AquaNox Review

If you ask gamers whether they'd generally prefer a game with beautiful graphics but shallow gameplay or one with incredibly involving gameplay but less-attractive graphics, almost all of them will immediately declare that they'd rather play the one with better gameplay. But the allure of incredible graphics is often underestimated, and many of those declarations are untrue in practice. Just as many psychology tests have demonstrated that people are more likely to undeservedly ascribe positive attributes (honesty, intelligence) to good-looking people, gamers are more likely to overlook a good-looking game's thin gameplay and design flaws. But while outstanding graphics can make a good game seem great, occasionally a game features gameplay so weak that even amazing graphics can't camouflage its flaws. Enter AquaNox, a game with far more flash than substance.

AquaNox definitely looks impressive...

AquaNox is a belated sequel to 1997's Archimedean Dynasty, a subsim game that is similar in style to space sims like Privateer. Superficially, AquaNox features a similar design, as you'll return to the underwater world of Aqua featured in Archimedean Dynasty as a mercenary who gains credits by completing combat missions. With the money you earn from your successes, you'll be able to buy better ships and equip them with more formidable weaponry. But while Archimedean Dynasty was a complex, mission-based simulation with trading and privateering, AquaNox is an arcade-style action game that abandons or greatly simplifies those elements. Combat is fast paced and more similar in style to Quake's, or even a rail shooter's, than it is to the more tactical battles in other underwater sims.

It's disappointing that the developers opted to make gameplay so simplistic when the setting offers so many interesting possibilities. Unlike the barren environments offered by space sims, AquaNox's battles occur around subterranean buildings, gigantic peaks, and other obstructions. Yet in spite of the rich tactical promise offered by the setting, combat is so simplistic that there's little need to dodge behind obstacles or perform complex maneuvers. Instead, combats can be quickly won by just lining up opponents and blasting away while strafing in any direction. Circle strafing, which seems incredibly misplaced in a game featuring underwater vehicles (which you wouldn't expect to be able to move laterally quickly), will likely be your primary combat tactic.

...even though some of its effects don't seem appropriate underwater.

There's certainly nothing inherently wrong with opting to offer arcadelike action instead of a more detailed simulation of underwater combat, but AquaNox's cumbersome controls seem poorly suited to handle the quick maneuvering necessary to keep the action interesting. While you can elect to use a joystick, the default manner for controlling your craft is an FPS-style mouse/keyboard setup. Switching to a joystick setup is a real chore, since instead of just designating "joystick" as your control device, you have to manually reprogram the controls by selecting which joystick axis or button you want to use for each function. The selections aren't always intuitive--you have to change your "direction of view" settings, instead of your "direction of movement" settings, if you want your ship to move in the direction you point--and the program refuses to accept the remapping of the "left/right" direction of view to the x-axis of a joystick, even though most games that use joysticks are set up in that manner by default. If you're uncomfortable with the way the game controls, you'll have to guess which of several "tolerance" or "sensitivity" settings you have to adjust, none of which is explained in the game's manual. It sounds confusing because it is, and if you think you've made things worse, there's no way to instantly backtrack to the game's default settings. In spite of the fact that the game is designed to be played with either a mouse or a joystick, you'll have to tediously navigate all of the game's menus with the keyboard. Setting up the controls is an incredibly awkward process.