AquaNox 2: Revelation Review

Living under water can be a tremendous strain on a man's soul - all those billions of gallons of water piled up on you - the pressure can be overwhelming! Aye... People living under water should, by all accounts, be tougher than us puny land lubbers. Once that time comes, man will change its habitat and find shelter in the wild depths of the sea - where no scurvy sea dog roams, but where mighty captains and bold buccaneers pillage and plunder the depths of Davy Jones' Locker! The bottom of the ocean is no place for land-loving sissies like you lot! Arr, arr! (Okay, who took 2Lions' Paxil? VADAR, Give it BACK! - Six)

Instead of taking you way up into the unexplored galaxies of the outer space, the game of Aquanox takes players down into the dark and chilling depths of the Earth's oceans. In essence, you can think of this game as a space-sim with slightly more aquatic scenery.

Ouch! Never hire a cross-eyed copilot.

I think I've been here before... Hm, maybe it's just seaweed-talk!

Aquanox 2: Revelation is not a full-blown sequel, but it's not an add-on either. It's a hybrid of the two. The engine has been tweaked somewhat, along with the AI, but the core technology remains largely unchanged. Instead of exploring the ocean depths as Emerald "Dead Eye" Flint players are cast in the role of one "young, dumb and full of, err, sun" laddie buck by the name of William Drake.

While Emerald "Dead Eye" Flint fights against rebels, Crawlers and huge sea monsters, a young man sets out for his own adventure.

At the same time as the AquaNox events are taking place we're following William Drake, the young heir of a rundown merchants' dynasty, through his numerous experiences and adventures in Aqua, the world without skies.

Drake only has little experience with Aqua's rough reality. He faithfully transports goods from Galapagos to the northern aquatoria of the Tornado Zone. His life is monotonous, but in his imagination young Drake becomes a genuine mercenary. He wants to be like them: all these brave, daring and free mercenaries, Ronin and freebooters.

The first thing that becomes apparent in regard's to the game's story is how poorly it has been written. Well, the plot itself is decent, it's just that some of the dialogue sounds way too much like corny pirate talk, and it's at times laughable. Let me give you a glaring example of this: "... for the sake of my mother's rotten entrails!" Yes, characters do actually mutter out these words in the game. It's hard to get immersed in a story when a generally passable plot is mutilated by poor attempts at wittiness from the writers (as opposed to poor attempts at wittiness from reviewers. - Six). For a game that largely plays like the early versions of the Wing Commander series; conceptually at least; it's very important to have a decent story in place that unwraps at a nice pace, that's actually conveyed in a plausible and engaging manner. In Aquanox 2: Revelation, the plot unfolds through some static screens and lots of dialogue, just like in early RPG or Wing Commander games. The only difference is that all of the dialogue has been voiced ... by some rather unprofessional sounding actors. I'm probably being a bit too harsh on the voice actors by calling them amateurs, but I get this distinct feeling that they could've done a MUCH better job than they did. The way they convey the emotions and moods of the characters is very unconvincing, especially when a dramatic scene is taking place.

Aquanox 2 is supposed to have a branching plot, but this is nothing more than a mere cover up for what is again an essentially linear experience. The side missions will get you more credits, but they in no way influence the plot directly. When you associate this with the rather poor representation of the story, it quickly becomes painfully apparent that the gameplay outside the missions themselves is rather forgettable. Don't get me wrong, the way the story begins, it shows much promise. The actual plot is not that bad; it takes time to develop, and if you give it a proper chance, you might eventually like it. It's just that it was visualized and incorporated into the gameplay leaves much to be desired. It's almost as if Massive was totally focused on the missions; so much so that they completely disregarded some other aspects of the game.

This time around I would say that it's not the action itself that's lacking, but the presentation of the story that's supposed to bring it all together. It's safe to say, however, that Aquanox 2 offers much more exciting missions than in the original. The AI has been vastly improved. Enemy subs will sometimes use the terrain to hide ... they will actually make some sort of decisions as to who they want to attack first. Similarly, the team AI has also been improved. Your teammates will actually be of some use to you, especially if you let them charge into battle first.

Come visit the Underwater Stonehenge.

Dang, it's dark out here. Let me light your path!

Some of the missions can be quite challenging, but in a good way. Mission goals will constantly keep shifting which will keep you on your toes at all times. Controlling your submarine has never been easier. Players are offered a chance to play in a more arcadish "WASD" FPS fashion or switch to simulation-like controls. Generally speaking the game is an arcade shooter with an aqua-sim. premise, so don't expect to fiddle much with the controls, or your ship's systems. The fighting and floating is made pretty simple; too simple even. One thing that I dearly missed in this game was the option to switch shield power between shields. Usually, your front shield will get hammered the most, while your rear and side shields remain largely intact. That's because many people will be too lazy to maneuver much during combat. The close-quarters combat often comes down to facing the enemy sub and battling it out until one of you bursts into flames (really? Flames? Underwater? - Six). That being said, I really felt like switching some shield power from my rear shield to my front shield whenever I got seriously pounded with some heavy-duty firepower, but I simply couldn't find an option to do that in the game.

On the other hand, there's always the alternative of employing some sneakier tactics - like waiting in the shadows somewhere on the bottom of the seabed and ambushing your opponents with a sniper attack. Aquanox 2 gives you that opportunity, and sometimes, your enemies might use that same tactic on you.

The armaments in the game range from beam weapons, to more nuts and bolts stuff like the Aquanox equivalent of the chain gun. You can use EMP weapons to disable other ships and salvage equipment, as well as torpedo them or snipe them from a far. The Vengeance sniper weapon can be quite devastating if your aim is good enough to hit a moving target's cockpit from several hundred feet away. Overall, the arsenal offers a decent variety in terms of combat styles and it's nicely balanced. The physics engine is incorporated quite well, making aiming and hitting moving targets that much harder. One has to consider that one's fighting under water and that water friction is much higher than air friction.

The player starts out with a puny little sub named "Salty Dog." The disadvantage of this vehicle is its vulnerability: Only a weak armor separates the pilot from certain death. Later on, we're treated to mightier subs like the "Mighty Maggie." One of her strong points is her large capacity which enables her to carry lots of torpedoes and buzzers. Since she has only a weak EMP-shield it's not too hard to paralyze her, but she's very persistent when attacked by kinetic weapons. Naturally, the further you progress in the game, the more goodies you get; like the robot repair unit, more devastating torpedoes and so on.

There's nothing particularly spectacular about the action in Aquanox 2. For all intents and purposes, however, it's a helluva lot better than what we have seen in the original Aquanox. It's more challenging, and better designed. It's obvious that the team at Massive listened to their fans and worked their butts off to make the core of the gameplay more enjoyable.

As far as the graphics are concerned, I already mentioned that the technology is the same, which means you won't get to see too many improvements over the original. Maybe some richer particle effects and more detailed sea surfaces, but that's about it. The scenery looks generally the same. In fact, I would dare call it very monotonous at times. In Massive's defense, this IS an under water simulation after all. It's not like they can make the maps radically different, but a little more creativity on their part could've done a lot for the game's ambient. Some better looking cities, ship ruins... Those of you who haven't played Aquanox before will certainly enjoy the gorgeous play of shadows and light, and the rich flora of the seabed. Veteran players will certainly crave for visual innovation and a little more diversity. On the plus side, it's important to point out that the relatively unchanged graphics run very smoothly at max detail on a decently powerful rig.

I've already talked about the amateurish voice acting, so let's not waste any more words on that. In contrast to the poor voice acting, the musical soundtrack is quite moving; it does a good job of setting the pace and building up the atmosphere at critical moments during missions.

In summary, Aquanox 2 is certainly a better game than it predecessor. This time around, the core gameplay is actually interesting and challenging (in a good way), which wasn't the case with the original. But for a game that looks like it's striving to be Wing Commander under the sea, the designers still have a lot to learn about creating a game with decent cinematic appeal or good story presentation. I don't mind linear single-player gameplay, just as long as the events in between missions are not presented in such a basic and dated form.