Hello and welcome to the first edition of the bad rant for this year. I could have skipped showering to post this earlier but when it comes to personal hygiene i’m a lot more mainstream. Today I will take a delicate bite into the tender flesh of Aquaria.
Aquaria is an independent video game that has received the Seumas McNally Grand Prize soon after it was released in the last month of 2007. I have to admit that there was an extraordinary amount of originality and efforts put into the making of this game. First “great” video game where the action take place mostly underwater combined with fluid controls, song based spell casting system that allows you to get rid of your opponents in multiple ways like shoving a huge boulder at him breaking all of his fish bones or making his projectiles bounce back into his gills and boss battles that drives you to the edge of your seat while making you solve puzzles and riddles. You’d think i’m over exaggerating but this game really is abysmally deep.
The cooking mini game is great in some way but the fact that you can just search online for whatever combination of ingredients and create what you need really makes the whole experience feel like grocery shopping. That and also the fact that it’s sexist…
… but I digress. What really made me rant about this product is the fact that you need to explore… a lot. The paths are multiple and not always linear so you don’t always get the impression that you’re going the right way and you end up wondering if you’re playing the game right. Of course the game would be intensely boring if everything was condensed in a small area and the path would be just one straight line but i’m pretty sure there’s a middle ground between both worlds.
Of course I just started playing the game for now so maybe I will discover more to like about this game. So far I would recommend it since it’s worth every penny.
I give Aquaria a solid 8/10
