Dave the Diver: In the Jungle released June 18. It’s worth being precise about what this is before getting into the reviews: this is a paid DLC expansion for the 2023 game Dave the Diver, priced at $9.99, not a new standalone release. Reviews have settled enough now to give a fair read on how it landed.
The scores
On Metacritic, In the Jungle sits at 86 on PC, based on 15 critic reviews, with 14 positive and 1 mixed. OpenCritic has it higher, at 92, with a “Mighty” rating and 100 percent of the 27 critics counted recommending it. The gap between the two aggregators is worth noting rather than picking whichever number sounds better: OpenCritic’s methodology tends to run slightly higher than Metacritic’s on games with broadly positive but not universally rapturous reception, and that’s roughly the pattern here. For comparison, the base game holds a 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic on PC, so by Metacritic’s numbers the DLC scores a bit below the original; by OpenCritic’s, slightly above.
What reviewers liked
The most consistent praise is for how much new territory the expansion covers without losing what made the base game work. Reviewers frequently used variations of “could be sold as its own game” to describe the amount of content on offer, given a new freshwater jungle setting, a new village hub with a top-down perspective, new minigames spanning rhythm sections and JRPG-style turn-based combat, and a new multi-weapon diving tool called the Jungle Gun that lets players switch tools without surfacing.
Screen Hype’s review specifically praised how naturally the new area fits into the existing world, writing that the village “feels like it has always been part of Dave’s world,” and noted that new mechanics are introduced gradually enough that the expansion doesn’t overwhelm despite its size. PC Gamer’s review used similar language, calling it “packed to the gills” while still finding it “just as charming and surprising as the base game.” OpenCritic’s own editorial summary called it “one of the better post-game DLC expansions, by just about every metric.”
Where reviewers were more measured
The criticism that shows up most is about repetition rather than execution. Game8’s review, while positive overall at 88, noted the new village content “feels way too much of the same thing, just rehashed and with a different skin” in places, even while crediting the DLC for deepening relationships with side characters. The same review flagged an interface issue: some collectible items blend into the jungle background, making it harder to tell what can be picked up.
User reviews on Metacritic are more mixed than the critic consensus, sitting at 8.4 with 79 percent positive, 14 percent mixed, and 7 percent negative. One user review put it plainly: “Dave the diver + Animal crossing + [Stardew] valley = In the jungle. The pixel art is very great but the gameplay is déjà vu.” That’s a minority view among the reviews, but it’s a specific and legible one: some players wanted a bigger departure from the established formula than they got.
The commercial picture
Inven Global reported that Dave the Diver returned to the top of Steam’s global and Korean sales charts on release, with a concurrent player peak of 47,222, well above what a three-year-old game would typically draw without new content. That’s a reasonable proxy for how much of the existing player base came back for this specific expansion, separate from the review scores themselves.
The verdict, in aggregate
Across the reviews collected, the consensus is that In the Jungle is a substantial, well-made expansion that extends what already worked in the base game rather than reinventing it. That’s being read as a strength by most critics and as a limitation by a smaller number of players who wanted more risk-taking. At $9.99, reviewers consistently frame it as good value regardless of which side of that split you land on. For anyone who already liked Dave the Diver, there’s no real disagreement in the reviews about whether it’s worth buying.