In 2032. an Earth that knows only peace is forced to relearn the art of war.
Twenty years have passed since the population of Earth did a fine job of destroying nearly everything in one final struggle for power by the politicians and military leaders. Twenty years have been spent building a near Utopia, a society where currency and finance are irrelevant, a planet without hunger or poverty. All weapons have been destroyed to ensure peace. But hidden away in an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, a cabal of old world magnates: ex-leaders, financiers, politicians, and despots, are planning a return to the greed fueled, hate filled past. And there in no way to fight them. Except this one last remaining Adaptive Cruiser – The Antaeus.
Antaeus Rising combines explosive action with powerful real-time strategy. Take command of powerful aircraft carrier/manufacturing platform. Create military units with your carrier using the most advanced nano-technology known by the modern world and lead an army against the forces of the Old World Cabal. Plan your assault from within your carrier and than enter your units for some third-person mayhem! The fate of world is in your hands, are you able to hold it?
This game has been patched to the latest official version: 1.03
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: MATURE with Blood and Gore, Violence.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended), 256MB RAM (512 recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), Mouse, Keyboard.
Hostile Waters is to its peers what a laser beam is to a light bulb. It’s sleek, sexy, and gets straight to the point – that point being the conquest of a man-made island chain in the Pacific, with the help of a nanomachine factory aboard a rusting military cruiser and the chattering, digitised minds of long-dead soldiers.... full review
This is usually achieved with a war of attrition (it’s very hard to actually lose) against the cabal’s forces on each isle, yet the game remains fresh and engaging throughout thanks to its intelligent – and quite unmatched – design.
Foremost in this is your ability to pilot any vehicle at any time, at which point the game effortlessly becomes one of squad-based tactics. The interface for issuing orders off the cuff is slightly fiddly, but you’ll soon get used to ordering backup from another front, then mouthing silent thanks when one of your friends diverts from their current prey to take out the VTOL bomber pounding your hull, before pulling back and dropping into a scout car to reconnoitre another enemy installation while the others clean up and begin scavenging. Things only get more exhilarating as you progress.
The game’s story is the work of renowned comic artist Warren Ellis, and despite its clichéd central premise is rich, stimulating and memorable. Most of it is told through each mission’s cut-scene, and except for a few naff entries they are delightful rewards for completing the preceding island that you might just find yourself pushing onward through the tougher knots of resistance to unlock.
Character writing and voice acting (Tom effing Baker!) are also top-notch for most of the game, and with each spoken personality comes AI strengths and weaknesses. Ransom is a vicious helicopter pilot (perhaps a little too vicious – keep him on a leash!), Korolev is reliable in the Scarab, and Patton knows how to keep an artillery piece’s shells landing accurately, and so on for all of the twelve or so chips you will fix up and send into battle.
Unfortunately, things don’t always work out so well for the AI. Your team-mates have little understanding of the danger of flying directly over AA emplacements on their way to another destination, and this at first irritating behaviour becomes completely unsatisfactory for the game’s later, trickier islands. It’s the game’s greatest flaw, and it’s huge.
Nevertheless, buy Hostile Waters! It’s a slick and immensely entertaining experience that to this day no other developer has even attempted to re-create.
I already said this elsewhere, but this really is an all-time classic game. The cutscenes, the voice acting, the action, the strategy, the variety of gameplay, the missions, the story-line... It's always been utterly mystifying why the original publishers Rage didn't push this game and this franchise more, especially considering the effort that clearly went into creating such a... full review polished game.
For those with some tech skills looking for a bit of extra playability, with the original you could poke around the saved game file in a hex editor and unlock a few extra personalities, as well as unlocking all your characters for all the missions. It's so much more fun having them all chattering in your ears from the very beginning. :)
When this was first released it was almost ignored. However if you ever enjoyed the 16 bit game Carriar Command you will love this. The storyline is good, the voice acting is fantastic Tom Bakers narrative is one of the best in any game. Graphics are very good. ... full review
The gamplay a mix of rts & action only takes a few minutes to get to grips with the interface is easy enough so you can be in a vehicle one second then back to the carriar issuing orders without having 100 of key presses to do.
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