Hydrophobia
Posted October 3, 2010
Quite possibly balancing the line between a technical demonstration of advanced water effects and a full fledged game, Hydrophobia is a third person shooter designed by developer Dark Energy Digital for the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is designed to be the first of three episodes and the opening title sets the stage for the futuristic narrative. The world has been consumed by water and the human population is currently living on an enormous city-sized ship floating in the ocean. There’s a group of fanatics called The Malthusians that are terrorizing the city as they believe the human population will outgrow the current amount of resources on the ship. The game follows how these events play out from the perspective of Kate Wilson, an engineer that has to fight back against the fanatical group to survive. We are also led to believe that Kate has an inherent fear of water, hence the game’s name.
The main draw for to get people into this game is DED’s proprietary water effects that directly effect how Kate progresses through a level. Water often bursts into rooms to bring chaos into the in-game environment. There are also objects within the environment that can be destroyed to increase the amount of water in the room or perhaps electrify it to fry some terrorists. It also may be as simple as shooting an explosive barrel on one side of the room to create a wave big enough to knock down an enemy on the opposite side. The amount of work that went into detailing how water can negatively and positively effect in the environment is staggering.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the game. The concept of transitioning through the ship is simple; you just kill all the enemies in the room to collect a key thus unlocking the door to the next room filled with enemies. Enemies typically have to be taken out with environmental objects rather than Kate’s stun gun. The stun gun is incredibly ineffective and targeting with it just plain stinks due to a shaky view. If you do manage to shoot someone, you have to continue firing into their body to kill them (assuming they are lying in water). There’s no melee attack button, so Kate will likely die if the enemy gets too close. There are a few lethal options for ammo in the game, but not enough to be productive.
One of the most ridiculous design choices in the game is the lack of an on-screen HUD to tell you when Kate is losing too much health or is running out of breath while swimming. Alerting the player to when Kate is going to succumb to her inevitable death is far too subtle and leads the player into replaying level portions over and over until guessing the correct path. Another problem is that the game shows you objects that can be destroyed to affect the water volume in some levels, but they don’t have the same properties in the next level. It’s incredibly frustrating to be continually misled by the developer.
There’s no multiplayer mode in the game, but there is a Challenge mode that is unlocked after beating the main campaign. These will give you a sneak peak at some water controlling abilities that Kate may have in future sequels. It’s entertaining to play though once, but over quickly. This ties into a leaderboard as well. The achievement set is relatively simple to complete, with a few collection tasks that might require some extra exploration time.
After unplugging the drain and allowing the water to drain away, we are left with a poorly designed third-person shooter with a slightly entertaining hook for the future completion of the narrative (if the two follow-up are made). The possibility of Kate developing supernatural powers might make the follow-up worth playing, something that the developer missed out on entertaining us with this time. There’s also little explanation how Kate is so adept at dealing with her hydrophobia, specifically when having to swim underwater to complete goals. It didn’t make any sense at all.
In the end, I can’t recommend Hydrophobia to any shooter fans out there due to the lackluster design, poor control scheme, camera problems, short length (about 3 to 4 hours) and general lack of replay value due to a missing multiplayer mode. The water effects are darn cool, but unless Hydrophobia goes on sale for a third of the current 1200 Microsoft Marketplace point price, I’d skip it completely.
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The main draw for to get people into this game is DED’s proprietary water effects that directly effect how Kate progresses through a level. Water often bursts into rooms to bring chaos into the in-game environment. There are also objects within the environment that can be destroyed to increase the amount of water in the room or perhaps electrify it to fry some terrorists. It also may be as simple as shooting an explosive barrel on one side of the room to create a wave big enough to knock down an enemy on the opposite side. The amount of work that went into detailing how water can negatively and positively effect in the environment is staggering.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the game. The concept of transitioning through the ship is simple; you just kill all the enemies in the room to collect a key thus unlocking the door to the next room filled with enemies. Enemies typically have to be taken out with environmental objects rather than Kate’s stun gun. The stun gun is incredibly ineffective and targeting with it just plain stinks due to a shaky view. If you do manage to shoot someone, you have to continue firing into their body to kill them (assuming they are lying in water). There’s no melee attack button, so Kate will likely die if the enemy gets too close. There are a few lethal options for ammo in the game, but not enough to be productive.
One of the most ridiculous design choices in the game is the lack of an on-screen HUD to tell you when Kate is losing too much health or is running out of breath while swimming. Alerting the player to when Kate is going to succumb to her inevitable death is far too subtle and leads the player into replaying level portions over and over until guessing the correct path. Another problem is that the game shows you objects that can be destroyed to affect the water volume in some levels, but they don’t have the same properties in the next level. It’s incredibly frustrating to be continually misled by the developer.
There’s no multiplayer mode in the game, but there is a Challenge mode that is unlocked after beating the main campaign. These will give you a sneak peak at some water controlling abilities that Kate may have in future sequels. It’s entertaining to play though once, but over quickly. This ties into a leaderboard as well. The achievement set is relatively simple to complete, with a few collection tasks that might require some extra exploration time.
Graphics
- Obviously, the water effects are really quite stunning. The undulating motion of waves or the bouncing movement of ripples is outstanding to watch in action. But beyond the much vaulted water movement, the remainder of the game’s level design screams last generation. Granted, this is an Xbox Live Arcade title, but it looks more representative of work on the PS2 / Xbox than built for the high definition generation. Textures aren’t as detailed as they should be and character animation is hopelessly stiff. Level design is monotonous as well with a grab-bag of clipping problems throughout the campaign.
- Another huge problem with the graphic engine is the camera angles and how they directly hamper gameplay. At times, it’s too far away from the player. Other times, it has to be constantly adjusted while Kate is being attacked. It also makes swimming more difficult that it should be, reminding me of the early Tomb Raider games and how they handled Lara Croft swimming. Finally, the graphic engine also is plagued with slowdown again and again. It’s amazing to see a game with a last-gen look having trouble even running on a next-gen console.
Audio
- The voice acting is just painful to listen to, namely the ridiculous attempt at a Scottish accent. I couldn’t tell if they were attempting to make fun of themselves or not. The script is pretty awful as well. The sound effects are solid though and the soundtrack is enough to keep the tension heightened throughout the majority of the game.
Conclusion
After unplugging the drain and allowing the water to drain away, we are left with a poorly designed third-person shooter with a slightly entertaining hook for the future completion of the narrative (if the two follow-up are made). The possibility of Kate developing supernatural powers might make the follow-up worth playing, something that the developer missed out on entertaining us with this time. There’s also little explanation how Kate is so adept at dealing with her hydrophobia, specifically when having to swim underwater to complete goals. It didn’t make any sense at all.
In the end, I can’t recommend Hydrophobia to any shooter fans out there due to the lackluster design, poor control scheme, camera problems, short length (about 3 to 4 hours) and general lack of replay value due to a missing multiplayer mode. The water effects are darn cool, but unless Hydrophobia goes on sale for a third of the current 1200 Microsoft Marketplace point price, I’d skip it completely.
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