Aquanox 2: Revelation

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Aquanox 2: Revelation
Studio GermanyGermany Massive development
Publisher AustriaAustria Jowood
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 November 22, 2002
platform Windows
Game engine KRASS engine
genre Simulation , first person shooter
Subject Science fiction , submarines
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard & mouse , joystick , gamepad
system advantages
preconditions
  • 750 MHz processor
  • 128 MB RAM
  • 3D graphics card with 32 MB RAM
medium CD-ROM , download
language German English
Current version v2.159
Age rating
USK approved from 16
PEGI recommended for ages 16+

Aquanox 2: Revelation (from Latin: aqua = water and nox = night as well as English: revelation = revelation) is the third part of the series of underwater combat simulations by the German development studio Massive Development that began with crawl speed . It is the direct successor to Aquanox and was released for Windows in November 2002 by the Austrian publisher JoWooD .

action

The plot of Aquanox takes place parallel to its predecessor, i.e. in the year 2666. The setting is again the marine world Aqua, to which mankind has withdrawn after the devastating nuclear war on the surface of the earth and now lives in marine habitats. But instead of in Emerald "Dead Eye" Flint, the hero of the two predecessors, this time the player slips into the role of William Drake. His family freighter is captured by privateers at the beginning of the game and Drake joins them. However, he first has to prove himself to them in a few missions. In fact, the pirates are on the hunt for a legendary treasure, the "Tears of the Angel".

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, the game consists of around 40 missions in which action-packed underwater battles are in the foreground. The missions vary from defense missions to sabotage operations, escorts, large underwater battles to the new types of missions in the interior levels and duels. There are four different types of submarines to choose from, as well as various weapon systems such as kinetic weapon systems, EMP and laser cannons, plasma cannons and torpedoes, with the different types of submarines being suitable for certain missions. Similar to a space flight simulation , the submarine is usually controlled from a cockpit view in a first-person view . Alternatively, the player can switch to the so-called simulation mode, in which the player can influence the yaw and roll abilities of the submarine, but there is still no realistic inertia of the water.

The plot is presented between the missions through conversations with other characters. The conversation partners are shown in the form of animated renderings. The comic pictures for the respective interlocutors, which were still used in the predecessor, were no longer used. Unlike its predecessor, Aquanox 2 no longer has a multiplayer mode.

development

In May 2002, during E3 , the Austrian publisher JoWood stated that Massive was working on a successor to Aquanox with the title Aquanox: Revelation . In July 2002 the title was officially announced again and in August the title was renamed Aquanox 2: Revelation . JoWood hoped with this step to make it clear that it is a stand-alone sequel and not an add-on.

The development of Aquanox 2 posed a number of problems for Massive. Originally the studio had planned an add-on for the predecessor, instead it was decided to develop a full-fledged successor together with the parent company JoWood, which took over the Studio in 2000. Two years were planned as development time. But as JoWood's financial situation deteriorated rapidly, the schedule was cut to less than a year and hiring freezes were imposed. For the continuation, the team mainly responded to criticisms of the predecessor. Compared to Aquanox , the controls and graphics have been significantly revised. Metal and mirror effects were added, as did denser marine vegetation. In terms of color, the game world has become darker, and the basic mood is similar to that of the film Blade Runner . Development work was completed on November 5, 2002. On November 21, 2002, Massive released a demo of the game.

For the German voice output, a. Marcel Collé (as William Drake), Marius Clarén (Stoney), Marie Bierstedt (Angelina), Tobias Kluckert (Animal), Nana Spier (May Ling), Gerrit Schmidt-Foss , Jan-David Rönfeldt and Claudia Urbschat-Mingues .

reception

A frequent point of criticism of all tests were the dialogues and the associated action, which were described as extravagant and meaningless in terms of content:

“Clicking on the person opens up another window that shows the conversation between your character, the absurdly naive William Drake, and the person you've clicked on. These conversations are designed to give the game a plot, but more often than not, the sequences are filled with near-meaningless babble. "

“When you click on these people, a window opens with the conversation between your player character, the absurdly naive William Drake, and the person you clicked on. These conversations are designed to give the game a plot, but far too often the sequences are filled with almost meaningless babbling. "

- Jeff Gerstmann : Gamespot

“As in Aquanox the story is once more handled via boring, unsubstantial and sometimes even featherbrained dialogues, which fortunately can be stopped by using the Escape button. This one flaw renders the story of the game completely useless, as only few fragments of it actually find their way to the player. "

“As in Aquanox, the plot is once again dealt with through boring, insubstantial and sometimes even hollow dialogues, which fortunately can be broken off by using the escape key. This one weakness means that the plot turns out to be completely useless because only a few fragments actually find their way to the player. "

- Gamershell

“Sure, you don't tell a good story in two short sentences, but the gossip is clearly exaggerated here. Just to get an idea: In terms of volume, the spoken text in Revelation probably exceeds the audio book CD of Dieter Bohlen's bestseller Nothing but Truth. "

- Dirk Gooding : PC Games

Nevertheless, Aquanox 2 , like its predecessor, received many positive reviews, especially in German-language magazines. The Gamestar awarded as Aquanox 85%, as well 4Players . The PC Games depreciated only slightly worse with 84%, which, according to testers Dirk Gooding sufficient potential for a top score of 90 -% - would have been the area where the developer similar to Wing Commander would have used animated video sequences for the staging of the action. Most of the testers praised the consistent improvements to the weak points in the predecessor:

“In direct comparison with its predecessor, Aquanox 2 looks much more mature, the shortcomings most frequently mentioned by fans and critics have all been eliminated. The rather large scope of missions and the ease of use also ensure long-lasting motivation, even if the somewhat poorly colored and unspectacular presentation is certainly not as outstanding as one had assumed in advance. "

- Thorsten Wiesner : Golem.de

Internationally, however, the ratings were mostly more restrained. For example, Gamespot awarded 5.6 out of 10 points, IGN 6.0 out of 10, and Jeux Video scored 16 out of 20 points. The aggregator Metacritic determined a Metascore of 59/100 for the game, lower than that of its predecessor (63/100).

“In an age of recreation rather than innovation, developers struggle to improve on their works from the past. While it may be a worthy cause, they sometimes seem to lose sight on their (or at least player perceived) ultimate goal of creating a game that is fun to play, and doesn't just simply fix things that were wrong with the original game , like a giant $ 40 dollar patch. Unless you were a diehard fan of the original, I'd say give this one a pass. "

“In a time of repetition rather than innovation, developers struggle to improve on their past work. While this can potentially be a noble goal, sometimes they lose sight of their ultimate goal (at least from a player's point of view): to create a game that is fun to play, rather than just improving the unsuccessful aspects of the original game, comparable to one huge 40 dollar patch. If you are not an absolute fan of the original, my recommendation would be: skip this title. "

- Mark Birnbaum : IGN US

successor

Aquanox: Angel's Tears

Under the title Aquanox: Angel's Tears , Massive developed a port of Aquanox 2: Revelation for the PlayStation 2 . Already during the development, JoWood decided to close Massive Entertainment in order to save costs. Studio founder and development manager Alexander Jorias negotiated the continuation of operations until the title was completed. In May, while the game was still in the final acceptance process by the console manufacturer Sony , JoWood stopped paying Massive and wound up the studio. Since the title did not receive any approval from Sony's quality assurance when it was delivered, it was no longer published, despite statements to the contrary from JoWood.

Aquanox: Deep Descent

At gamescom 2013 , the Swedish publisher Nordic Games , which in 2011 took over the bankruptcy estate of JoWood and thus the trademark rights to Aquanox , announced a reboot of the series. In February, concept drawings by graphic artist Rodney Walden appeared, which could be assigned to an underwater action game by publisher THQ with the working title Deep6 that had never been produced . Most recently, the Ukrainian development studio 4A Games was working on a suitable concept when THQ's financial difficulties led to the discontinuation of all new projects. The previous concepts and first prototypes were auctioned by Nordic Games after THQ was broken up. It has been suggested that Nordic Games could use this as a basis for a reboot of the series. At gamescom 2014, Nordic Games presented a first tech demo of the game that was programmed by the Serbian contract developer Digital Arrow. Because the original author of the series, Helmut Halfmann, died in 2009, Aquanox: Deep Descent was announced as a reboot that no longer relates to the plot of the previous games.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e http://www.pcgames.de/Aquanox-2-Revelation-PC-25741/Tests/Nach Nahrungsmittel-des-Unterwasser-Shooters-Aquanox-111300/
  2. ↑ a b c http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PC-CDROM/Test/2668/1569/0/AquaNox_2_Revelation.html
  3. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Aquanox-2-Revelation-PC-25741/News/Aquanox-Revelation-offiziell-angek-und-uumlndigt-65690/
  4. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Aquanox-2-Revelation-PC-25741/News/Aquanox-Revelation-umbenannt-Termin-77810/
  5. ↑ a b http://www.pcgames.de/JoWooD-Entertainment-AG-Firma-15517/News/Jowood-Themenwoche-Tag-4-Aquanox-Schoepfer-Alexander-Jorias-Kunde-verzeiht-mindere-Qualitaet-nicht -825664 /
  6. ↑ Johnny Minkley: Interview: AquaNox 2 surfaces ( English ) In: Computer and Video Games . September 24, 2002. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved on January 14, 2011.
  7. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Aquanox-2-Revelation-PC-25741/News/Aquanox-2-ist-verbind-90710/
  8. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Aquanox-2-Revelation-PC-25741/News/Aquanox-2-Demo-ist-da-104720/
  9. ↑ a b http://www.golem.de/0212/23042.html
  10. ↑ a b Jeff Gerstmann: Aquanox 2 Revelation Review ( English ) In: Gamespot . September 29, 2003. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  11. ^ I. Deim: Aquanox 2 Revelation Review ( English ) In: Gamershell . Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  12. ↑ http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0000/00003717_test.htm
  13. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/aquanox-2-revelation
  14. ↑ Mark Birnbaum: Aquanox 2 Review ( English ) In: IGN . September 23, 2003. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  15. ↑ http://www.golem.de/0505/38338.html
  16. ↑ http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/23/4651434/aquanox-reboot-in-development-at-nordic-games
  17. ↑ http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/aquanox/news/deep6,37216,3033017.html
  18. ↑ http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/aquanox-deep-descent/artikel/aquanox_deep_descent,51489,3059051.html