Fun gameplay, immersing story, beautiful visuals and a fantastic soundtrack makes this a game you deserve to play.
Aquaria is a two-dimensional adventure game. You play as Naija, an underwater creature who for some reason just "woke up" from her instinct-based way of life and suddenly realizes that everything is not as it should. Where's the rest of her race? What's happened to the ocean she dwells in? And why can't she remember anything? Your quest for the truth about your home waters, your race and not least yourself takes you on a journey through dangers, transformations, and a huge semi-open world.
I don't know what the first element to hit you is - the graphics or the sound. Both are fantastic for a game of this calibre. The visuals, though not technically stunning, are beautiful from an artistic standpoint. This combined with carefully made environments makes for a great visual experience. However, the music is where this game truly excels. The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful where you in different environments hear the main theme in different variations - some places as light background music, other places as a soothing, mellow melody, and yet other places as but a shadow behind a curtain of spooky ambient sounds.
Music is also important from a gameplay perspective. Naija has the power of the Verse, meaning she can sing out to make things happen. When you click and hold the mouse button over Naija, a circle with different coloured shapes appears around her. When you move the cursor over these icons, Naija sings different notes. Throughout the game, you learn different songs of normally 3-4 notes that, when sung, makes Naija transform to another form (with a few exceptions). Initially Naija only has her default form, but you soon unlock a form with which you can shoot fireballs, and many other forms follow. Every form has different abilities, and you'll need them to progress through the game.
The world you play in is HUGE, make no mistake about that. To complete the game, you have to uncover new areas, and revisit old ones when you acquire new abilities. You are free to go almost wherever you want, though a certain order of actions are needed to progress. Through the world, you will find both hostile and harmless creatures. When you kill these, they may drop ingredients. You can combine different kinds of meat, oils and vegetables to make soups, cakes, and other things to eat that may boost e.g. speed, attack, and defence. You usually don't need these badly, but towards the end of the game, a Divine Soup or two will absolutely help you out.
However, everything is not mirth and jollity. You are only able to save at certain red crystals in the world. While these usually are spread about evenly and the next save crystal is not frighteningly far away, some areas are more difficult that others, and sometimes you'll wish for a few more save crystals. The biggest problem, however, is that the game has a tendency to crash for no apparent reason. This might only be my computer and/or be fixed in a new patch, but nevertheless, it's more than annoying to see the game crash a minute away from the next save crystal.
The story is told mainly through Naija's monologues. Sometimes she just thinks aloud while you're playing, and other times you get to see a small cutscene. The story is not revolutionizing, but it keeps you immersed well enough to make you want to continue playing. Things may seem confusing at first, but this gets better soon.
Visuals, audio and gameplay are great, but I always enjoy that little extra, and the developers have certainly not been idle. Alt-Tabbing works great, and if a new area starts loading while Naija thinks aloud, she actually continues to speak while the new area is loading. Even the subtitles switch when they should! With most other games, loading a new area aborts most of what's going on. Also, the environments react in various ways to Naija's singing. For example, when singing a note, small fish may swim over to you and glow in the colour of the note you are singing. And since singing is essential in the game, it's great that the background music is played in mostly one key, that fits together with Naija's notes. This means that you can have fun singing melodies you compose yourself to the soundtrack!
The length of the game is more than acceptable - it took me almost 20 hours completing it, and I could have played much longer if the game didn't stop there. The progression of Naija's abilities is so even that the gameplay is interesting all the way through. If you buy the game through Steam, you get achievements into the bargain too. Big plus with me - I love achievements.
CONCLUSION
Aquaria was one of 2008's greatest surprises. It's always good when games don't go where all the other games have gone, and with beautiful visuals, great music and catchy gameplay, Aquaria is something you should check out. You can get it from Steam for almost nothing compared to what you get in return, and if you don't like it, you haven't lost that many McDonald's visits anyway. Put simply - Aquaria is an unusually polished gem you deserve to play.