Dave the Diver’s Jungle DLC Is Out, but Does Its 76% Rating Hold Up?

Dave the Diver launched its latest major DLC, Jungle, on Steam yesterday. As of publication, it has 247 user reviews and a 76% positive rating, putting it at “Mostly Positive.” More important than the extra content is how heavily it reworks the way the game plays: village sections use top-down exploration, deeper jungle ruins switch to turn-based RPG battles, and early Steam feedback says the DLC is packed with content, though the current build is being dragged down by localization issues and bugs.

This goes well beyond adding another map. In the village, the game shifts to top-down exploration, letting Dave gather fruit and wild vegetables on land, chop trees, and mine ore. That makes the area feel less like a resource stop and more like a separate mode of play. For players who like sweeping maps clean and checking every corner, that overland exploration may be more appealing than simply getting a few more fish or weapons.

It also layers in a new affinity system. You build trust with villagers by giving gifts and completing quests, then unlock more customers for Bancho’s new barbecue restaurant in the village. The result is a new map paired with a light relationship-management loop. Time progression also switches to a real-time structure split between day and evening. That gives exploration a more continuous pace, focused on working through a compact, dense area.

The biggest shift comes in the jungle ruins. Once you push deeper in, the game switches to turn-based RPG combat, with Dave, Cobra, and others fighting wild animals and monsters. From there, progression shifts to leveling up, learning skills, and managing equipment. Dave’s new weapon, the Jungle Gun, can freely switch between rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, and net gun forms, and each form can be upgraded. That setup puts more weight on preparation: before heading out, you need to think about what you want to catch, what you expect to fight, and how you want to handle both.

Steam reviews so far reflect that split. Positive reviews repeatedly praise the sheer amount of content, with some players saying the DLC may even have more minigames than the base game. For players who enjoy digging through every system, that density is clearly the appeal. Negative reviews are much more focused: the current version has Chinese localization problems and bugs. That is a frustrating problem to have, because the issue is not a lack of things to do, but the friction that sets in once you want to go deeper.

If what you want most from a Dave the Diver DLC is a new area worth thoroughly exploring, Jungle is already giving a clear answer. This is not just an extra area; it combines overland exploration, light relationship management, and turn-based RPG combat in one DLC. If you can tolerate launch-period localization issues and bugs, the value right now is in how much it packs in. If smooth progression matters more, waiting for later fixes makes sense. For players who mainly care about exploration, the real question is whether these new systems will be polished into something that feels natural, because more systems alone are not enough; they also need to feel smooth in practice.