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Hydrophobia

Marzipan Travolta

By Marzipan Travolta
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Rushy

Rushy

Posted
Posted

The voice over is awful, however I thought the game looks ok, especially for an XBLA title. I am a little disappointed however that it does appear to have turned into a shooter :)

Any more details on when it is out?

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Retroid

Retroid

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Posted
that voice-over is a joke.

I like how flawlessly he can change from Russian to Jamaican within the same sentance.

I think it looks good, low budget obviously but it doesn't look bad - I like the back to basics approach and think that even if it doesn't have great cutscenes that it still could be a great game.

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roskelld

roskelld

Posted
Posted

What is it with people trying to break new lows in video game voice acting?

Bolo Santosi and now this Soviet, Italian Jamaican character.

Water still looks great after all these years, story doesn't inspire much, another dark future tale.

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hanzo

hanzo

Posted
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Eh, they probably realised it was a bit boring and had less chance of success without it, which is fair enough in my view. If they combine the interesting aspects of the water model with the combat then I'm all for it - drowning, trapping enemies and all that. Spreading oil across the water surface and igniting it seems pretty cool too.

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The Sarge

The Sarge

Posted
Posted

Couple more gameplay clips. (cam)

IGN Hands On.

This is a sci-fi action adventure game with elements of both Tomb Raider and BioShock. In the not-too-distant future, an enormous boat the size of a city called The Quen of the World is attacked by terrorists bent on dramatically reducing the Earth's population. Players control Kate Wilson, an engineer on the vessel who survives the attack and must save the day. Because of the damage many areas of the boat are flooding, and poor Kate happens to be hydrophobic. (Exactly why someone with hydrophobia is working on a boat out in the middle of the ocean, we cannot say.)
This is a fully 3D game with lots of Lara Croft-style climbing. One sequence finds Kate scrambling to climb out of an elevator shaft before the flaming elevator falls from above and crushes her. It's pretty obvious what ledges and pipes she can grab hold of, and maneuvering her up a wall is as easy as pointing the left stick towards an object and jumping to it. Jumping is done with the Y button, though, which took some getting used to. The developer tells us it's because later on Kate will develop powers that are mapped to the A button.

The star of the show is the dynamic water system. Exploring a rundown, water-logged facility really gives Hydrophobia a BioShock feel. It's mighty impressive when you're running down a hallway, camera following behind, and the doors in front of you burst open, letting the water come rolling in. Luckily, Kate's phobia doesn't keep her from swimming, and she can actually hold her breath for quite a while if need be. She'll also be forced to engage in some underwater combat later in the game.

One of Kate's first missions is to rescue a superior officer who is trapped in a room. She must find a fancy gadget called the MAVI that lets her open doors remotely. Once we let him out he was less than grateful, so we kinda wished we had let the jerk die – and we could have! If you don't make it back to the room in time the officer will indeed perish, and this doesn't end your game. It will, however, affect the way the story plays out. Sounds like Hydrophobia will have a lot of replay value, considering the story is only around six hours long and there are branching paths.

A waypoint always appears onscreen that shows the distance to your next destination, so a lot of the game involves figuring out just how to get there. It will rarely be as easy as running in a straight line, as explosions and gas fires tend to pop up right in front of you. Kate will have to assess her surroundings and figure out how she can get around these obstacles. In one instance, when a fire blocked her way to an important item, we had to leap to a pipe that was hanging to the side, shimmy around the flames, and then jump to our goal.

http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/108/1080101p1.html

:)

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  • 3 weeks later...
hanzo

hanzo

Posted
Posted

The other stuff looks fairly ok when compared to other big xbla releases. The superb water physics are obviously the main focus so the rest just seems a bit thrown together. Functional nonetheless I reckon! I just hope they manage to conjur a nice atmosphere that isn't too reliant on completely scripted events and about as complex as a door bursting open with water upon entering every new room.

If it goes all Deep Blur Sea with terrifying uber sharks stalking you through the flooded corridors like velociraptors, then :P for reals.

It better have sharks.

...

It's not going to have sharks is it? ;)

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squirtle

squirtle

Posted
Posted
Looks really basic, aside from the water. :P

Really? Looks like Tomb Raider in a boat with water, to me. I'm all for a bit of that. A decent six hour story as the boat falls to bits around you with some platforming and climbing and explosions... Sounds fine to me.

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b00dles

b00dles

Posted
Posted

Has anyone got this now that it's out? I was quite tempted but on doing a search on here, I was reminded of the EDGE 3, which isn't really a good sign.

Any thoughts from the 'muk? I'll have to try the demo I spose but I was quite intrigued by this all along.

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The Sarge

The Sarge

Posted
Posted

It certainly wasn't great, but I thought it was decent enough. Voice acting was terrible though and the constant use of cut-scenes was also pretty off putting, but the water and the controls were pretty tight (in my opinion, others found the controls to be unresponsive, etc), the only problem I had was the demo ended just as you were about to pick up your first weapon, so based on just the trial...I'd say it's one to pick up when it hits 800msp or lower.

It's worth downloading the trial though.

:)

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b00dles

b00dles

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Posted

From the little bit on inside Xbox, I didn't really think it actually looked all that anyway, water looked nice but it didn't look anything like 'this year's Shadow Complex' by a long shot.

I'll give the demo a go and wait for a sale... wouldn't mind Shank and DeathSpank either...

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The Sarge

The Sarge

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Posted

From the little bit on inside Xbox, I didn't really think it actually looked all that anyway, water looked nice but it didn't look anything like 'this year's Shadow Complex' by a long shot.

I'll give the demo a go and wait for a sale... wouldn't mind Shank and DeathSpank either...

Still don't know how it managed to pick up that title before release. It's the only reason I was looking forward to it so much. Still thought it was decent though, just nowhere near as good as some reviews claimed and certainly nowhere near as good or fun to play as Shadow Complex. <_<

Anyway, both excellent titles, although I found Shank to be incredibly shallow and more style than substance. Both DS games are well worth the 2400msp. And don't forget, you'll get 800msp back if you spend 2400msp on any Live Arcade titles or game adds on/DLC this month.

:)

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Matt G

Matt G

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The demo was utter wank, avoid like the plague or at least wait until it's in a sale should you want to buy it.

Aye, nice water but after 3 deaths in the second lift shaft I turned it off. If that's the bit you choose to show off your game then I dread to think what's still to come.

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deerokus

deerokus

Posted
Posted

It has one of the worst XBLA trials I've ever played. Horrendous voice acting. That guy Scoot, her boss, has the absolute worst Scottish accent I've ever heard, and I've visited Stirling. The movement and controls reminded me of those mid-to-late 90s 3D adventure games. Fade to Black and the like. The constant interruptions for terrible cutscenes and the complete lack of anything at all remotely entertaining in the demo section was pretty amazing.

It did amuse me that with all hell breaking loose and the ship seemingly sinking, said 'Scoot' decided to just sit and talk a random underling around hazards instead of trying to get himself to safety.

The full game way be ok, but that demo was very off-putting.

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