Aquanox Deep Descent

 PC
Metascore
65

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. GameGrin
    Feb 8, 2021
    80
    Submarines, Bionts, Dystopia and shooty shoots, what’s not to love? Buy this, slap on your cowboy hat, and stick some Linda Ronstadt on as you drive “every kind of rig that’s ever been made” in the deep blue.
  2. Hey Poor Player
    Oct 27, 2020
    80
    Aquanox Deep Descent is a very welcome return for an underrated series. In this era of modern re-imaginings, this game delivers in introducing Aquanox’s world to a new generation of players. The movement may be slightly cumbersome and things may get a bit hard, but it always manages to be engaging and fun. The world and story, combined with the solid multiplayer elements for both PvP and co-op, make this a well-rounded experience and essential purchase for fans of six degrees of freedom-type shooting games. If you’re interesting in dipping your toes in its waters, swim on over here to check it out.
  3. Ragequit.gr
    Oct 15, 2020
    80
    A very solid entry in the genre by Digital Arrow that narrowly misses on true greatness due to some small missteps. A bit more attention to detail, better enemy AI and higher production values would have hugely benefited an otherwise very enjoyable action/simulation game.
  5. PC Invasion
    Oct 15, 2020
    80
    Duking it out underwater is a lot of fun in this game. The visuals are well-done, it plays well, and the story is quite strong too. Very much worth a look for anyone intrigued by its premise.
  6. Wccftech
    Oct 15, 2020
    77
    With its interesting setting, engaging story, great combat mechanics, and tons of customization options, Aquanox Deep Descent is a more than worthy new entry in the classic series. Bland mission design and a repetitive structure does damage the experience a bit, but all those that enjoy dogfighting games, no matter where they take place, will find plenty to like in the game.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 28
  3. Negative: 7 out of 28
  1. Ya_boi_Andr
    Oct 18, 2020
    10
    Enjoyable game play to say the least. Great graphics and a nice story. Had a lot of fun playing it.Good job developers!
  2. Kirill_Klimov
    Oct 30, 2020
    3
    [Aquanox Deep Descent: Jacques-Yves Cousteau simulator. And, surprisingly, real Jacques-Yves Cousteau is more fascinating]

    Pain. That is    [Aquanox Deep Descent: Jacques-Yves Cousteau simulator. And, surprisingly, real Jacques-Yves Cousteau is more fascinating]

    Pain. That is the only feeling I experienced while playing this game. Every aspect of Aquanox is excruciatingly painful, from gameplay, especially combat-wise, to plot. In fact, I have not found a single feature that this game could be commended for.

    First, game mechanics. To better understand what this game feels like, try to imagine an incredibly boring and, at the same time, unreasonably difficult side mission in an otherwise good game. Like searching for minerals in Mako-truck in Mass Effect 1. Now, imagine that someone played this side mission and said to themselves: “Wow! That is so perfectly useless and anticlimactic! I should make a whole game out of it!” As a result, Aquanox Deep Descent was born.

    Nominally, the game positions itself as a shooter but it is anything but. “Doom” series are exemplar shooters: apart from the fact that there is fire everywhere, they are fast and captivating. On the other hand, watery Aquanox is a complete opposite of those: the game is slow and depressing. In addition to lame combat-regime, the submarine interface is extremely inconvenient. I mean, for real deep-sea explorers such an interface might be perfect. However, for a player it is extremely annoying to do a 360-turn every time they need to find the objective or strain their eyes to discern the remaining level of oxygen.

    Then, Aquanox has a plot. Or, well, it is said that the game has a plot. In fact, the story is a combination of endless loose ends that, even if they are tied up in the end, do not spur the player to beat the game. For example, the surface of the Earth was destroyed. How? Why? Who is responsible? What is more, while at the very beginning of the game, I was interested in such questions; 5 hours into the game the only problem that bothered me was “how do I not die of boredom?”.

    Besides, the main characters of the game are as stale as the plot. First, there are four of them. Having multiple protagonists is not a bad idea of itself (remember “Heavy Rain”), but in that case, they need to be equally well-developed. Conversely, in Aquanox, the main characters are not interesting at all. I did not know their past but I cannot say I cared about their future. Plus, the dialogues in the game are so pompous, pretentious and, at the same time, mostly meaningless that I do not want the characters to speak ever again. Like, a person asks the ship captain (sic!) if the fauna is dangerous, but the latter answers with a pathetically meaningful intonation: “It is different from what you experienced before. You will see…” I am off to a dangerous mission, you drama queen! I need an appropriate brief!

    To recap, painful gameplay and the atmosphere of pompous boredom are major flaws of Aquanox Deep Descent. There are numerous smaller shortcomings but the ones mentioned are already enough for me to advise not to play this game. After a 5-hours walkthrough, I could not force myself to go further.

    3 out of 10    … Full Review »
  3. JonnysBeard
    Oct 18, 2020
    3
    This is an action game with terrible combat and poor writing. Okay for a 2010 independent title, but not a 2020 game with a famous name attached.
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