AquaNox

For this archaeological dig into past gaming, enter the world of Aqua- not quite Waterworld, but the surface is absolutely off limits, and post nuclear-apocalypse, everyone's imprisoned beneath in an endless watery night- Aquanox. Let me outsource someone better versed in describing this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlYK84fCVoY As for me, the game felt like Crimson Skies underwater. But you're not flying, you're floating in six-degrees of freedom peering into murky depths for submersibles and submarine ships looking to give you a bath. I say come for the submarine combat, stay for the absolutely unhinged characterization of all the characters, main, side, and tertiary, under the TALK button- everyone's basically feeling the pressure, like they're imprisoned, and everyone's coping in any number of unhinged ways- it's absolutely mental (I love it!) If you get confused, remember it was made in Germany circa 2001, so you can look at it, as I did, as an exhibit in various social and political discourses of the time. Also, some things get weird in translation... A note for anyone needing to use console controllers- your triggers don't register as Joystick Buttons,…

Day 1 of Unplayed Backlog I couldn't have started this off with more a bang if I tried. The story cutscene just starts off with some SeaPunk aesthetic and an overloaded story dump with weird sound effects going crazy in the background during the narration. So my best guess as to what is going on is the Flupians attack because they like murder, they get fended off. Meanwhile, the group called the Democrats destroy what is left of government in hopadopolis. While political unrest runs rampant a deep sea-ted racism for the Florbians of Palopis reaches a tipping point. You play as Phineas who doesn't care about any of exposition explained at all and just wants credits because he's a broke boy trying to upgrade his Zoocaboose. Now have fun figuring out how much of that is accurate and how much is made up watching the steam trailer, results may shock you. As for the gameplay , you'd think being underwater it would be eerily quiet but you're completely wrong. It's filled with sound of bombastic EDM music and the sounds of explosions and literally everything is an explosion: Metal Scraps? Explosion Shooting Bubbles? Explosion Your Long Lost Uncle? Explosion Filing your tax before Ap…

they say its wetter its better, under the sea

good

After a few hours on steam the memories are flooding back. I still love the underwater combat, gunships just as amazing as I remember positioning, boosts and timing are essential. Mission types arent anything to write home about just escort, sabotage and ambush but UNDERWATER lol. There was a bit of a learning curve with getting used to the controls again but not crazy. I may be looking through rose colored glasses but the graphics seemed to hold up pretty well especially the lighting and water effects. I was able to play for a few hours and then it crashed but Im sure ill be able to get it working again for more underwater fun...

Old but gold one. Nice story and fantastic music.