Review: Hydrophobia

(Photo credit: Dark Energy Digital)

Christmas came and went and I know a few of you Xbox 360 lovers must have gotten some Microsoft points in your stockings. Before you go wasting all those precious points on your avatars wardrobe you just might want to check out Dark Energy Digital's arcade hit Hydrophobia.

I want to first give a big thanks to the guys at Dark Energy Digital for giving me a review copy of the game, I really appreciate them for doing so. Hydrophobia is a survival third person adventure set in the mid 21^st century with a very overpopulated world. You play Kate Wilson a system engineer for the Queen of the World which is a huge luxury ocean vessel that is big enough to be a city which was built by the so called Five Founding Fathers a group that became wealthy while the world continues to suffer due to overpopulation. During the start of the game you quickly learn more of Kate Wilson when you start exploring her room before actually entering the game such as photos, certificates and awards. What seems like a normal day on the vessel to Kate quickly takes a turn for the worst. Early in the game a terrorist group calling themselves Malthusians after the political economist Thomas Malthus attacks the ship. Now it's up to Kate to figure out what the terrorist group is really up to and how to reach safety in one piece. But no worries your not alone, Kate has her friend Scoot who helps you along the way through communication.

With this being a survival game you know that Kate the simple systems engineer is not a Laura Croft. You wont melee a enemy to death anytime soon but instead you are equipped with a pistol where throughout the game you'll find a unorthodox ammunition that will give you several ways to put down a enemy. However the game really makes you take enemies down using the environment around you in what could be anywhere from causing a highly flammable barrel explode to stunning a enemy and causing him to drown (ha ha take that you terrorist jerks! teach you for messing with Kate's home). But where Dark Energy Digital really stands and I gotta say hats off to you guys, the water. Water just looks amazing! Everything from the flow of the water when opening a dry room to causing waves makes you just watch in awe and gives the appeal that Kate's worst fear is truly happening plus gives the gamer a sense of actually being trapped with Kate.

The controls is what I am sure is on everyone's mind. No worries the controls are fine you play in a third person view and I had no problem maneuvering through tight hallways filled with debris to swimming under the water through hallways while battling enemies in what really became fun to do. Also there really is not a lot to remember for the controls, I would think the average gamer could pick this game up with no troubles of playing and solving any puzzles such as using Kate's abilities to hack the vessels systems in order to be able to reach areas that were once unattainable. What is also worth mentioning is when having to hack the system to enter through locked doors or hacking so called consoles you play a interesting mini game where you must match frequencies and wavelengths in order for the door to be unlocked.

The game feels really short. I don't see why anyone couldn't beat this title in around three hours which will leave you in a cliffhanger for the developers to continue on for the hydrophobia series. However the replay value is sky high. Like I said you have several ways to kill enemies and if that's not enough for you then did I mention collectables to retrieve throughout the three acts of the game? But if replaying a game is not your thing then Hydrophobia does offer the Challenge mode. Challenge mode will put Kate up in a five round battle of progressively harder enemies. You'll get your trusty pistol, exploding barrels and something entirely new that brings a nice edge for Kate but you'll have to play it for yourself to find out what.

In conclusion I would recommend that you should at least try this game out, play the demo if you find yourself enjoying it then go for the full version of it. Hydrophobia proved to me that this game was fun, interesting with great replay value with a extra challenge mode. Hydrophobia is the first of a three game series that is available currently on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the price of 800 Microsoft Points and a later release date is planned for the Playstation 3 and PC. Check out more about Hydrophobia and the game developers at darkenergydigital.com.