Aquanox: Deep Descent

As a Kickstarter backer to honor the original Archamedian Dynasty i was surprised how good this game is. This is a old school story driven linear experience that is a lot like the original game (no open world).
As a diver of 30 years of experience I can honestly say that this arcade "underwater space sim" does capture the feeling of beeing deep under water in an excellent way without beeing a simulation. The cave sections are fantastic for anybody who has done any sort of cave diving.
Happy to have backed this one! For me this game comes right next to the original Archamedian Dynasty and is way better than the Aquanox titles. Well done!

Despite releasing in 2020 being in development for about 5 years, it feels very unfinished and dated. Still, I had fun, and I like the story and gameplay, even though it wasn't as immersive as one would expect.
There's more cons than pros, mainly because it's a low budget production and I expected more for the price. I know some people would refund the game after seeing how little effort the team put into some of the content, so I think these points are worth mentioning.
DISCLAIMER: I haven't played previous AquaNox titles, but I am a fan of Freelancer and other games in its likelihood.
Pros:
- The gameplay is unique and fits the setting: a nice blend of FPS close quarters combat with 6DOF. However, don't expect it to be anything like a space sim.
- A very nice variety of weapons and DSFs (Deep Sea Fighters) to choose from, allowing for many different play styles.
- Each DSF (Deep Sea Fighter) is unique and has its own HUD, which made "dive into the game" a little more when I noticed it.
- The story is interesting, and it's the main thing that kept me invested in the game. There's just a LOT of content to be played.
Cons:
- Conversations are linear, no free choice, despite there always being a list of replies with only 1 choice most of the time...
- Cutscenes are literally colorized storyboards rather than actual in-engine scenes, with a lot of re-used sprites, even though we see animated 3D models of people in stations as background props.
- The game always acts as if there's 4 of you, even when you play single player. I'd expect bots to fill the gaps...
- Some of the names, places, and character designs seem like temporary content that should've been replaced in the final version.
- Some of the descriptions are written in broken English.
- The voice acting sounds cheap, the actors often overact their roles, and not all voices fit their character's description (e.g. a Russian guy, from the game world's Russia, with perfect British accent)
- There's not much side quests, and not enough random missions ("Gun For Hire") to fill in some progression gaps.
- You need certain materials to craft consumables and survive intense battles. You need the same materials (some of which are relatively rare) to upgrade your DSFs. It ends up forcing you to stick with a certain DSF for longer that you'd like to.

My game first game, first mission was literally bugged. Spoiler alert, I guess. But seriously, first time playing, wake up, follow ishmael, get to one of the little green light gates. Ish stays there. Gate stays closed. Ish swims around in circles. nothing happens. Wait for a little bit, like wtf. Finally reload autosave, get to gate, it opens right up and some rock falling event is triggered. That's the fastest I've ever seen a "you shall not pass" style bug show up in a game ever. Well done Digital Arrow! 10/10.

As a relative old timer (having played and enjoyed a lot Aquanox 1 & 2) I was really surprised when I saw Aquanox Deep Descent appearing on my radar.
The story itself is quite good and I enjoyed it, graphics are more than decent.
Small improvements would have been needed, like generally all the docking experience which has not received that much love.
Overall a good money spend, but especially if you played the first Aquanox games.