[DHGR] Yay, New Colour Scheme!

Aqua Quest is a game created by crunchynut

Hello and welcome to my second review, and first review for my new reviewing company called [DHGR], which stands for Deadly honest game reviews. Now the creator of this game didn't ask for it to be reviewed I just decided to review it myself, because it has quite a lot to talk about. And todays review is on a very interesting game Called Aqua Quest, which was created by the one and only Crunchynut. But before we get the review under way, I want to start of by saying Yay! Finally a new colour scheme :D, because the last few of crunchynut's games have had pretty dark and gloomy background colours, so I was quite surprised the first time I saw Aqua Quest because I thought crunchy was going for a more darker set out to he's games recently. But anyway, were not here to discuss the background colour of crunchynut's games, were here to review the game play. So, on we go....

Review

First thoughts

The first time I played this game was a few days after it's release, looking at the thumbnail, it didn't give away any hint on difficulty or game play, but crunchynut's games normally don't, all I really got from the thumbnail was a pretty picture, but still, this is the norm for crunchnut. I decided to try Aqua Quest because I was looking for a classic shooter game to play, with good enemy placement that hits you right were it hurts, and crunchynut's games are a great example of this game perspective, so onto the game I clicked, and I was expecting the game to be an artistic map with like I say, good enemy placement and to die quite a lot and this was exactly what I got, but the question is did I like it...?

Game Play

Game play, well this is something I liked as much as I disliked. I can honestly say that of course the game play was good, but up to the point in this game I got there wasn't really any change in the game play from any other game by crunchynut, I understand that that's crnchy's style and how he makes he's games, but a little change to the game play here and there wouldn't have gone a miss? But despite the non changing play I still liked the game. It ticked all the right boxes at all the right times, so like I say, I liked it as much as I disliked it, but I just like to say if crunchy's reading this; Can we please see a different type of game play? because sure, there was a few slight adjustments to the game play with Aqua Quest, but the basic game play still revolved around what we've always seen from you. Although I did see a few new elements to the game play as I got further in, for instance there is a time limit with this game, because as the storyline goes, your in the ocean, and after years of searching you've found an underwater palace, although your submarine is almost out of energy, so I'm guessing this is the reason Aqua Quest has a time limit, because it's there to simulate that you have to find this treasure fast before your submarine loses it's energy and you die. As an overall on the game play, I have to say that of course I liked it, although I was really hoping to see some new aspects and things placed differently, because I never really found this game addictive because I've played a fair amount like it before.

Puzzles and Traps

Well... I saw no puzzles at all in AQua Quest. I don't know if this is due to the fact I didn't get far enought to find one, or just that Crunchynut never actually put any in. And to be fair I didn't realy notice any Traps either, there wer parts that could make you take damage faster if you didn't act fats and defeat certain enemiews, although I never really saw anything of a trap or puzzle, which I was quite suprised by, because Crunchynut is very good at making and devloping new puzzles for this persific creator. Although like I say, this may well have been down to the fact that I didn't manage to get all the way into this game, because I think there was still a fair distance to reach. But, yes there is a massive but, the way this game has been created, I think that puzzles don't really have a place to fit in, because this is a pretty fast paced action packed game, so I didn't really want to have to mess around with little puzzles, I was more into destroying my enemies and gathering as many crystal's as possible. So down to that factor, I really didn't have a major problem with the fact I saw no puzzles, because if anything I think that oddly placed puzzles would have slowed the game play and made it less fun.

Placement

The best aspect of the game, by far. The enemies were placed so good, that I wanted to smash my computer. Yes, because they kept on getting me. No matter how I tried to attack them, or which weapon I used on them, they still got me. I expected this anyway, because Cruchynut is one of the kings of great placed enemies, and what I also liked was the fact he used a differ of enemies and didn't just stick to the same few choices. Other than enemy placement, the health was also pretty well placed. It was scarce, but you had to work for it, which is another good game play aspect, because it makes you play with more care, and not go all out and lose all your health and die. There was also a few hazardous items, which were smartly placed and would cause damage that you could do without taking, if you wasn't careful. This was yet another factor for good game play, because I found it rather annoying when your trying to get a crystal in steal mode, to avoid getting noticed by enemies, and then you have an acid block explode in front of you. It really doesn't help you to stay alive... If you get my point?

Scenery and Creativity

I made a whole section for this concept, because it's amazing and has a far bit to talk about. Well, to start off if you've ever played a game by crunchynut before, then you'll understand how creative this guy actually is. I would even say he has a talent for making shooter games stand out and look totally awsome. He adds a fair amount of explorative colours, and he's also a dab-hand at making pretty pattens. This is a great talent to have, especially for the shooter creator, in which games can become quite boring if there just plain and have a boring layout and scenery, so Aqua quest really did keep me playing and enjoyed. The scenery could become very annoying at times as well though, because there are certain small areas in which the ship can easily become stuck, and this works well as another hazard, so I think Cruchynut may have used that to he's advantage, as possibly a little trap, because I know I got stuck in areas of the scenery quite a lot and it becomes very annoying, because you can't get out 90% of the time, so you have to start again. Really though, I honestly loved the art work that has been put into this game, because it works well and looks amazing.

-Pro's

-Great placement

-Nice layout and scenery

-Nice difficulty; not to easy, or to hard

-Fun game play

-Con's

-Slightly repetitive game play

-No puzzle (From what I saw)

-Lag

Ratings

Game play

Puzzles and Traps

Placement

Scenery and Creativity

Difficulty

Overall

Final Say

So to round this game off, I'd personally say it was a really enjoyable game, which did come across as yet another repeat of a classic crunchynut game, yet Aqua quest did consist of significant changes, for example the colour scheme ^_^. But this game isn't all bubbles and, bright colours, it's an example of what sploder is and what it stands for, and Aqua quest is a perfect example of a classic game that's helped to build sploder over these past 5 years. I would deem Aqua quest well worthy of it's feature, but I would still like to see a few more changes in crunchynut's games, soley because he's a great creator and I know he's good enough to make a different style. But on that note my friends, comes the end of yet another great sploder games.

Farewell until my next review, but until the good bye!

~Jakey