Bluewater

Bluewater is a free online 3D fishing game you play in the browser, with no download and no account. You start in a small skiff in a sunny harbour with a lighthouse behind you, and the sea ahead is one continuous place: sail out past the reef and the water under you keeps getting deeper, stranger and darker. The goal is a Record Book with eleven pages, one for every species in these waters. Fill it and you are chasing heavier trophies.

The whole game runs on one button. Tap to cast, and the camera follows the lure down through the surface. A still lure catches nothing, so tap to make it dart. When a fish takes it, tap to set the hook. Then the fight begins: hold to reel, drag left or right to pull against the way the fish is swimming, and let go when the ring turns red. Bring a tired fish up beside the hull, tap to take it aboard, and one more click keeps it.

That is where the six kinds of fight come in. A runner like a bonito tears off in long bursts, and if you are still reeling when it goes the line parts - you have to let it run. A grouper does the opposite: it drives straight for the bottom, so playing it safe is exactly how you lose it. A barracuda shakes its head and has to be kept in a narrow middle band, because going slack throws the hook just as surely as heaving on it does. A sailfish telegraphs before it comes out of the water and you have to drop the tension for the jump. A halibut is dead weight that has to be pumped up from the bottom. A thresher spikes the line at random and you have to leave yourself room. Same gesture, six different answers.

The five waters are five different places, not one sea getting darker. Home Bay has the harbour and the pier above, and kelp and coral just under the hull. The Outer Reef is low islands and breakers, with grouper, tarpon and amberjack holding along the reef. Wreck Shoal has rusting hulks above and below the water, and the wrecks cut line. Blue Rise is open swell with no land in sight, where sailfish run and squalls come in fast. The Trench is dark water and a lone rock, with swordfish and oarfish far below - bring the Lamp lure.

Sailing is the same gesture as the fight: hold to go, drag to steer, and tap when you reach a spot. Rings, boils and gulls on the water show you where the fish are, so a trip is a short run towards something you can see. Daylight is what you spend. The clock runs faster while you are under way, so fishing close or sailing far is a real choice, and when the light goes the trip is over. The livewell only holds a few fish, so keeping a good one can mean dumping your smallest.

Back in port you sell the catch and buy gear, and every upgrade costs you something. Heavier line survives a hard run and also makes fish shy away from it. A stiffer rod tires a fish faster and sends every head shake straight to the hook. A smoother drag bleeds off the spikes but claws back line more slowly. A longer spool takes you deeper, and a bigger livewell eats your daylight. The gear you buy shows on the boat, and the skiff grows into a cutter and then a trawler. Each page of the Record Book shows which lures raise that species and at what depth it lives, so the book doubles as the map of what to do next. Play free on desktop or phone - one thumb or one mouse button is enough, and P pauses.