Last updated on December 17th, 2025 at 02:53 am
FathomVerse – Casual Game Review
FathomVerse is a Casual/Adventure/Education game from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, first launched in 29th April 2024.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 87+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes FathomVerse Stand Out
Are you ready to embark on a journey of exploration and discovery? FathomVerse is an immersive mobile game that offers a visually stunning experience of the ocean world and contributes to cutting-edge science. By playing FathomVerse, you can help train the AI researchers use to find and identify animals in real ocean imagery.
Features include:
- Play minigames to view with imagery collected by researchers and discover ocean animals.
- Hone your skills and learn how to identify more than 50 groups of ocean animals.
- Save and share your favorite images, and curate a personal gallery.
- Participate in quests and earn badges for your gameplay contributions.
- Unlock awards to expand your knowledge of ocean animals and how gameplay is used for improving AI.
- Cycle through the Ocean Radio channels to shift the FathomVerse soundscape as you play.
- Be among the first to view ocean imagery and discover new species.
Download FathomVerse now and become a part of the community dedicated to discovering all ocean life.
This Casual game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, FathomVerse is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 15th April 2025
Recent improvements include:
Several fixes and improvements. Dive in!
Download & Availability
FathomVerse is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love this game sm we played it a while ago on our other phone and we decided to redownload it again.
App is a little buggy, its not letting us identify all the creatures we collected (after we finish there are so many that didnt come up in the selection) and sometimes Im not able to collect things on the dive.
This is an awesome idea sort of similar citizen scientist activity as iNaturalist but ocean focused. The photo resolution is pretty bad on most photos so far (just started using it a few hours ago). Looks like thumbnails that have been blown up causing bad pixelation instead of high quality photos. Im using an 11 iPad for reference. Also there is a large info box over the top portion of the image that you cant get rid of. Oddly we dont see that box on the sample images here. If those issues could get resolved this would be pretty cool app.
If you like the ocean you will like this.
So the new update just came out and it's really awesome!! Now you can earn badges, play a new game mode called "Bound," and the library of organisms has been expanded to include more organisms (like Hermit Crabs!!) in a more organized fashion. If you like animals, the ocean, science, sorting, and/or collecting, or anything related, we highly recommend downloading this fun marine citizen science game!! :))).
This game is amazing and we love unlocking the little movies about different deep sea critters they are so beautiful and funny.
We love how this game has evolved over time and especially how it makes deep sea images accessible that are otherwise only seen by scientist. Its amazing to be able to contribute to ocean science in this way, especially if otherwise Id be mindlessly scrolling social media.
Really cool game. Its awesome that it helps scientists collect information about sea life. Pretty relaxing to play as well, we like to zone out while Im on expeditions and listen to music.
Ts game is sick. Please make it so that in the flag/answer review screen, you can zoom in on the images. We would also maybe like for a super-favorite button for your favorites, so you can choose amongst your favorite images a select few that always appear at the top of your favorites. Very chill nd tuff game conceptually.
We love this game! The one thing im confused about is why you cant access the little lesson telling you about each animal as you are sorting and naming them in the training section. It feels like if we could refresh what each animal looks like before finalizing our log we would make fewer mistakes.
We love this game idea so much! Our only issue is that the game mechanics are kind of strange. We tried skipping the training but if you skipped the training for any animal, you could not properly identify it which is really frustrating because we already know how to ID most of these animals (3rd year bio student lol) so if you could just be able to change the settings to accept ones own IDs we would rate this 5 stars :).
We really love this app! It's really fun to look at all the images of sea creatures and expand upon our ability to identify all of them thanks to the educational training the app gives you. You get to help science and have fun. And some of the images are really cute and funny.
FathomVerse is awesome, however, we do have one change to suggest. Customization: It would be nice if you could change your avatar. Maybe you could change it to a picture you had favorited? Again, awesome game.
We love this app! Yes, there are a few UI steps that can be frustrating at first (although the most recent update has improved much of the onboarding experience for us), but the dev team is super responsive on Discord if you have any questions. The graphics are rich, the experience is immersive, and its a really great concept. Highly recommend.
A beginning attempt but certainly not playable by a long shot but we wish you all the best if you are still planning to make an app that works. The California Academy of Science makes an outstanding app called Seek for plant and insect ID's which also (we believe)has a partnership with another app called iNaturalist. Neither one of these is a game, but we use Seek daily.
A simple, unhurried activity that turns your game time into something useful. The interface is simple but well-designed. We love seeing photos from both recreational and research dives.
V fun, but there are a few bugs. Just minor stuff, music will sometimes trigger and layer over the usual background track, and its very loud. Also, some text ran off screen in the intro.
Super relaxing and we love discovering little ocean animals.
Its very nice and relaxing and also a fun way to learn all your sea-crit basics! If youre like us and you forget things quickly its easy to check back at the basic information for the animal groups. It also feels nice to be able to contribute to science some even as someone fairly uneducated and inept in marine biology. We may not be able to totally ID something or catch close mistakes but you can still help it along quite a bit, and eliminate pictures from an ID too if you feel solidly confident about it. Definitely a game Ill keep coming back to.
Engaging, mesmerizing, and soothing. Great way to relax while helping the scientific community.
Its such a peaceful and pretty game, but you also get to learn more about undersea life and help with investigating the ocean! The creators are also very responsive and helpful.
FathomVerse is really relaxing and fun! We love drifting along the ocean currents, listening to the (customizable) deep ocean sounds, and collecting cool pictures of deep sea creatures. Plus, we love knowing that just by playing, we are contributing to ocean research by training the AI to recognize these animals! FathomVerse absolutely deserves its five stars.
We love playing this game. Seeing photos of real deep sea animals, getting pointers on recognizing animal groups, and knowing that in expedition mode we are actually being a citizen scientist while having fun! Great combo! Highly recommend for anyone who loves the ocean.
Love this chill game where we can help scientists.
Cool concept and a great way to contribute to science.
We're enchanted by this citizen science game that lets players explore deep-sea life! The educational content is extensive and full of stunning images, providing a deep dive into benthic marine biology that's both informative and fascinating. It's incredible to think that as a player, you might be one of the first humans ever to lay eyes on some of these species, all captured beautifully by autonomous underwater vehicles. The game design is simple yet elegant, making it easy for anyone to get involved and start contributing. The calm, soothing atmosphere is a big plus, making each session feel like a peaceful escape to the ocean depths. It's not just a game; it's a rare opportunity to contribute to real scientific research in a meaningful way. Highly recommend for anyone curious about the ocean or looking to contribute to scientific discovery.
We were super excited to play but found the experience unintuitive and frustrating. After playing a couple rounds we got stuck in a feedback loop and was unable to pick a new species to train on. It didnt save our previous game either. Im only leaving this feedback because we know itll help you improve whats sure to be an awesome game and valuable science tool eventually.
Interesting idea but incredibly boring and buggy.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.2
- Size: 277.16 MB
- iOS: 15.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Last updated: 15th April 2025 | Genre: Casual, Adventure | Developer: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute