game, part sushi restaurant management sim, the game becomes so much more than the ocean blue aesthetic that initially meets the eye.