The Digest: Hydrophobia takes the Xbox Live Arcade service beyond expectations and makes all previous releases seem lazy by comparison graphically. Unfortunately the controls and story structure bring the game down and make the game feel like a generic action game.

RELEASE DATE: September 29, 2010
PUBLISHER: Microsoft Game Studios
DEVELOPER: Dark Energy Digital
ESRB RATING: “M” for Mature
GENRE: Survival horror, Adventure

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
Climb aboard the “Queen of the World” a ship now home to a vast amount of the world’s population. Take control of Kate Wilson, a systems engineer for the ship and an unlikely hero when the boat goes under attack by a terrorist group known as the Malthusians.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Avatar Awards
• Intense Action
• Detailed Graphics
• Astonishing Water Effects

If there was one game worthy enough of starting Xbox Live’s online event Game Feast, it would have been Hydrophobia. First revealed back at E3 in 2008, the Hydrophobia trailer gave us a tiny glimpse at what possibilities could be created within this water based environment; from flooded levels to realistic water movement. Unfortunately, the so-called survival-horror game somehow then went all “Summer Blockbuster” and dampened my spirits.

Now for people wondering how this might have happened, I’ll briefly go over the storyline. You take the role of Kate Wilson, a systems engineer for a city-sized luxury ocean vessel, who is also haunted by the death of her sister. What is soon made clear is that the luxury vessel is in fact home to a vast amount of the world’s population.

I will admit that I liked the approach used here by the writers. It was a very relaxed and slow-paced start, giving you all the information you would need to know. For those who want to delve deeper into her past, items within her apartment and collectibles throughout the game also provide more information (which again works incredibly well and similar to how survival-horrors used to work).

However this is where it goes from survival-horror to Summer Blockbuster and affected parts of the game. As you venture out of your apartment and make your way towards an area which has a technical issue, the ship begins to shake and you are informed over an earpiece by your boss Scoot that the ship is being attacked by a terrorist group named the Malthusians.

While I will admit survival-horrors have changed over the years (thanks to games such as Resident Evil), the concept of using a terrorist group as the enemy confused me. There is nothing horrifying about a group of guys with guns anymore, it’s been seen so many times in games that you can soon make up the rest of the story in your head and will most likely get it right. From what I saw back in the 2008 trailer was the possibility of a haunted ship or infected passengers… Not a re-imagining of Speed 2!

Whereas Hydrophobia had a disappointing storyline direction, its in-game strip was a completely different situation. The lines where incredibly well done and it is clear that a lot of effort went on during the voice acting sessions. Despite the fact that the voice actors did an amazing job, the in-game voice acting might get mixed reactions from those playing the game.

This is most likely due to the diverse cast. Since the boat you are currently living on is home to a large portion of the world’s population, you will hear all types of different accents throughout the game. For example, the character Scoot has a very thick Scottish accent that may be too thick for certain players to understand.

Hydrophobia’s controls take a little while to get used to and I think that’s because of the game type. Survival Horrors tend to have an overhead camera control, keeping the avatar in the center of the screen and allowing you to move the camera into different areas in order to find items. At the same time however, Hydrophobia wants to be action based and encourages you to completely change the camera angle to an over-the-shoulder angle when in combat by pushing in the right joystick. Now unless you have played Splinter Cell: Conviction, you might struggle for the first chapter with the controls.

With every fault, there tends to always be a positive and that comes from the in-game graphics and mechanics. Now while I do firmly believe that graphics aren’t everything in a game; the visual presentation within Hydrophobia puts even retail games to shame. The visual effects from the water are beyond stunning and even the smallest amount of water made even the blandest looking locations beautiful. There were even times where I was intentionally shooting glass panels and barrels, just to see how the water would react.

My only complaint about the visual presentation off the game is the limited amount of effort put into the terrorist group members. They all look alike and it feels like very little effort went into them compared to the rest of the in-game world.

Besides the story itself, the game features avatar awards and another game mode known as the challenge room. Taking what you have from the story mode, the challenge room gives you an extra power which allows you to control water and various other objects; almost as if you was Mickey Mouse from Fantasia.

Conclusion: Hydrophobia has set the bar for all future Arcade games, and its impressive graphics, great voice acting and in-game challenges make the game worth nearly every penny. However, the controls and other knacks keep the game behind and takes away the perfect score.

Single Player: 4/5 | Multi-Player: N/A

Special thanks to Dark Energy Digital for providing us with a copy of the game for review.