Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising

The Good
Eye popping graphics and attention to detail that, even today (08/2003) still look fantastic. Day-night cycles and lighting effects especially.

Also, it sports a well-written plot revealed by inventive cutscenes.

Extremely playable - the process of skipping from buiding to planning to fighting is painless and seamless.

The Bad
No level designer. No multiplayer mode (an unforgivable omission that sinks any replay value).

The Bottom Line
An excellent game that suffers from 'play-it-once-itis'. The game design, AI, and controls all ooze professionalism and polish.

Unfortunately, much like 'Max Payne', it suffers from a lack of replayability largely due to a lack of a 'skirmish' or multiplayer mode.

The Good
Been an old fan of Blake 7, and having Avon and Soolin in it was the major attraction for me. Hearing Tom Baker again to was a treat.

The game play is pretty good. Getting a hang of controlling units is tricky at first, and not for morons who can't handle it. It's innovative. A good plot and Paul Darrow does a great job of putting it across.

The other characters add inspiration to the feel of the game with their little quotations. eg, Koralev, Mother Russia would be proud. Borden. I love demolition.

Graphics are original and ok for me. Great maps and models. Great cut scenes and cinematics. The idea of giving units orders and been able to take control yourself at any time is a great idea. Plenty of objectives in levels, and at least one other way to go about it. More games should have this in mind.

The Bad
I have'nt been clever enough to give orders outside the war room which it says can be done.

The manual is not much help.

I would have liked it if you could have had some control over Antaeus itself in the levels.

Strategy at times could have been better. All you have to do to win is knock out the enemies resource production. The alien units could have been a little more imaginative, because there just spidery looking things and big grubs.

Even with Glynis Barber giving you a good rap in the end, it's a pity you have to die, leaving not much room for a sequel, for your crew anyway.

The Bottom Line
Definitely not for beginner gamers, as the controls can be hard for some, though I had no problem. Not for those who don't like sci fi. Not a bad blend of strategy and first person action.

The Good
The truth? I can't think of much things I loved about the game. There were some good ideas, but they weren't implemented well - like having the option to be in your command center and see the map, and then actually being outside. The idea is nice - but they should have made it more useful.

The Bad
The graphics - the game was released last year, but we saw other games with much more impressive 3D engines. The controls - don't they want us to play the game...? It took me a lot of time to understand how to navigate outside in the battle, and the manual certainly didn't help. Also, the gameplay isn't unique or something. They're just trying to hide the boring gameplay in the new 3D map, which wasn't implemented much yet then.

The Bottom Line
Not a good game at all! It isn't really interesting, old graphics, and almost impossible controls.