Hydrophobia PAX East Trailer

Posted by WhenYourGodGivesYouLemons On 6:42 PM

Hydrophobia, apart from being a fear of water, is an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive game being developed by Dark Energy Digital. The game places a heavy focus on water, with the studio even developing an engine (HydroEngine) to accurately model the water the way they wanted it.


The game is slated for a 2010 release and the official website describes the game as follows:
"HydrophobiaTM is set in the near future when the world has become massively over-populated, and takes place onboard the "Queen of the World", a city sized ship which tours the globe and is home to the wealthy elite. An epic backstory reveals the rise of Malthusian politics as all eyes look to NanoCell, one of the Founding Fathers of the great vessel, who has vowed to develop the technology which will feed the burgeoning human population. As systems engineer Kate Wilson, you must use every tool at your disposal to survive and escape the flooding lower decks of the great vessel."
That is escape the flooding lower decks that have been created by a terrorist group setting off a bomb on the cruise ship. I'm not quite sure why a systems engineer has been chosen as the protagonist when clearly there are lots of terrorists that need killing and I'm pretty sure systems engineering doesn't teach you that (if it does I'm seriously on the wrong career path).  

The graphics look good, for an Xbox Live release, but they aren't consistently good with certain screenshots and parts of the trailer looking rather unappealing. The trailer also didn't really showoff the water doing anything worthy of creating a whole new engine for which you'd think would be a focus for the marketing considering it's the games big selling point.

I did like the way the trailer was composed. As the horrible Eastern European voice over described the plight of the Hydrophobia universe the trailer showcased parts of the cruise ship that mirrored what he was talking about. It helped create a desperate mood in the game where creating a feeling of 'everything rests on your shoulders' will be key to its success. The game sounds like it could have some interesting gameplay elements like the ability to control and manipulate the water, engage enemies in and out of the water and use electricity or oil fires to take enemies down.

It at least looks to give Tomb Raider fans something to play or complain about until the new Tomb Raider comes out.

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