Another wildlife game I have recently played is Aquanaut’s Holiday so I’ve decided to share a short review. It is quite similar to Afrika but instead set in a marine environment. It takes place around an atoll in Japan. One of the researcher’s at the base on the atoll has gone missing with one of the submarines. It is up to you to try and find him.
The story is very stupid. It’s just completely unrealistic and was unneeded in the game. It would have been better for the game to follow the mission structure in Afrika. Instead you have to complete missions by looking for evidence of the researcher’s whereabouts. What makes the story even worse is how it ignores the actual wildlife in the atoll.
Aquanaut’s Holiday is visually fantastic. It is probably one if the best looking games I have played. The coral reefs and fish look amazing. With over 300 marine organisms in the game the attention to detail is remarkable. Each marine organism you find in the game is recorded into a log. You can then view this log which provides information on its lifestyle etc. As well as the usual fish there are plants and different type of snails to log. Also in the game are whales and sharks. They look almost real in the game – as if you are watching a documentary. At the atoll there are 12 different sea’s to discover. Each sea has a different type of underwater habitats. For example, one sea is very shallow attracting smaller more vibrant fish compared to a sea which is very deep full of squids and even giant squids.
Throughout the game you travel underwater in a small submarine which can be easily controlled. It’s quick through the water and fits through many caves and underwater crevasses, meaning nearly all areas are easily accessible. However, there are some frame rate dips whilst playing. These mainly occur once boost is activated on the sub, which allows it to go faster.
There is a little mini game in Aquanaut’s Holiday. It takes the shape of the classic memory game and revolves around singing fish in the game. It is all very silly. It can prove quite fun to play initially but after a while you will be asking yourself why there are singing fish in the game.
Similarly to Afrika you can take photos of the game and save them to your PS3’s HDD. This is a nice feature which allows you to save some lovely screenshots of the game and share them with others.
Apart from the simply awful story and strange mini game, Aquanaut’s Holiday is a wonderful game. It will only appeal to wildlife lovers so its audience isn’t very wide. Also the game is only available in Asia and it is practically difficult to find a copy of the game with the English language. With that said it is a very unique game which in my opinion deserves praise for its attention to detail and amazing visuals.
