As far as all-consuming activities go, fishing rates fairly high. Fishermen spend hours and hours out on the water, watching their rod and hoping for a big catch. Many fishing games would follow that tradition, rewarding patience and impressive catches.

Scale the Depths is different. Instead of centering the rhythmic push and pull of reeling in fish and the minutiae of rod and reel combinations, it offers a linear progression model and underwater landscapes to explore.

Rendered in wonderfully done pixel graphics, Scale the Depths features a gameplay loop that asks players to guide their lure directly into fish, depleting their health. When moving the lure, though, a reel of line constantly depletes, often cutting each cast frustratingly short.

The little fishing robot that is casting the player’s line is navigating the world with the help of a mysterious figure over a radio, and while that cliché is a little grating, they are nice enough to provide a new rod, hook, and knife in each area. There are messages in bottles and research reports compiled once each area is finished, but the emphasis is not on the story. Instead, players experience the world through exploration, both above water and below.

While underwater, players can guide their lure into grass, open chests, collect silly artifacts from a bygone era – Aztec carvings and canned bread, among others – and work their way toward a legendary fish that acts as a boss for each of the game’s four areas.

Each cast is likely to end with multiple fish in a player’s bucket, a finite yet upgradable holding space before the main event: scaling and preparing each catch. Besides the more active exploration loop, Scale the Depths offers a stronger secondary mode of play that asks players to slowly remove scales from fish in sweeping passes, knock off barnacles and parasites, and eventually lop off their heads and fins.

Each fish presents a unique challenge, with no two containing the same scaling hazards. Eels and sunfish are more prone to parasites, for example, but that doesn’t mean minnows can’t pick up irritating-to-remove little pests.

Once players prepare their catches, they serve them to customers that range from talking seabirds to mythical creatures like the Loch Ness Monster. These transactions generate money, which can then be funneled into new rods, hooks, knives, and cosmetics for both boat and bot.

The fishing and exploration loop is inoffensive, but the click-and-drag controls are hard to master – I’m not sure I ever did. Often, trying to execute a quick turn would result in wasting a ton of line on seemingly endless loops around the collectible I was trying to pick up.

Most of my early enjoyment came from preparing my catches, figuring out just how slowly and methodically I was expected to move my knife and how different tools impacted the process. However, that too became stale as I worked toward collecting everything in the game.

Overall, there is a charm that permeates the game’s presentation, with pleasant thematic musical motifs for each area and facts about each fish that are as fun as they are educational. Scale the Depths never forces anything, instead letting players take the game at their own pace and fish to their heart’s content, progression be damned.

While the gameplay moved from somewhat frustrating to mostly stale over the eight hours I spent with the game, I never felt bored. As a quick session meant to unwind or as a break between more demanding games, I’d imagine Scale the Depths would hit the spot, but it’s quick to overstay its welcome.

Unless you’re a completionist or really enjoy the gameplay loops provided, there’s not much reason to return to this one once the story is complete and the radio guy sends you a crown, but for what it is – a charming, beautifully rendered little diversion – players could do much worse.

Scale the Depths: 7.8

With two gameplay loops that begin somewhat frustrating and become stale, Scale the Depths is better as a diversion between more involved activities. The graphics and music are done beautifully, but the story is a requisite post-apocalypse plot that doesn’t really impact the game as a whole.

Gameplay: 6.5

Atmosphere: 10

Story: 7