Ones To Watch Out For - Hydrophobia

If you say "what?" or "I've never even heard of this game" then I forgive you.

It's been in development for sometime and it's something I would urge everyone to keep their eyes on as this looks like it could be a fantastic game.

What's It All About?

Essentially Hydrophobia is a dark adventure game with survival elements thrown in...and possibly a bit of horror (it's been dubbed with that title from some but seems more action based)

Get ready for a trip down futuristic dystopia lane.

The game is set in the middle of the 21st century and the world has become over populated. The game takes place on a city sized ship called "The Queen Of The World" which has been bombed by Malthusian Terrorists. They take their name and views from the writings of Thomas Malthus, who predicted that the human population would grow to large for all people to be fed and to be provided for. Because of this overpopulation the terrorists seek to destroy a large portion of mankind to solve the population crisis. In the trailer it says the seek to keep only half a billion humans alive. The reason they have struck the ship as a target is because it has been built and run by corporate giants. It is hinted that a technology to help the world in some way. But the Malthusians maintain that only the elite are benefitting.

The terrorists strike the ship and it begins to flood. They have a slogan to spread their message:

"Save the World - Kill Yourself"

You play Kate Wilson a systems engineer aboard the ship. You must survive this attack which is flooding the lower levels of the ship and stop the Malthusians. But the story seems like it will get far more indepth and that is something I most certainly welcome.

Let Us See It

When looking at the game for the first time I must say I was caught off guard when I learned it is to be released via Xbox Live Arcade in episodes. It was supposed to be released last year and for reasons unknown it did an Alan Wake and went away for awhile with a only a few trailers and screenshots, leaving a lot of mystery.

However luckily for us a proper trailer showing gameplay was released earlier this year and a playable demo was on hand at E3.

Here is the trailer:



And here is some gameplay footage from the folks at gametrailers.com:



Just before I finished this article - there was more on underwater combat at GamesCom



Anything Else We Need To Know?

Firstly, the games engine has been built from the ground up with a special engine commanding the phsyics of the water within the game (dubbed the "HydroEngine") and what the developer's promising sounds like it will make for a fun experience. As the engine simulates water phsyics as much as possible, the state of water, how water affects you character and vice versa, will be different on each playthrough.

The example we are given is if you do damage to a wall then water will enter from that point and could close off your way, forcing you to seek another method to your next destination. The aim of course is to make every playthrough unique.

Rob Hewson the designer has said this about the water physics:
"Player versus environment is certainly a large part of the experience, the wonderful thing about water is that it is constantly affecting every area of the environment, so you get incredible amounts of emergent behaviour. The player constantly has to adapt to the environment and react quickly because doors, walls and windows are going to cave in differently each time according to the distribution of water."

It is developed by the British studio: Dark Energy Digital formed by those of another games company called Blade Interactive (don't worry I ain't heard of them either!). Dark Energy Digital's resume mainly contains Snooker and Pool videogames. I haven't taken the delight of sampling them so for me they are a first time developer with no real track record. I'm always willing to give the new guys a try.

It is going to be released internationally including places like Japan with subtitles for multiple languages.

It was nominated for some awards at E3 by various journalistic types. Not that it means much to me but I found it surprising that a low key release such as this managed to get any attention at all!

What Do You Reckon Churchy?

For me it's a game that looks original, interesting, different and fun. It's just one of those things I get feeling about and that's before the more impressive and promising technical aspects come into play. This is something that looks truly original and fun. For some reason it has a very old school feel about it in terms of spirit. Also it's nice to see a female protagonist who isn't sexed up to the eyeballs (no jokes about other types of balls or round objects please!)

Everyone seems to be comparing it to Bioshock (because obviously anything with water means it must be somehow related to Bioshock) but if anything it reminds me of Overblood for the Playstation 1 in terms of it's spirit, darkness and hint of loneliness offered from what we've already seen. Unfortunately we still have no release date but you can expect a review and first impressions the day this comes out!

I urge you to keep watching this title and download the first episode when it's released as this one looks like it's going to be something special.