The all consuming darkness has you battle-scarred submarine in a vice-like grip. As you navigate your sub through enemy waters, the only thing that protects you from a cold and premature death is six inches of solid steel. As if life itself, 5,700 metres below the ocean surface wasn’t difficult enou...
The all consuming darkness has you battle-scarred submarine in a vice-like grip. As you navigate your sub through enemy waters, the only thing that protects you from a cold and premature death is six inches of solid steel. As if life itself, 5,700 metres below the ocean surface wasn’t difficult enough, the threat of impending conflict is about to challenge your very existence…
In the distance, a glimmer of light pierces the darkness and shock waves begin to roll your craft. An unknown object descends upon you. Systems indicate Torpedo! You act immediately to avoid destruction and lock your sights on the incoming torpedo. You release a Ripper missile and begin your descent, but you must go faster. DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!
The predecessor to the AquaNox series, Archimedean Dynasty is a submarine-simulation set in a post-apocalyptic world on the ocean floor. Assuming the role of mercenary, Emerald “Dead Eye” Flint, you must navigate the dangers that lurk below, including corrupt conglomerates, fanatical cults and cut-throat pirates. With a rich and atmospheric open-world, compelling narrative and dialogue interaction, and a deep customisation and combat system that rewards tactical thinking, Archimedean Dynasty is a submersive experience for nautical adventurers that like to talk the talk and sail the sail.
Over 60 deadly mission to get your heart racing!
Command 4 different ships and equip them from an impressive arsenal of over 30 lethal weapon systems!
Advanced AI puts your tactical fighting skills to the ultimate test when you engage in combat against extremely intelligent and cunning enemies!
Underwater motion simulation with drifting and currents to make you feel like you’re actually at the helm!
Stimulating storyline lets you interact with over 100 characters
I absolutely love the game. Missions are really good, dialogues are funny, awesome atmosphere, graphics still OK, if you can get over DOS aera resolution.
But I am here to complain. There could be much more voiced dialogues, menus are less intuitive than they could be, which is also true for the steering and weapon handling, and since it runs in DOSBox, I don't get why there is no Linux version.
Enough complaining, great game, I highly recommend it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you GOG.
I loved this game back on x486 and the DOS era. Narrative, interactive comic style story telling, video sequences and voice over, the awesome physically correct fluid mechanics driving your vehicle under water, with currents, drag, inertia ... all that. It was FAR OUT back then! A little indie gem.
I still have the original box and CD. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to run under Windows XP or 7 anymore, even with DOS-BOX there were always issues - be it joystick controls or audio.
GOG came to the rescue. As soon as I saw it here, I had to have it.
And everything suddenly worked again. I don't know what magic they conjured and how they tweaked DOS-Box, but thanks!
Now I have moved away completely from Windows and are under Linux.
And it works!
Granted, it is NOT a Linux game with a port or binary and there is no Steam-Version to help you out with Valve-Tinkering and Proton.
I use Heroic for store and library management. Works well enough. I have no idea what tinker-steps I need to apply to get DOS-Box running with Wine through a Heroic-install. Tried, didn't work (started after the longest time with an error and crashed - NOT THE GAMES FAULT ... looking at you unfair reviewers).
So what do you do? Go to Lutris (other people have solved and tinkered this already). Ran the installer, let it do its thing (takes a little time) and BAM!
Runs. Sound and everything (no crackling, smooth videos ... I LOVE it!). A BLISS!
But you do NEED a joystick to full appreciate this game ;)
I was secretly expecting this great game on GoG, but the porting was disappointing for me.
The game itself is (once again) great and feels really immersive. You have two intricated gameplays: the narrative part where you discuss with people, look for jobs and repair/upgrade your ship; and the action part where you accomplish your missions by following objectives that mostly consist in shooting enemies down. The narration part is great and you shouldn't always simply click through the dialogues. The fighting part is even better, although the interface is sometimes a little bit difficult to understand and you will have to get used to it. (Pressing “?” ingame brings a help screen with all you need.) Although it gets really difficult at the end (I never finished the game completely), at least up to that point you have a very fine game.
Nevertheless, The GoG porting using DosBox was not great for me. The sound was buggy, with small interruptions every second in a way that gave me headaches. The game also crashed completely several times for no apparent reason (and there is no auto-save).
But when I look at the comments, it seems that I was the only one experiencing this. Therefore I hope that, unlike me, you have the chance to get an optimal experience, because this game deserves it.
I played this game many years ago and was impressed very much. The story is great and I even search for the game after many years to complete it again. The final sacrifice left me symphathize with the main
character a lot - imagine that you dont even know how characters look - all imagined.
The game gives enough challenge and some interesting missions where you can sneak past defences with turned off engine. At the end, you just get the trick and be careful. Your ship is immune to being stunned but really it doesn't matter.
It is one of the great games. The only simulator that I ever loved.
I’m not accustomed with quite varying subgenre of “submarine simulators”, but I think that Archimedean Dynasty belongs to more arcade representatives of it. The role of deepness levels is not important here and the current plays minor role in some missions. Overall, the game feels like slightly less sophisticated arcade sim – just like Wing Commander series, the big name in 90s. The controls are operating the same way, torpedoes are very much like missiles from space sims and the guns… you know what I mean. In general, this game keeps up with contemporary state of the art.
All that I said doesn’t mean that Archimedean Dynasty is “bad” or “derivative”. It was very enjoyable for me. The postapocalyptic underwater setting (something like Waterworld but below water surface) is clearly underused in all medium, and the gameplay is very dynamic and engaging if somewhat frustrating in overlong missions from last 2-2,5 hours of game. Archimedean Dynasty is not open-world, but consists of several hubs in which we are performing main missions and side missions – which are usually all combat missions. The tasks are varying: escort missions (not as bad as you may think), base assaults and base defending, convoy ambushes etc.
While you can press “H” button in game to see “Help” section with listing of all controls, I wish there was manual included. Also the game could be unstable without dedicated “Augmented Mod” (you can search for it here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/archimedean-dynasty-augmented-mod, and there’s useful topic on GOG forum: https://www.gog.com/forum/archimedean_dynasty/augmented_mod_12). Perhaps you also may wish to update nGlide package.
Overall, very good submarine combat sim, and I will definitely play Aquanox games that continue it.
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