Is this game Archimedean Dynasty or has it anything to do with the World of Aqua?

[Jhea]

Simple Answer - no it has not.

TL;DR at the bottom

It's an ok game.
It has nice gameplay. The zipping arround in your spacecraft/submarine is on par with aquanox - or even G-Police if anyone remembers that (and that was on the Jupiter moon of Kallisto!)

The maps are gorgeous.
The mystery to get from a to b and explore stuff is there and that is nice.
the cavesystems are interesting... but

But is it really Archimedean Dynasty/Aquanox?

No... definetly no.

The original game from 1997 didn't introduce any magical beings from outer space to judge humanity.
The reason humanity lived in aqua was just coz the surface got destroyed.
The Polar Ice melted and everything is underwater now and the surface is uninhabitable.
End of story.

In the original game box (yes there were cardboard boxes back then) it had a brief history of the world of aqua.
The history was in a booklet and about 4 pages long.
The Devs back there really had their ♥♥♥♥ together.
Neopolis for example was a big underwater city, and not a 'station'

here have a look at that

https://www.mobygames.com/images/promo/original/1515321156-2530689724.png

It had no Jump portals and super magic space portals to get from on part of the aquasphere to the next.
well yes it had 'jump stars' which were in generel just harbors for the jump ships, which just had a special engine (dipol engine) that made the ship go fast in open water, but it still needed a few days to get across the ocean.
nothing too wild.
it all kind of made sense and was pretty much doable with todays (or even 1997s) science and engineering level.

(i'll put the history of the world of aqua at the bottom....)

not much in this game makes any snse.

What really made me want to quit right there was, when i had to ... ok spoiler territory
also rant!


rescue a kid named emeral flint and my char nicknamed him 'deadeye'

OHFORF!

really? had that to be done?


the only thing that made this game playable for me after that point was, that i imagined it to be somewhere else.
on another planet.
maybe naboo from star wars, or that planet from subnautica 4546B
Then it kind of made some sense.


It didn't make any sense to introduce the bionts as major enemy.
Even man made enemies....
In 1997 noone knew what a biont was, even when you made the missions for yalla rangun on the star of Bengalia

This game does not feel anything like the world Archimedean Dynasty.
As i said, it's an ok game. With gorgeous level design. but it does not get the world right.

Aquanox at least had the game universe correct, even if it introduced new enemies from an 'hollow' earth and some major fish monsters.


Just look at these videos from the original game and you have to admit that the franchise kind of jumped the shark with this one... or even aquanox 2 did it...
tbh, this would've been better aquanox 3, and should've taken on the story of aquanox 2 which had it's major cliffhanger back in 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpLU-rmh86E



and here we have the manual of the game witht the history of course.
in german - but google translate will get it right for you.

http://www.aqua-datennetz.de/Downloads/sfmanual.pdf

I find it kind of sad, that a fanproject has the history and the universe more correct than a game dev studio with people involved whos only job it is to get this stuff right.

Please respect the IP.

This game only makes sense if you take it, and put it in its own universe on another planet, but not earth.
The Marianas trench for example has a real big power plant in the original game ;) not some Mystery science station.


Here we have a map of aqua, with the stations of the gameworld of AD and Aquanox
http://www.aqua-datennetz.de/Bilder/Karte.jpg


I really want to like the game as part of the aquaverse... but i can not... and that makes me sad.


TL;DR

summary

Good game on it's own, out of the aquaverseFun Gameplay for the most part.Needs some quality of life updates for item and weapon management The Story is engaging enough to keep you interested till the end.

But has nothing to do with the world of aqua, and it also makes the mistake that even George Lucas did not do with Han Solo and desecrate the body of Deadeye Flint .

And i'm for sure not gonna pay 10 Euros to get the Video that makes me link everything together.

It makes me sad.

[Powerkraut]

I agree 100%. Nice game but more of a shooter. But I think that was never the goal.

Unfortunately the original author of the story died. And even though I'm one of those trying to do a fan project I think I would respect that and never touch the original places - well that would be kind of an IP violation anyway I guess...

[kingarthur772]

Archimedean Dynasty / and the old Aquanox-Row are playing before. It must have to do with the Secret at the End of Aquanox 2, because you haven´t had anything with Jump Doors before and the coop in the Atlantic Federation get more times around announced, which was done in the old Aquanox I.

Or it´s an complete other Storyline which means only the Clans-Union get founded and the Atlantic Federation get an coup before. The Bionts and the new Crawlers from Auqanox I get one Fraction. And what to Hell is the IPF? Never heard from them in the old Row.

[Captain Worthy]

This game is a reimagining of the old IP, and while it is set in the same world and in a time period prior to Archimedean Dynasty, the history has been partially re-written.

The gates between the maps probably exist because they were easier to make than code a transfer system into the carrier submarine. They also provide a convenient way to split the maps into smaller segments so the game can run on potato PC's. The minimum requirements are really low even for a game that was delayed for a couple of years.

[Nounours©]

Originally posted by Powerkraut:

I agree 100%. Nice game but more of a shooter. But I think that was never the goal.

Unfortunately the original author of the story died. And even though I'm one of those trying to do a fan project I think I would respect that and never touch the original places - well that would be kind of an IP violation anyway I guess...

The author really died? Makes me sad... I guess some mysteries of the triology will remain unanswered. :(

In fact I played the trilogy just for the lore.

[[LM]crashy]

There are a few manuscript from Helmut Haflmann there http://aqua-datennetz.de/Dateiarchiv.php , but it's in german

[dsagent]

I really miss the blade runner underwater vibe the original had.

I did enjoy some parts of the story and the gameplay is great one you have all the upgrades.
In my review I mentioned most of the upgrades are given WAYYY late into the game.

[Nasenbaerus]

Thumbs up! I agree with every single sentence you wrote! (I mean the OP)

[Nasenbaerus]

Originally posted by Captain Worthy:

This game is a reimagining of the old IP, and while it is set in the same world and in a time period prior to Archimedean Dynasty, the history has been partially re-written.

The gates between the maps probably exist because they were easier to make than code a transfer system into the carrier submarine. They also provide a convenient way to split the maps into smaller segments so the game can run on potato PC's. The minimum requirements are really low even for a game that was delayed for a couple of years.

You mean like the old game? Showing an animation how you dock to the ship while it loads the next level? The portals are there because they had no clue what they are doing, but made like this it gives you the feeling of your general space sim. Great.

[kingarthur772]

No it hasn´t anything to do with the old Storyline. There are to many differences between the etablished Series and the audition here.

Beginning with the Jump Gates which were never announced in the old Storyline.

Then the Capullses which are announced as Fighting-U-Boats.

The other thing is that they have Shields instead normal Armor.

In Short: It´s a tryout of an complete new Storyline form about 350 Years before the old Storyline to the Dates which have the old Games. And it has nothing to do with the old Storyline, which were great for her time.

[Falkenherz]

A remaster of Schleichfahrt, with VR support and multiplayer, would have made me happy. This one smells stale.

[[LM]crashy]

350 years before SF ? But then why is there a young Flint ?

[Jhea]

It's 20 to 15 years before SW...
There fore it all makes no sense and is utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
No way they build whole underwater cities, develop the whole jumpship (aka bipol fast travel ships with jumpstars) technology, develop the whole helinox industry so that leo van der whaal and EnTrOx can rule as shadowy figures over aqua, etc etc etc.

This whole game storyline is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
The writers wanted all the payoffs with aliens, marianas trench, etc. all the spectacular sites in the deep sea, without any setup or the wrong setup...
heck in the year 3000 i could maybe understand this whole nonsense of a story, or as i wrote on another planet.
But not in the year 2591 - which this game is set in
(550s celebration of settlement day was in 2611 in the original game in Neopolis. The whole city celebrated and pretty much every major faction was invited or on the brink of bringing some supplies there)

so no... thank you
this is not qua.
this is 4546b, before alterra crashlanded there.

[[LM]crashy]

In original SF game, in 2640 there was the destruction of New Bombay, during the war between Shogunate and Atlantic Federation.

That would have been an awesome plot, being a free mercenary or a Clansunion pilot in the middle of the war and political intrigues.

[Jhea]

Originally posted by LMcrashy:

In original SF game, in 2640 there was the destruction of New Bombay, during the war between Shogunate and Atlantic Federation.

That would have been an awesome plot, being a free mercenary or a Clansunion pilot in the middle of the war and political intrigues.

That would actually require skilled writers ;)