In this survival adventure, the dynamic physics make water an advantageous accomplice as much as a fearful antagonist
Contains: Strong Violence and Peril
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Hydrophobia: Prophecy is a survival adventure where player vs. environment plays a large part of the experience with you constantly interacting with flowing water, which ultimately proves your biggest struggle to avoid and most challenging obstacle to overcome in this unique survival horror where you'll need to adapt and figure out the best way to hone the gallons of blue liquid to your advantage, and sometimes disadvantage, to proceed. This day-to-day, life-saving fluid is a threat that forces you to wade through it, just as much as probe for an alternate route around it, and the game involves you interacting with the environment and realistic water dynamics a lot. What makes the concept of water being your most difficult foe is the realistic and impressive physics of the molecules, where simple ripples reverberate around the surroundings, and giant waves rebound off vertical surfaces as nature intended it to do. The interesting concept engraves itself deep into the gameplay, and the great thing about water is that it is constantly affecting every area of the environment, so you get incredible amounts of emergent behaviour. You constantly have to learn to adapt to the environment and react quickly because doors, walls and windows are going to cave in differently each time according to the distribution of water and, retreating back to my earlier point, water is your greatest threat due to the fact it cannot be stopped, but only held back by utilising door mechanisms. Your objectives may take you back to an area you once got past, only to find that it is now submerged and you must tackle it appropriately given the different circumstances.
The unique idea isn't always favourable however, and underwater combat aswell as above water gunplay can sabotage the clever usage of flowing water effects and leave you prone to drowning in the game's noticeable issues. The core shooting mechanics are flat-out bad, with the hit detection often way off precise, and no satisfaction to gain from shooting poorly adept enemies. You'll get a pistol that has varying ammo types, but none are particularly interesting other than the standard stun ammunition that is unlimited and creates cool sequences of death-by-surroundings moments aswell as drowning fatalities. The really weak gunplay encourages you more often than not to perform environmental kills by shooting flammable barrels and electric fuse boxes, and even sometimes create mayhem with the water that engulfs almost every screenshot of the game. A room next to the corridor you're in may be filled with water while you are only knee deep, and so being aware of this unique chance is a great way to indirectly kill foes. Shoot the glass and the flow of water will sweep them off their feet giving you the chance to shoot them without getting shot yourself, or you can stun them to the extent that they fall to the floor and drown. Developed over three years, Hydrophobia's engine has a unique capability to model flowing water and other liquids with a realism unprecedented in video games, according to the developers. It is entirely dynamic, which means the effect is not repeated and thus allowing different effects each time, but while the physics are indeed impressive, the water itself doesn't look a visual stunner like it should perhaps be. There are times when it seems odd, acting in ways that don't look right, but that's more or less down to the graphics which are average anyway, as the physics represent water believably and consistently with a definite degree of fluidity about it, almost with a life of it's own.
Aside from gun combat, there is a big focus on water-based puzzle solving and environmental platforming, usually a mixture of both. You'll be dealing with water in ways which makes you analyse the area in order to move onwards, and sometimes you'll be required to find a way to get water into the area to extinguish fire, but occasionally have to mull over how to flush water out of the room to get safely to your next objective and an otherwise inaccessible area. Encrypted doors bring about a neat device you acquire early on, which is presented onscreen when you need it, producing thermal-like images to decode cipher messages that can open doors, hack into network systems purposefully and even access CCTV cameras to cycle the feeds and get multiple views on the area for combat advantages aswell as solutions to progress down a certain path. Platforming sees you traverse the environment to evade obstacles, giving you the opportunity to shimmy along pipes that line the ceiling and swing on coincidentally placed signs to reach a specific destination unreachable by foot. It's not exactly brilliant to admire, but it isn't problematic and relevant objects for interaction are usually quite noticeable so you don't get stuck. The controls are adequate, serving the platforming sections a decent measure of safety that makes you feel in control of each action as you traverse dangerously over electrified water or fierce flames, and the audio is generally at a suitable beat that reflects the peril you face in survival scenarios under pressure.
Obviously you aren't risking life and death for the sheer adrenaline rush of it, but are trapped in indefinite peril and fighting back against the bad guys that caused the flooding on board the gigantic ship you work on. The game takes place in the 21st century when the world has fallen into the chaos of the "Great Population Flood", and takes place aboard the 'Queen of the World', a city-sized luxury ocean vessel, built by a group of corporate giants known as the Five Founding Fathers; the group who, due to the Queen, have prospered while the rest of the world suffered. At the beginning of the game, the craft is bombed by a group of fanatical terrorists known as the Malthusians, named after political economist Thomas Malthus, who predicted that population growth would one day outpace agricultural production, returning society to a subsistent level of existence. The Malthusians have a plan to murder the vast majority of humans on the planet, so that the survivors wouldn't suffer from the effects of the population explosion. Their slogans, that revolve around menacing statements telling people to kill themselves and to save the world in doing so, are written on the walls and displayed on computer screens all over the ship, identifying their insanity and giving you even more reason to not give up and let them win. You play as female protagonist Kate Wilson, who is a systems engineer that ends up becoming a reluctant hero when the groups of tyrant enemies attack and take over the vessel. She is guided through objectives by Chief Scoot McGraw who heads up the systems engineering team onboard the Queen of the World. He and his team were responsible for maintaining the ship's internal network infrastructure and protecting it from external threats, but now faces the threat he was tasked with preventing ever happening. With his knowledge, he'll guide you through scenarios that have transformed from normal situations into potentially catastrophic dilemmas in an effort to thwart the villains and aid your escape.
Hydrophobia: Prophecy is a good, albeit flawed, 7 hour long, water-based survival adventure that introduces dynamic water physics that flood many environments realistically and push you into solving issues on how to move forwards under the threat of drowning. And there's certainly a sustained reason to fear the water, in which it can vitally aid or naturally obstruct your path. The combat itself is poor, but the improvisations available that utilise the recurring distribution of water itself are great and innovative even though it sometimes tensely jeopardises your goal. Cover and shooting mechanics are forgettable, as is the dumb adversaries that plunge themselves into harm ways in order to stop you, but the main theme of survival through an enjoyable combination of water-orientated puzzle portions and platforming keeps you playing to see the next interesting implementation of water. The screen fades when taking damage or lethally running out of oxygen, and the lost health, in which you recuperate after a brief delay, adds to the seclusion of entrapment within such hostile environments in which the tidal energy of water proves at times to be an advantageous ally just as easily as the tide can turn it dangerously to become your most feared enemy.
Story/Characters - 2/5
Gameplay - 3/5
Graphics - 2/5
Sound - 3/5
Controls - 3/5
Atmosphere - 3/5
Enemy AI - 1/5
Length - 2/5
Replay Value - 3/5
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 7/10
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Good Points: Impressive water physics that come into interesting effect inside and outside of combat, Large quantity of intel documents to find which flesh out the story, Set pieces can evolve differently each time depending on your actions.
Bad Points: Dated graphics, Bad gunplay with dumb enemies, Some odd-looking water movements don't seem right, Boring story.