Deep Dive Review

This past August (2023) was my first time ever going to GenCon. And boy, was it something special! I bought so many games, got to meet and interact with some great content creators, and got the chance to speak with several publishers as well! AEG had a neat Content Creator Meet-Up where we got to see and learn about some of their newest games. And that’s where Deep Dive comes into play. So here is the first review of several from that AEG session. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of Deep Dive for the purposes of this review. What you see pictured below is a finalized production copy. -L

Deep Dive is a push-your-luck game of set collection in which players become Penguins trying to dive deep in the ocean for food. But look out, because sneaky Predators are lurking in the water, just waiting to snatch you up! The game is played over a series of rounds in which players take turns sending their Penguins to the depths, collecting sets of food tokens to score valuable endgame points. To setup for a game, separate and shuffle the Ocean Tiles to populate the game ocean as described in the rulebook, per player count. The lighter colored tiles represent shallower water, and turn darker the deeper you go. Each player receives 3 Penguins in their chosen color, and a start player is determined randomly. The game is now ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 3-player game.

At the start of the game, all Penguins will begin their movement from the shallowest Ocean Depth. On your turn, taking one of your available Penguins, you have 2 options: take an already face-up tile from that Depth, or flip over a face-down tile from that Depth. If you choose to take an already face-up tile, add it to your tableau and your turn ends. If you choose to flip a new tile, flip a tile face-up and resolve it as appropriate. Revealing an Open Water Tile means you must move on to the next Ocean Depth, essentially forcing you to push your luck. If you reveal a Food or a Rock tile, you can choose to collect it and end your turn (Resurface), or leave it and move to the next Ocean Depth. If you reveal a Predator, place your Penguin on that tile – that Penguin is now trapped!

Any time you enter a new Ocean Depth, repeat the process as described above. Remember, higher valued Food tiles reside in the deeper Ocean Depths, but those Depths are also home to more Predators. How far are you willing to push your luck? On a future turn, if you have previously collected a Rock tile, you can use it to start your dive from any Depth – you’ve eaten the Rock and it weighs you down, allowing you to start your dive from deeper in the Ocean! Your turn will always flow as such, flipping tiles and moving to deeper Depths until either you decide to Resurface with a tile, or you become trapped by a Predator. If your 3rd and final Penguin becomes trapped by a Predator, you must Retreat – collect all of your Penguins back, collecting one face-up Food/Rock tile as consolation.

The game-end is triggered when any one of the Ocean Depths no longer has any face-down tiles. Players finish the current round, and then play one more complete round. Players then calculate their scores. You earn full points for complete sets of Food Tokens (one of each color), and half points for incomplete sets. The player with the highest score is the winner!

All in all, Deep Dive is a neat little game! I’m not generally one for push-your-luck games, but this one kinda has me hooked! You’ve got to strategize a bit as to how far you are willing to go. Hanging out in the shallower Depths is safer (with fewer Predator tiles), but the Food tiles are low in value. So you can collect a lot of tiles there, but in the end-game it probably won’t yield a high score. One thing that adds to the strategy here is that you need to collect sets of Food tiles, one of each color, to score full points. You can’t just nab every Food tile you see, because if it’s not going to complete a set, it won’t be worth its total value. Another neat little rule is that whenever you have a trapped Penguin, on a future turn you can bypass that Depth and move straight to the next one. Getting a Penguin trapped is not a good thing overall, but letting you skip that Depth helps balance it out a little bit. In the rules they even describe it as your trapped Penguin is distracting the Predator, letting you dive deeper unnoticed. So yes, ultimately this is a luck-based game, but those little things make it feel a bit more grounded to me than just a mad dash to grab all tiles.

To touch briefly on components – as is expected from AEG, the components are pretty great quality. The wooden Penguin meeples are cute, and each in a different pose! The cardboard Ocean Tiles are thick and sturdy, and the iconography is clear and comprehensible. No complaints here about production quality!

I don’t think Deep Dive will ever break into my Top 10 Games, but it’s a neat little filler that I may have otherwise overlooked had AEG not brought it to my attention. The setup and teardown take a bit of time, as all the tiles need to be sorted by Ocean Depth, so that’s a little finicky, but the gameplay itself is quick and intuitive. It’s fast to learn, teach, and play, and its simple enough that younger gamers would probably be ok playing it too. The cute concept and fun gameplay has earned Deep Dive a solid 8 / 12 from Purple Phoenix Games. If you want something fast and fun, with hints of strategy, I would highly recommend Deep Dive!