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[saibot216]

So I wanted to try Archimedian Dynasty because it's the prequel to Aqua Nox, a game that had a pretty cool looking ad in PC Gamer way back when. I figured because it's the predecessor it won't be perfect, but shit, I didn't think it would be this bad. The scenarios are the only good part about it, otherwise I just didn't give two shits about the story because they dropped me in the middle of something and expected me to care along with the atrocious amounts of dialogue, it's like someone threw you into Seven Samurai halfway through, you're not going to care now, so why bother. I eventually just stopped caring about what people said and skipped conversations, from the conversations I did read, I gathered that the main character likes to kiss ass about his boss to random people and he gets picked up in the bars by all the men.
When you get into the scenarios, you'll discover your ship handles like a bicycle on oiled pavement, but that's to be expected because you're in water, if I stopped suddenly, I would be rather confused, but it's so hard to maneuver your ship around the cities that have been built underwater. It's pretty hard to multitask with this game, you press 'A' to move forward, 'Z' to reverse, then 'SPACE' to shoot, and the arrow keys to change your view on the X and Y coordinates, I've never had to much trouble trying to fly. My fingers were practically in a Pretzel on the keyboard, thank god there isn't a pilot's test I have to pass in this game or I'd be screwed.
The enemy AI are rather thick, like a bunch of tourists visiting the underwater cities stopping and turning around every once in awhile to shoot at you like they're pissed you're following them. The ship you pilot is the strongest thing I've ever piloted in my video gaming career. I crashed into buildings and other ships and got shot at numerous times and I was pretty fine, at the end of the mission where I had to kill an army attacking a city, my armor was only down to 75% and do you know how I killed most of my enemies? By shooting at them and then deciding, "fuck it!" and ramming into them. When the ships explode you see a silhouette of the pilot in the explosion, which was actually pretty neat, but then I thought, wait, the ship just exploded, how the fuck is the pilot still fully intact?
The sound effects are pretty cool because when you crash into something you get a loud concussive bang that genuinely sounds like your big ship just plowed into something. Every sound sounds like it's actually underwater, which is pretty awesome. The music is... well for the most part it isn't, but when it is it's pretty dull ambient music that kind of gets on my nerves and if electronic ambient music is getting on my nerves than you've done something wrong.
Overall, this game is just not good. I said the scenarios were the only good part about it and even those were hard to get into and then just boring. The story can go fuck itself and I honestly just didn't care what was being said in any sequence of dialogue because of the way the story was presented. The sound effects were pretty cool, but that was it. This game can go sleep with the fishes.

[Wolf Thug]

I was thinking of downloading this game wasn't sure it was worth it , now that I read this I know its not worth playing this game , thanks.

[saibot216]

Glad to have helped you. It really isn't worth it.

[hunvagy]

Actually it is. And it is a fun game, and has a nifty story, considering the premise. Way better then Wetlands for instance, even though I liked that one, too. Wolf Thug, you should get it and form your own opinion, because this review couldn't be any more biased, even if it had twice the f-bombs in it.

[saibot216]

I had watched a lot of Zero Punctuation before writing this review, so I may seem a bit harsh. Without the F-bombs, I can say I don't think it is worth a try, but you are welcome to try it yourself, I won't stop you. Maybe you'll agree or disagree.

[arete]

In terms of review writing, saibot, I like your honesty and straightforwardness. Try to give more of an intro into the game, though, in terms of who you are, where you are in terms of setting, and why the game world is the way it is. With a bit more background, you give whoever reads your review the opportunity to decide for themselves if they like the scenario or not.

Also, try to be a bit more objective. Just because you hated the game doesn't mean other people necessarily will. If you read the review on the site, which also started out as a community review (written while the game was still protected), you'll see that the things you hated about the game were actually enjoyed by that reviewer. So don't be too quick to put people off. What you could really do is say, "this is what the game is like. I hated it becasue of X, Y and Z, but maybe you'll like it anyway".

Alternatively, some people write reviews who thoroughly like a game, and push it as being perfect and amazing, without mentioning any of the very real drawbacks that might put other people off.

So, nice review, but it would have been much better if you'd included more information and tried to be less biased. In terms of putting games on Abandonia, what you're trying to do is inform the player about the game's history and what it was like to play it at the time (of course, a really old game will be terrible in terms of graphics compared to, say, Call of Duty 4, but for the time perhaps it was really well made). In the end, you want to give the reader as much information as possible so that they can make up their own mind

[saibot216]

Yeah, my lesson is, never watch lots of Zero Punctuation before writing a review, lol. I didn't mean to be so, "this game is bad and you'll think so too," though I do find it weird that those things are praised. I'm the type of person that hates Halo, while everyone else seems to love it. To each his own.

[arete]

Hahaha, indeed Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto, let's call the whole thing off...

[saibot216]

LOL, yes, let's.