Reef Shot

Developed by Nano Games

Lasting First Impressions

» It’s not very often one finds a fully-realized, 3D environment game that has no weapons, no combat, and no enemies whatsoever.  A game that one can sit down and actually relax to while exploring one of the most mysterious places on Earth: the ocean.  This game is Reef Shot, a diving simulator that places you in the fins of a deep sea diver on a mission to capture photographs of the ocean life and anything you may find down there.  Accompanied only by the disembodied voice of your sponsor informing you of what she needs photographs of, you will have free reign of the ocean depths as you travel around the Island of Robinson Crusoe, the largest island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago.

Reef Shot was inspired by both the Maya history, heritage and prophesies as well as the El Dorado legend.  It is for this reason that, as you progress through this game, it turns from taking photos of marine life to one of investigating darkened caves and discovering ancient ruins buried for centuries, in an attempt to uncover the truth about the Mayan 2012 prophesy.

Playing through this game truly is a relaxing experience.  There is something beautifully serene about swimming through the ocean depths, with only the sounds of your regulator to keep you company.  While there is a quality musical soundtrack playing throughout the game, I found myself turning the music off completely just to enjoy the sounds of the ocean alone.  Couple the realistic audio with the high resolution images of the ocean life and the many wrecks and ruins you will find, and this is the closest you’ll come to actually scuba diving without getting wet.

Reef Shot seems to have been designed to be used with an Xbox360 style controller in mind because all the on-screen instructions referenced the controller buttons instead of the mouse and keyboard controls I was using. A quick stop to the help section in-game showed me the equivalent controls I needed.  This makes me wonder if we might see Reef Shot grace the consoles sometime in the future which would certainly be a welcome treat.  This game will not be for everyone, however, since it is very slow paced with absolutely no action whatsoever.  Although swimming down into a dark cavern will send chills down your spine, there are no creature waiting to pounce on you down there.  Instead, you’ll find so many ruins and wrecks to explore and photograph that it would make Lara Croft jealous.

If you’re a diver yourself, or fancy pretending you are one, Reef Shot is not a game you’ll want to pass up.  It is certainly a right turn away from the action-laden games that are gracing us every day, but it is a welcome relief.  Gaming doesn’t always need to be about killing and action, sometimes playing a game is just about enjoying some aspect of life that we may never have the opportunity to explore ourselves.  Reef Shot takes us into the unexplored depths of our planet’s oceans and lets us loose to just swim wherever we want and take pictures of it all as we go.

Nano Games, I gave you an hour and I am IMPRESSED.