12/11/2023 0 Comments Aquaticos![]() ![]() Managing the game’s interlocking production chains provides a pleasing puzzle, but once I set up basic fuel and food supply systems, all sense of threat from the environment evaporated, leaving little reason to progress other than the fact that, well, I guess I’m supposed to because I’m playing a game. The version of Aquatico I had access to only has one difficulty mode: normal. Every time you place a new building, send out a scouting party, or tap a new resource, it’s a make-or-break decision that has the potential to plunge your city into frozen darkness and the unique narrative stakes introduced in each campaign imbue each choice with additional weight and meaning. Frostpunk is the obvious example of a city-builder game that does both of these things right. In order for a city builder to reel me in, it needs to do two things: challenge me and make me care. It’s the "survival" part of “survival city builder” where Aquatico flounders. However, the reality of deep-sea living is less 'swimming against an unforgiving tide' and more 'lukewarm bath.' In order to succeed as sea-mayor, you’re told, you must battle the elements, explore the ocean floor on daring expeditions, and introduce new policies to keep your city happy, productive, and breathing. The game begins with a quick splash of post-apocalyptic narrative – life on the surface was awesome until it took a giant meteor to the face – before plunging players into a comprehensive tutorial about the various infrastructure you need to build to provide power, oxygen, and other essentials to your tiny team of scientists on the ocean floor. After all, you might be able to scare off a predator, but there’s no negotiating with an ocean current.Īquatico promises city-building enthusiasts a deep dive into this nearly untapped environ (nearly untapped, I’ll get into that later) but while this game delivers on the ocean’s beauty, it’s disappointingly light on peril. Every breathtaking thing down there, from jellyfish to giant squids to killer whales, either wants to kill you (see killer whales) or is so frigidly indifferent to human existence that it might as well want you dead. There’s nothing like the ocean when it comes to perilous beauty. ![]() Aquatico is so straightforward it basically plays itself. Unfortunately, it takes the concept of “automation” a little too far. This wavepunk survival game offers a serene sketch of life in a post-automation deep sea society. ![]()
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