Overall most helpful review

Posted on: January 21, 2016

Cherusker

Games: 106 Reviews: 2

Good game, not great

This side-scrolling, dystopian, underwater adventure can perhaps best be described as an 'acquired taste'. Thanks to its meticulously rendered environments and highly appropriate soundtrack, every step of your adventure beneath the depths oozes atmosphere. For a game focused so much on exploration, this is a good thing, a very good thing indeed. However, it is an acquired taste in that, unless you are into this sort of thing, you may find the excruciating boss battles, the only combat in the game, a bit of a turn off. I certainly did. It isn't because they are challenging, but rather because they are generally poorly paced. The difficulty lies not in timing but more in sheer luck. The generally unresponsive, arbitrary nature of the weapons (particularly the harpoon) does not help. For such a style of gameplay, airtight controls are a must, but I didn't find that here. As for the story? Well, as 'preachy' as it may be, it possesses more professionalism than some reviewers here, many of whom seem more interested in expressing their beliefs about the existence (or non-existence) of global warming than actually reviewing the game. That said, it does seem implausible for the world to be completely submerged by the effects of global warming.

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Posted on: June 19, 2016

Lookda

Verified owner

Games: 413 Reviews: 53

Shark-monster eats mine... me

This is not a game like Diablo, where every living thing mindlessly attacks. The creatures that attack, however, are very capable and WILL swallow you whole. The shark (I fear sharks more than anything) is very creative. Not only is the giant shark accompanied by a school of small agile sharks, but it drags some of its history with it too. While I personally think that the scarcity of hostility is a great concept and adds to the mysterious nature of the (under)water world you explore, it has a downside. The game can feel somewhat empty. The game could benefit from more interaction with the environment, such as crabs that do not actively hunt the player, but would protect an upgrade box in their nest. Or have destructible cave entries instead of simple gaps in the wall that lead to hidden passages. This brings me to the hidden secrets, which I don´t like. While the purpose might be to add some exploring, it failed in that respect. I found myself rubbing my submersible to every wall. The immersive sense of exploration was replaced by a gamy feel of finding touch plates in order to proceed (a stupid game mechanic often found in older platformers). It would be better to have ways of finding new passages by observation. Like it was once done by placement of some crystals near the entrance of a hidden cave. Could they have done something with the periscope? I do give this game a relatively low score (3). Not because I didn’t enjoy the game, not because of the crude but effective graphics, but because the game feels a bit empty and there is another underwater game that is so much richer in almost every way: Aquaria. Please, go check out that game if you want something that will occupy you more than a few evenings.

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Posted on: February 7, 2016

BionicBull

Verified owner

Games: 488 Reviews: 36

Not for action enthusiasts

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human(TAAOTLH) is an exploring game with some elements of action that uses the metroidvania concept for level design. Fans of exploring may like this, but it lacks any real depth and balance. I'm a fan of pixel art and really admired the look of this game. Also the theme of underwater exploring was enticing. I watched some YouTube videos and thought I would enjoy it. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to do in TAAOTLH. You just explore, find upgrades to your ship in order to explore more areas(metroidvania), fight some bosses and find memos from the last civilization that existed to put together the story of the game. That's it! There is no fighting during the game and there is no accumulating items. There really isn't anything to do, but explore. During the game I was killing the fish and other creatures, but realized that they were not a threat, so I stopped killing them...What's the point? Maybe that was the developers' intention, but that idea doesn't belong in a game because it makes the game boring. There is no incentive, but collecting memos to piece together a story. So if you don't care about the story then it's meaningless. No coin collecting, no item collecting, but only upgrades to your ship which main purpose is to access areas which were inaccessible before. The extensive exploring of the game paired up with sudden boss fights makes the game unbalanced. At least give the player some enemies to practice on before the boss fights. During the boss fights, expert gamers will have no problem after a few tries, but newbies and casual gamers will be crushed. As for the global warming elements, I didn't feel like the game was preachy, but just the developer's opinion, so I just accepted it as the game's story and didn't get annoyed by it. Exploring fans may like it, but spending a majority of the time just exploring made me feel like I was wasting time. 1 star for action gamers and 4 stars for exploring fans. So, 2.5 stars.

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Posted on: December 20, 2016

rastilin

Verified owner

Games: 967 Reviews: 17

Brilliant graphics, ok gameplay

I love both the graphics and the idea of the game, but I have doubts about the execution. Among other things, the game tries to sell you very hard on "the folly of man", but everyone you hear about is so dense that the whole thing comes off as being ham-fisted. * The sub doesn't start with any weapons. If you're exploring down the street then it would be stupid to go armed, but the main character is exploring a hostile planet and didn't bring any self protection. That's just naive. This is something that I can understand for gameplay's sake, but it still really bugs me. * The weapons are horrible and unwieldy. Poor firing arcs, terrible range, need charge times. I've made this complaint about other games as well, in order for an action game to work, the weapons have to be fun to use. So far this isn't the case here. * Gameplay and story segregation to an extreme. Example: why does a submarine not have sonar? You're building a submarine to go under the water, but don't include a light source or any sort of sonar or other method of range-finding. This is such a tiny thing, but when you realize it, it makes everything in the story so much worse. The auto-map might count but I doubt that's intentional. Another thing, the submarine is tactically fragile, it can be dissolved by waste from a pipe, but can survive being dropped through an ice sheet from orbit. At that speed hitting water is like hitting the ground.. and the sub is fine with no issues. * Other reviewers have pointed out, the story is super-preachy. Not in a fun way either, but in an annoying and eye-rolling way, instead of inspiring meditative thoughts on humanity's place in the world, it just inspires annoyance with the unseen narrators. With the horrible weapons you won't get any relief from this by shooting things either. Each of these things might be petty, but the game had so much potential...

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Posted on: May 18, 2018

Redfern

Verified owner

Games: 451 Reviews: 34

Too controversial to really evaluate...

Ok, to cut very short - i believe this game is insane mix of good, of bad, of hardcore and WTF. Lest start with Good : Pixelated picture, level design, atmosphere, music - is all good. Very good at most parts. I like exploring lonely depths, i like watching seaweed grow, i like chasing fish. In term of atmosphere this game have one hell amount of it, and instantly reminds of Aquaria. Bad: Overall controls is clunky, sometimes you have to switch weapons fast or make fast moves and its plainly hard to execute. Weapons are weak. It was probably designed this way for more challenge, but range, accuracy, speed is all bad. Hardcore: Boss fights. In general, they INSANE and insanely, unfairly hard. Its takes just several hist for most to kill you while you have to shoot million time to really deal damage, and some can heal themself. Usual problem is bounce to death effect or "crash to death". Bosses usually very fast, hardly predictable, emits various obstruction and so on. And several of them is ultra easy - just to tease you. It takes 5-20 tries to kill one! With mostly harmless and peaceful nature around to explore this difference is little too much. Also, most boss fights occurs in dark places, which doesnt help. Now, for WTF. Its plot, mostly. Well, its overall fine, but quickly starts to feel as way too cheesy Sci-fi. Even casting environmental questions aside its full of holes. And worst part - ending. Yes, there is one - ultimate answer for your quest of answers. After final encounter plot goes bananas - in scripted event your character do some absolutely pointless and meaningless things and after that its suggested that "all done, time to die peacefully". This part wast complete leftdown for me. Usually player is given some kind of choice with different endings, but not this time. Ending is just BAD. Conclusion. Its overall fine game. Nice underwater stuff with challenging battles. But i wish it was better thoughtful..

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