If you think turn-based strategy is an underserved genre, you should try being a fan of photography adventures. By that, I mean games where photography is the main objective, and not a minor sideshow to traditional mechanics. These kinds of games are few and far between, with the last one I played being Wild Earth: African Safari 5 years ago.
That’s why I’m happy to see Reef Shot get released. It’s a pure photography-based adventure in which you take the role of Scott. He, along with his partner Renee, are tasked with conducting a survey of marine life around Robinson Crusoe Island (which is an island that actually exists, by the way). After a fairly routine introductory/tutorial dive, Scott discovers an ancient Mayan artifact which triggers an underwater journey to discover a secret prophecy called “the Truth.”
Exploration, for the most part, is limited to following waypoints. You can stray a bit, but invisible walls make sure you don’t get too far off course. At each waypoint, you’ll be given a number of animals or artifacts to find and photograph. Most of these subjects are pretty easy to locate—it’s hard to miss the giant shark swimming a few feet in front of you, for example. Other times, however, you’ll need to search the immediate surroundings to find them. This gives the game a light hidden-object feel to it, which I enjoyed.
Simply finding your subject and snapping a random photo isn’t enough, however. Ensuring the quality of your shot is important as well. Every photo you take is graded and assigned a rating of up to five stars, and you’ll be required to meet a specific minimum for each subject you’re assigned. Earlier missions will let you sneak by with one or two-star pics but, by the time you reach the end, you’ll need to get four or five stars with every shot. This can get really challenging—and occasionally frustrating—when you’re dealing with small, fast-moving fish. The unexpected difficulty got my pulse racing in an otherwise laid-back game, which was a pleasant surprise.
Stars aren’t just for meeting objectives, by the way. They also have a practical purpose in that you can “spend” them to unlock perks during the dive. Extra photos and air come in handy during longer missions, and buying them is generally a requirement in later levels. If you have a hard time locating your assigned subjects, you can activate a fish or artifact finder, depending on what you’re looking for. The final perk is the most interesting, and unlocks bonus objectives for you to meet during the dive. These bonus objectives are completely optional and don’t impact the game in any meaningful way, but are still very cool to have because it gives you more to do.
There’s a strong sense of discovery while playing Reef Shot. A high level of visual verisimilitude helps one become immersed in the experience. In later levels, where you come across impressive Mayan architecture that slowly fade in from the distant blue… well, the feeling can only be described as breathtaking. The audio is similarly strong. Renee’s occasional commentary/chatter is well-acted and adds some perspective on what you’re discovering, not to mention relieving the sense of quiet isolation that permeates the adventure. The best part is the music, though, which perfectly fits the underwater exploration theme, and would be great to listen to even outside the game.
Controls are as simple as can be. WASD moves you about while the mouse handles all the camera stuff. If you own an Xbox controller, you can use that during dives, but won’t be able to navigate any menus with it, which is a weird oversight. Not that you’d want to use the controller anyway; some of the subjects are fast-moving and there’s no auto-aim, so you’ll really want the speed and accuracy of the mouse for the best experience. Be sure to disconnect your controller before playing, though. The input prompts during the tutorial will always display the bindings for the controller as long as it is attached, even if you’re not actually using it. Sadly, there’s no way to remap the keys, so if you’re a lefty you might be out of luck unless you’ve adapted to WASD.
Other drawbacks: graphic options are limited to resolution, vsync, and anti-aliasing. There are no settings for detail levels, but I don’t think that’s a huge issue because the game doesn’t contain an excessive amount of complicated geometry. There’s enough to make everything look good, but not so much that my low-end graphics card—an integrated Radeon HD 6770M —couldn’t handle it with ease. More troubling is the fact that you can’t save in the middle of a mission. The missions aren’t particularly long, but it would still be nice to have the ability to quit mid-dive in case of emergency. Finally, I personally didn’t enjoy the ending. I thought it came on too abruptly and found it unsatisfying. In retrospect, the game did leave me wanting more, so it was probably a good thing.
Conclusion – Is It Worth Your Money?
Reef Shot has a few rough edges, but I’m willing to forgive those because it’s a unique game in a genre that is well below underserved. In a world where most games require you to shoot various things in the face, I’m glad to see one that asks the player to do a different kind of shooting. It’s definitely worth the $10 price tag.
Follow TPG