OXCGN’s Hydrophobia Review:

Welcome To Your Watery Grave

‘Queen Of The World’ Could Become Your Coffin

by XboxOZ360:

©2010 Grant Smythe

I had been looking forward to this game from the moment I saw the Queen Of The World in Sydney Harbour with the Sydney Opera House in the background.

Yes, a rendered shot of course, but the sheer size of the Queen Of The World and the story really lit a fire in me more than most other games on offer at the time, and still. While I do like a good shooter, I’m also a great fan of the early Remedy Games Max Payne series.

They offered quite an interesting puzzle-set within the games that basically wasn’t one of the ‘follow-the-arrows’ style of games. Hydrophobia is very similar to those game styles. So you won’t find big arrows or a compass to guide you around by the nose to the next objective, and depending on what you do, the objective may need to be dealt with in a different fashion than first thought.

• Underwater Combat – heaps fun!

XBLA’s Hydrophobia offers the gamer a new world to explore, set in a utopia of modern technology that is aimed at saving mankind’s ever-increasing population.

However, the malevolent forces of the Neo-Malthusians have other plans in store, and from the get go, you will find find yourself trying to survive the attack on the vessel, with the help of your other co-worker, another engineer about the vessel, Scoot.

All the dialogue between Kate and Scoot is done in a very ‘Pommie’ style accent, not sure what area in particular, which some will find amusing, and others annoying.

Personally I think it’s great, and a break from the always-US-style accents that dominate games.

To all intent and purposes, it seems the Malthusians have set about sinking the Queen Of The world – or have they? You will find out more as you go through the game, but not everything is explained in the first iteration.

• Some fun in the Challenge Room

Hydrophobia was initially to be a disc-based retail product, but I feel that somewhere along the way, the developers noticed a change in the market towards new initiative IP’s. Being, that many gamers seemed to be steered away from them, and sales often did not support the huge cost of a retail delivered game.

So along comes ‘Xbox Lives’ Games Direct, larger HDD‘s on the X360 S / PS3 and the ability to deliver a game in a much smaller bundle, as Hydrophobia weighs in at just a meager 1.3 gig, and at a fraction of the cost to both consumer and developer  and publisher. A win-win for all concerned.

Sad thing is, that with such titles, they do not get the ‘public’ exposure they could do with in order to make the market aware of the game. So it’s a double edge sword. One only hopes that Hydrophobia does spark some interest in fellow gamers like it has in me.

However, Dark Energy Digital have pulled it off very well indeed and you will find that Hydrophobia is excellently presented, especially considering its size as mentioned before, and yet it still delivers one of the new generation mechanics as yet unseen in any game, their proprietary owned HydoEngine.

With the HydroEngine, nothing is scripted with regards to the water-mechanics (which also keeps the size of the game down), so you’ll notice when water hits you, your progress will falter, you will be moved by the force of the water’s flow, and obstacles that you come in contact with, or the depth of the water you’re trying to manoeuvre in.

I was amazed at just how detailed the game is with regards to the water movement, look and actual ‘feel’. I often found myself moving forward in my seat on the lounge in a vain attempt to move Kate further along in the water, or have her swimming fast to the next air pocket.

Now when a game gets you that involved and immersed, you know that the developers have done their job properly. Sure, it might not be on par with games with character models the likes of Uncharted 1-2, Gears of War 1-2-3, or Red Dear Redemption etc, but it serves the purpose well.

It is after all, a DLC game, not a full retail game of 6-9 gigs in size.

Puzzle solving will not please some gamers however, especially those used to having the directions laid out for them. It is, as I mentioned, much like the days of Max Payne, where there was only your wits, common sense not to mention some good-old brain matter to work something out by checking the lay-of-the-land and the mechanics of how things work.

Do I shoot that window out that is holding back a huge wall of water with debre in it in order to take out those bad guys (great combo rewards if I do), and if I do, what will the rush and influx of water cause me when it does flood the area.

Solving some puzzles does require some pondering about looking for clues and encrypted keys that are not real keys per-see, but hidden messages scribbled on walls that can only be seen with the MAVI Sight Unit.

A sort of x-ray detail device that allows you access to various remote doors, CTV systems and other items that you can use within the game in other areas as well as the ability to see the cryptic messages left by the faction that is out to do harm to the Queen Of The Ocean, and you and all onboard.

That’s not to say I don’t have issues with the game, as there are several areas that will have gamers left wondering what happened, and worse still, where the hell am I. The Map is one area of contention I have, as it is extremely difficult to work out, and find avenues of escape or locate your next objective ‘clearly’.

Often when trying to find ways out of a situation, you seemingly stand around for ages as the clock ticks down in order to achieve a task, but not realise that you needed to use the MAVI.

On off the bat thing I noticed though was the fact I did find I had to lighten ‘brightness’ and increase the ‘contrast’ on my TV, as it was initially quite dark, even with Kate’s chest-torch lit. The areas are somewhat repetitive in design, but this is a 1.3gig game, not an open world adventure remember.

Working your way through the game you build up points for various kills or actions, string a few together and you’ll gain some combo, and if you’re on a roll, you can increase those points. It won’t be until you’re about 2/3rds the way through the game before you get some really heavy weaponry, but the real art is in manipulating the water to do your bidding.

It’s a great deal of fun creating huge waves and peaks and smashing the bad guys about the room,  increasing your points as you do so. Loads of exploding barrels, gas mains to ignite, electric boards to short-circuit, wires to cut and drop into the water, with obvious dire consequences of course. So overall, a great deal of fun in the long term.

• Hydrophobia Release Trailer.

You’ll get your fill of some Tomb Raider style wall scaling and swinging to other platforms in order to achieve a task, as well as working out where and how one must go about defeating the Malthusians

While the ending will be somewhat ‘different’ and abrupt, and have you wondering where and what happened, why were you fighting these guys, one has to remember, this is a series of DLC games, so the plot must carry forward into the next section, just like any good book or even TV series for that matter. So do not expect a conclusive ending, nor the narrative to give you any clear answers.

DO some research into the Neo-Malthusians and Malthusianism to get a better perspective of what is actually taking place. The plot thickens as it is based around some well written older real-world text, which opens up the possibilities of further exploration. Much like how Assassin’s Creed series is based around the Templars.

• 20 ways to kill – and have fun at the same time!

All that will come in time. But sadly, some reviewers will see this as a negative thing, and judge the game accordingly. Personally, and really, that’s all you can do with reviewing a game, is that I’ve found it extremely engaging, entertaining and interesting, of course knowing it is a XBLA game after all.

I’m not one to explain a game fully, so I’ll leave that for you to find out just how it plays out, and to simply enjoy yourself in the game. Not judging it against others, and how I enjoy it, I’d recommend it to anyone who does enjoy a good puzzler and who doesn’t have a fear of watery places, – hydrophobia.

“7.5/10

©2010 Grant Smythe

• While you’re here, check out our exclusive interview with Rob Hewson from Dark Energy, developers of Hydrophobia. See if you can break their challenge at the end of the interview.

xxxxxx

Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Console gaming, XBLA News-Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games, Xbox 360 News, XboxLive Marketplace Tagged: | Action, Arcade game, Dark Energy Digital, Dark Energy Hydrophobia, games, History, House (TV series), HydroEngine, hydrophobia, hydrophobia review, Hydrophobia reviews, Max Payne, Microsoft, Philanthropy, Queen of the World, Sydney Opera House, United States, Video game, Water, Watery Grave, Xbox Live Arcade