Aquanox Deep Descent - Preview of Digital Arrow's Underwater RPG

Nuclear winter, ecological disasters… sounds familiar to you? No, this is not the umpteenth Mad Max inspired setting, but the events that led humanity to "move" to the bottom of the oceans in Aquanox Deep Descent desperate to survive. If the name is familiar to you, it is because it is the last chapter of the homonymous series started in 1996 and financed through kickstarter in 2015. After five years, we have finally descended into the depths of Aqua to experience first-hand the work of Digital Arrow e THQ Nordic (of which we look forward to several titles), thanks to a short but very interesting demo.

At the bottom of the sea

A short video introduces us to the setting as soon as the game has started, explaining how humanity has taken refuge in the oceans to escape a world that is now ecologically destroyed and unlivable. At the bottom of the ocean, the various countries then formed two opposing coalitions, ending up with the same conflicts that set the surface to fire and sword. And whoever abandoned the two factions found himself founding a third one with the only rule of remaining free from any yoke (did anyone say underwater pirates?). In all this warfare, we will be real white flies: hibernating since the exile from the surface, we and our group of "cryo" have lost many of our memories and do not know the difficulties of the new underwater life of humanity. . We will therefore, at least in theory, be able to juggle the three factions that make up the political landscape of Aquanox Deep Descent, selling our services as mercenaries to the highest bidder while pursuing our goals.

"Sir, their officers are shooting at us!"

The oceans are a dangerous place, rich in fauna now contaminated by the plague of nanoplankton, as well as a battleground for the factions competing for resources. Our small single-seater submarine will therefore be fully armed to face any threat. Ranging from the simple machine gun to the most sophisticated search torpedo launcher, we will be able to create the setup we prefer, customizing our paraphernalia according to the situations and the ships at our disposal. In the demo we tested, we had access to two ships, one light and fast and another equipped with shields and additional armaments, but decidedly less agile. Already with the simple change of ship the pace of the game changes considerably, given the possibility of the second submarine to equip itself with secondary armaments, automatic and that do not require ammunition to fire, in addition to the greater resistance of the shields during the fighting. The doubt arises instead precisely on the nature of the fighting related to the mission played in the demo, in which we escorted an allied ship to three different points in enemy territory. While the ally remained stationary to carry out his (il) legal mining actions, we had to deal with waves of enemy submarines, which systematically appeared in the same points and which, after understanding the mechanics, turned into a boring and prolonged one. repetition of the same fight, thus without variations. Combat itself works well and requires a fair amount of practice to best juggle weapons, displacement systems and a bit of inertia on our submarine. The miserable design of the mission in question, on the other hand, could jeopardize what good it has to show Aquanox Deep Descent. But let's talk about a single mission of a demo and not the final product: a reasonable doubt, therefore, but nothing more.

Homemade ammunition

To support the management of your submarine, we will have a substantial exploration and crafting component. Scattered across the ocean floor, we will find wrecks and resource deposits that will provide us with various types of elements and materials. The most important use is not the sale, but the ability to build objects to replenish their supplies of ammunition, repair kits and shields, thus increasing our independence from potential merchants and the forced return to bases and trading posts. The collection of resources is done simply by approaching the source and, after a scan of a few seconds, it is possible to collect the loot. Nothing particularly structured that therefore modifies the shooter nature of the saga Aquanox with drifts of other genres, but which makes the different harvesting operations a little too similar to each other.

A promising descent

Starting with a $ 95 kickstater, Aquanox Deep Descent seems to have what it takes to find a place among the peculiar genre of underwater shooter-simulators. The portion of the game tested in the demo is very small but gives way to touch on different elements that will form the core of the final product. The fights, in particular, occupy a substantial part of the game experience and, although they tend to a certain repetition, they combine well the difficulty of the clash with the customization of your vehicle and, consequently, your style of play. The setting also promises political plots, winking at themes with a strong environmentalist character, with the ability to share the experience with three other players in "on the fly" cooperatives. After this proven, we can't wait to get our hands on the final product, which is scheduled for release on October 16, 2020 su PC.