Empty the ocean with a bucket

this go hard af

What's the game about? Well, literally emptying the ocean with a bucket. You collect trash and random objects to sell and upgrade your bucket which then allows you to remove more water at a time. For the price, it's a great time waster. However there are a few gripes that I have. - No UI element to keep track of how many coins you have. You have to go to the upgrade station to see how much you have. - Upgrade station clearly says "Close (ESC)" but unless you click on the button it unlocks your mouse cursor from the screen. You can't hit escape to close the window unless you want to click afterwards to relock your cursor. Minor issue but frustrating - The progression based upgrades feel lackluster. 10% increased movement speed at 50% emptied means absolutely nothing when it's taking a minute round trip to empty your bucket. - No "outposts" as you progress so you have to run all the way back to the starting point with each click on the ocean. - WAYYYYYY too much time between player actions (see above). The further in you go the more this turns into a walking simulator. Would have enjoyed it a lot more if more speed boosts were given and smaller buckets. At least then I wouldn't be bored out of my mind as a Walked from point A to point B for the thousandth time. - Absolutely no rhyme or reason to what can and can not be picked up and sold as trash. Some items can be collected and sold and then you come across the same exact trash model a little further down and it's a static prop. Not to mention the big ass hand basket on the beach that just sits there along with the giant trucks that can't be collected. Overall, it's a meh from me. I'll probably finish it just to see what happens at the end but it is one of the worst offenders I've ever seen in a game like this when it comes to not respecting the player's time.

Feels like almost no effort was put into this, like it's some kind of tutorial project. You can't see how much money you have unless you view the shop, unique messages are small and show up for short durations, and you can get permanently stuck with no way to fix it. The subtitling for opening sequence feels fully representative of the entire experience. It'd be fine if this were free, but it's asking you to pay more for less.

not to far yet but definitely very fun gameplay loop, like another reviewer said it is quite literally exactly what it says it is.

It's exactly what it says on the tin. You, your bucket, the ocean, a strangely loquacious horse with facts about ocean pollution. Pretty satisfying so far. Couple bugs (I've managed to get myself stuck somewhere and will probably have to restart), but for the price point can't really complain, good lil' incremental type.

After an argument with your wife, you tell her you would rather empty the ocean with a bucket than admit you are wrong. Somehow, you get your wish. You wake up on a small island with a bucket in your hand, a toilet in the middle of the island, and a vast ocean stretching out in front of you. There is not much explanation needed about what you are supposed to do. You run to the ocean, scoop water into your bucket, and flush it down the toilet. With each scoop, the sea level drops by a few centimeters and uncovers pieces of junk. Once collected, the junk can be thrown into the trash to earn money, which you then use to buy upgrades. The main upgrades are a better bucket that holds more water and better shoes that increase your speed. As the sea level drops, the distance between the ocean and the toilet grows with every scoop, so speed becomes very important. Other upgrades include increased coin value, a speed boost, and auto dump. Auto dump removes the need to press a button to pour water into the toilet and slightly shortens the required range, meaning the water is dumped automatically when you get close enough. Sadly, the main objects and junk appear only directly in front of you instead of around the whole island. This limits your access to money because you earn nothing for dumping water itself. The only exception is milestones, which reward you with a few coins after dumping large amounts of water, but even then progress can feel a bit slow. Overall, it fits the genre well and is decent for about an hour, but it does not offer many interesting developments later on, when you are forced to make longer trips just to dump water without much additional payoff.

It is too expensive for what this game offers. But the title is accurate—you run around with a bucket trying to empty the ocean. So if you buy it, that’s what you get.

This is a great time killer, although if you're anything like me and like to complete a game 100% then you may look elsewhere. I was right on the cusp of 100,000 liters of water and they halted my progress at 92,000. That completely killed the game for me personally just because I like to complete things. If you don't mind progress being halted then I'm certain this would be the game for you!