AquaNox 2: Revelation

[quote][b]Warning: Broken Game![/b] This game has design/implementation defects that will render this unplayable for many gamers. The game does not launch at all under Windows 10/11 due to a display issue.[/quote] AquaNox 2: Revelation is an ancient game from 2003. It's a whopping 21 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge, or just a cash grab to try profit from abandonware. It was a first person shooter where you control a submarine and blast enemy submarines with a variety of weapons... cool enough, and if this wasn't completely broken it could get a maybe. Unethically, the developers have left this on the Steam store in an unplayable and broken state. I should stress you can get the game to run if you download some third party patches off the internet... but this is a burden and a risk that gamers should never need to accept. It's the responsibility of the developer to maintain their product, ensure it runs on all modern PCs, or if they determine there's defects and the game doesn't work, they should remove it from sale instead of misleadingly trying to scam gamers into buying knowingly defective products. This is harmful to Steam and to gamers, not just because it's a direct and intentional attempt to scam people, but because it takes a share of the marketing space and visibility away from other games. It's polluting Steam and making it harder for gamers to find genuine games and for genuine indie developers who put months or years into making proper games find an audience. The game never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this game every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it. So, should you buy this broken, unplayable attempt at a nostalgia gouge? Of course not. The developer is deliberately and unethically trying to scam gamers into paying them the cash grab price of $5 USD for a game they know is broken. Don't give it to them.

This is a borderline thumbs up for me. Aquanox 2 is a weird contrast of very strong aethetics & ahead-of-its time storytelling against frustratingly clunky gameplay. I love the niche "cybergrunge" art style the devs have done a great job of keeping consistent throughout every element of the game - even the settings menus are beautifully illustrated and animated - the visual design of this game is 9/10. The storytelling sections in between missions is also great - it has a novel semi-open rpg style navigation system that I've never seen done in quite the same way and all the dialogue is fully voice acted, many of the actors actually being quite good (rare for an indie studio like this, especially in 2003). The world and story are pretty immersive too. However, the core gameplay (the combat missions) lets the rest down badly. Controls are clunky, movement is slow, difficulty is inconsistent. Even when I did well on a mission, I found the only satisfaction from it was the relief of getting it out of the way so I could get back to the narrative part of the game. I hit my limit when I got stuck on a boss level that requires you to finish the rest of a mission before every attempt; it was too much of a slog to feel worthwhile to me, so that was the end of my time with Aquanox 2. It's very unusual that I would give a thumbs up to a game I didn't enjoy enough to finish, but this game is such a mixed bag that I felt like it just about merits the thumbs up for the quality of its better elements. If the action gameplay had been refined just a bit more, this could have been a great game.

The graphics are surprisingly good considering the game's age. A well made 6DOF shooter. Interesting from start to end. Story is good too. The ship's physics is like other non-underwater 6DOF and space shooters. Though it would me more accurate to say that physics in most space shooters have underwater physics...

Знаете....в этих играх есть то чего нет в современных играх.А именно жажда создать что то новое. Не сидеть на закаленных временем формулах. Это и побудило меня попробовать эту игру. Сейчас все только и делают что клепают игры с большими картами и с проверенным временем геймплеем. Не поймите меня не правильно я не против таких игр.Но разработчики забыли ,что они могут создать большее и я не про карты если что.Грустно видеть как даже 1000 человек не могут создать что то хотя бы играбельное. Я не хочу ругать эту игру.Она прошла проверку временем и стала классикой. А раз она прошла проверку временем,то о че бы ее не попробовать?

1편보단 그래픽이 나아지긴 했는데 그래봐야 2003년 그래픽임. 스토리도 전작만큼 흥미롭게 잘 만들어졌음. 수중 슈팅 게임 느낌이 신박해서 맘에 듬. 근데 성우는 여전히 병신임.

First game was better imho. Anyway, it is worth a try

и кино посмотрел и на лодочке покатался.за 90 р всего. на 2к мониторе запустилась без проблем.русификатор годный.но нужно скачивать.в руководствах есть.

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Очень достойный аркадный шутанчик для своего времени. Возможно, не хватает свободного режима, вариативности в прохождении, разнообразия корыт (как своих, так и противника), дополнительных заданий кот наплакал. Минусов хватает, но аркадность игры, ее геймплейная несерьёзность и затягивающая сюжетная затравка прощают если не все, то многое. Сюжетно это самая последняя игра. Вышедшее в 2020 году недоразумение является предысторией Archimedean Dynasty, которое к тому же ломает всю логику этой серии игр, но это уже другая история. А так достойная история получилась, которая скорее всего не будет закончена, т.к. продолжения не намечается [spoiler] а так хотелось бы увидеть сладкую Мей Лин, готов отвалить любые гроши за такое продолжение истории ( тем более в конце игры намекается, что один старый "знакомый" все таки выжил, и он нам даст еще проср@ться) [/spoiler] 8 молодых драконов Цзяо Лонов из 10

Absolutely a gem from another era. Beautiful, yet dated in every way. Worth playing for the story and meeting the characters. Plays well enough, but needs to be adapted to the controls.