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Aquanox at E3 2001

The Specs

It's the 27th century and the world's all wet because everyone lives under the sea. Aquanox is the sequel to Archimedian Dynasty, which is kind of like Privateer underwater. The bulk of the game is spent 'flying' combat missions to earn money and proceed along the campaign, which consists of 30 different missions. Between missions, you visit different cities, talk to NPCs, and upgrade your submarine. There are nine different subs, each of which can be upgraded with various components, including engines, torpedoes, and turrets. The storyline revolves around a calamity that somehow releases giant sea creatures who threaten the underwater cities where humanity lives. The new Krass graphics engine, which sports a fully 3D cockpit and lots of underwatery effects like bubbles and beams of lights from the surface, is built to take advantage of various aspects of the GeForce 3.

The Speculation

Mark's Comments: It sure doesn't look like Origin will ever give me an updated Privateer, so games like this may have to suffice. Tom knew more about this game than the person demoing it, so I'll defer to him. I don't have a GeForce 3 either, so I'm not sure how good it will look on my PC. And I'm not sure that underwater settings are the best venue for high-end graphics anyway, since there's this murky look all the time. That said, Archimedian Dynasty was a very good game, so if I play one submarine game this year, this is likely to be it.

Tom's Comments: There were a lot of things missing from the E3 build, including the giant sea monster models and someone to give an informed demo (it's always embarassing when you know more about the game than the person trying to show it to you). Aquanox's ill-named "Krass" engine looks passable, but these days passable may not be enough. What's worse, I'm skeptical whether Aquanox will try to capture Archimedian Dynasty's vivid post-Apocalyptic undersea world. For instance, since when is the hero named Emerald Flint? In the Archimedean Dynasty I played, his name was Sam Flint. Did these guys not play their own game? Also, it seems the developers may be trying to make a fast-paced space shooter at the expense of any distinctly underwater elements; the guy demoing Aquanox told me they wouldn't model sonar, which added an important element to combat in Archimedean Dynasty. Still, there's a rush of nostolgia seeing the name "Topo's Asylum" printed on one of the buildings. Regardless of whether I'm Sam or his sister Emerald, I'm looking forward to revisiting the world of Aqua.

Update: Apparently Tom doesn't know half as much as he thinks. Blue Byte's PR rep for Archimedean Dynasty was Samantha "Sam" Flint, but the hero's name was indeed Emerald Flint. He still thinks 'Emerald' is a sissified name for a boy, but it's not like someone named Tom Chick has any room to talk.

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May 22, 2001