by Wendy Pettit

Created on: July 23, 2008   Last Updated: July 24, 2008

Game Review Aquaria: 1/5

I played this game for an hour and never did quite grasp the purpose of it. The underwater creature, literally just swims around from ocean to ocean, looking for a place to call home. A few times, she encounters an evil sea witch, some dialog is exchanged, and then the little sea goddess is off again on her little swim.

The sea goddess narrates throughout the journey, conveying her thoughts and fears. The storytelling does keep you engrossed in the story line and compels you to keep travelling in hopes of finding a successful conclusion for the little creature.

There was one moment during the game in which instructions were given to press the middle button on the mouse, to see upcoming dangers. However, my mouse has no such device, it has a ball in which to move around with, no middle dial like most. Therefore, I continued to swim without the knowledge of what was ahead. I encountered no dangers or obstacles, just simply swam along with no apparent purpose.

Although the game was incredible boring, the graphics were beautiful. The design and creativity came alive through the vivid colors and a realistic ocean. The underwater world was believable with life like coral and other sea inhabitants.

The music was soothing, but got a little irritating after awhile. A change-up would have been nice; however, there was not enough action to warrant a change-up. Occasionally, during the music the little creature would speak and share her feelings with you. That was the only break in the repetitive melody.

There was not a strong creativity in the game structure. More of anything would be a huge improvement. If the main character could capture items to assist her in her journey, that would give the game some sort of objective. It did not offer any amusement that would encourage the player to continue the game.

I would have loved to see some sort of conflict between the little creature and the sea witch. The sea witch did show some antagonism toward the creature but nothing ever came of it. There were no more sightings of her throughout the rest of the game. I would have enjoyed fighting the wicked enmity and kicking her butt.

I would not recommend this game to anyone, except maybe very young children, three of four years of age. I would certainly not spend the money buying a game in which I find so boring. Actually, I would not even waste my time playing it again, even if it were free.

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