AquaNox 2: Revelation Hands-On

The original AquaNox was an unusual first-person shooter that was released in 2001. While the basic controls and mechanics were similar to other first-person action games, you controlled an armed submarine in that game, fighting it out with a variety of guns and torpedoes in a gameplay style reminiscent of the popular Descent series. AquaNox was set in a postapocalyptic future, where humanity had been driven to colonize the oceans and split up into warring factions battling over resources and territory. The world's highly advanced submarines plied the depths of the oceans, roving underwater cities and exploring the ocean floor. AquaNox 2: Revelation offers a new adventure in this underwater world.

This time around, you assume the role of William Drake, an orphaned heir to what was once one of the world's largest shipping companies. At the game's outset, you hop in your company's last freighter, the Harvester, and set off to explore the world in search of your father, who disappeared years earlier. But before you get very far, your ship is boarded and captured by a band of mercenaries. The pirates conscript you into their group and take you along for an adventure whose destination is a mystery to you at first.

We recently had a chance to try out a beta version of AquaNox 2. Like the original, AquaNox 2 is a graphical showpiece, offering impressive-looking terrain and multistage, particle-laden explosions. The game's detailed submarine models have distinct cockpits; the larger ones have articulated turrets that turn and track targets as they fire. You'll also notice that each submarine propels itself by taking in water and then expelling it out the back in a visible jet of swirling bubbles.

AquaNox 2 offers a variety of different weapons to choose from, ranging from Gatling guns to plasma guns to torpedoes that offer differing degrees of power, speed, and tracking ability. Some of the more powerful guns draw energy from your submarine's power generator, so you'll have to keep an eye on the energy level because of how slowly power regenerates in some subs. You'll also have to think about the type of damage each weapon does--kinetic or EMP. The former does regular damage to a ship's hull, while the latter drains a submarine's power, enabling you to disable a sub while keeping it intact. This is important because disabling ships lets you salvage more weapons at the end of a given mission, which will be one of the primary ways you obtain new weapons as you proceed through the game. The distinction is also important because certain types of subs are more vulnerable to one type of damage over the other.

One of the more interesting weapons is the vendetta sniper, which has a zoom feature and behaves much like the railgun weapon from Quake III: Arena. Though it reloads slowly and doesn't do a lot of damage to enemy hulls, scoring a hit on the cockpit of a small submarine kills it instantly, ignoring the rest of the sub's armor. The vendetta sniper turns out to be an important weapon early on, because AquaNox 2's game mechanics make it difficult to outmaneuver your enemies. Fights often boil down to face-to-face slugfests with a single opponent as you strafe around, using the terrain to hide in between shots. Being able to kill a sub instantly is a huge advantage, as it lets you thin out incoming groups of enemies or even avoid close combat entirely. Thankfully, the computer-controlled teammates you'll have on most missions are very adept fighters, and you'll be able to rely on them to handle much of the dirty work on the front lines.

In between missions, you'll explore the different areas of the Harvester or whatever city you happen to be docked at using a point-and-click interface. You'll speak with a number of different people to progress through the game's plot and unlock different missions. AquaNox 2 offers an impressive amount of spoken dialogue, and each character is represented by a realistic-looking portrait, as opposed to the cartoonlike caricatures from the original game. Those who played the original AquaNox can expect to run into some familiar faces along the way.

Unlike the original game, AquaNox 2 offers a branching mission structure that gives you choices in how you want to progress through the game. Some missions are central to the plot, while others are optional; these give you a chance to pick up some extra weapons or credits, which you can use to buy more guns, torpedoes, or equipment for your submarine. Before launching into the next mission, you can choose which sub you want to use and customize its weapons loadout. However, the game also has an automatic configuration tool that can configure your ship for you.

AquaNox 2 is shaping up to be an interesting action game with an intricate plot. Fans of Descent-style gameplay, and players who enjoy games with impressive graphics, should keep an eye on AquaNox 2 as it enters the final stages of development. The game is currently scheduled for release in August.