Idle Waters Review (PC)

I’ve been fishing, and so I know all too well the level of patience and commitment one would need to, you know, catch a fish. Herein lies a problem that most newcomers often face: learning how to pass the time and figure out what to do with your leftover tackle and mealworms whilst the waters trickle and the sun mocks the lack of nautical activity. It seems here, then, that Idle Waters has struck gold with quite the perfect pairing—a coupling between one of the lengthiest pastimes and a desktop-based idle clicking system. Suffice it to say, the idea of being able to keep the one hook in the water and another in your own administrative affairs is great. The question is, does the bobbing head of an idle fish make for a pleasant catch?

Idle Waters is everything you want and need from an idle clicking game: a simple, slow-paced experience that doesn’t lolly about with convoluted mechanics or long-winded plot points. Like its vast network of idle cousins, it sits neatly at the bottom of your desktop, taking approximately twenty percent of your screen, thus giving you the freedom to dabble and control your primary tasks. The major difference between this and, say, Animal Spa, of course, is that you aren’t given the job of tending to pandas and readjusting the temperature of the bath water, but fishing off of the docks and displaying the oceanic rarities in a display case of some chauvinistic nature.

If we’ve piqued your interest with the words idle and fish, then you ought to grab a pole and stick with us for a short while. Here’s everything you ought to know about Idle Waters before deciding whether or not to add it to your desktop.

Catch of the Day

I won’t beat around the bush here, but the fact is, Idle Waters’ straightforward gameplay style isn’t quite as compelling as a lot of alternate idle clicking titles on the market. It isn’t as compelling, mainly due to the fact that, unlike other semi-interactive variants, it doesn’t actually require you to act on impulse. Here, you don’t need to snap to attention to snag a bite, nor do you need to go toe to toe with a pattern-driven mini-game to successfully secure the fish. Rather, you click on the fish whenever you’re ready. Failing that, you enable an auto-fishing option that allows you the flexibility of working on your own projects without having to manually progress through the process.

The idea is as simple as they come: click the waters whenever a bite pops up; catch a fish of some various size or color; earn a passive reward for each fish that you obtain; and stylize an aquarium to showcase your most valuable species. With twelve biomes to work through and a total of a hundred fish to catch, the goal here isn’t so much to find the rarest fish, but to unlock the different variants of fish and complete a sizable catalog before. Nothing particularly exciting about any of this, but then, it’s an idle clicker about fishing; drama is hardly in its DNA.

Back to Basics

While there isn’t much gameplay to sink your teeth into here, Idle Waters does at least provide a diverse array of locations to work through, with each biome offering out the chance to catch a legendary fish and claim bragging rights over whoever else might be there to onboard the same noble quest of fleshing out their fishy portfolio. It isn’t much of a bonus, but at least with so many fish to catch it does generate a tiny bit of suspense with each passing bite. As for whether there’s enough here to keep you on tenterhooks for a relatively long period of time is another question, and one that is far more likely to attract different answers depending upon who you’re talking to.

We’ve established the fact that the gameplay isn’t the selling point here. However, the pixel art style, on the other hand, is surprisingly pleasant to witness unfold, especially when it’s floating at the bottom layer of your screen alongside another, preferably aquatic subregion of your monitor or task bar. To answer the question of whether or not a few sprightly colored fish are collectively enough to incentivize Idle Waters, however, would require a mass debate. For the sake of keeping it simple, though, I’ll just say this: if you enjoy the slow-paced nature of fishing and the occasionally underwhelming outcomes of physically catching said fish, then you ought to find that same enjoyment on a virtual scale in Idle Waters. If you’re after something with more of a pulse, then you might want to consider docking elsewhere.

Verdict

As idle clicking games become all the more common and substantially more integral in the modern desktop world, creators are beginning to resourcefully take advantage of the most compatible pastimes to prove their worth. In the case of Idle Waters, a fishing game with an idle twist should be a match made in heaven. Yet, without much of an interactive hook to keep you invested, it’s surprisingly not quite as compelling as it should be. It’s fishing, so there’s bound to be a lull between catches and a lack of drama. Even still, what frustrates me the most is that there just isn’t much gameplay at all. There are upgrades, true, as are there aquatic features to experiment with alongside the main fishing procedure. But that’s the problem: the fishing, or lack thereof.

Of course, Idle Waters is, first and foremost, an idle game, and so, to give credit where it’s due, it does serve its purpose as something of a background affair with very limited palpitations. But even with that checkbox filled, I still can’t help but wonder whether or not it would’ve  benefited from a few more gadgets and gizmos, ponds and fish. Perhaps all of that and more will come in due course, in another post-launch add-on, if we’re lucky. If it does push the boat out to incorporate more material, then I imagine it’ll go on to become quite the catch. Pun intended. Sorry.