Undertow actually has a story behind it. The Earth has been flooded over and three forces are battling for control of the oceans. That is, the humans, Nemo’s army and Atlantians. You’ll get to play as each, and though they have the same base units, Nemo’s army is more mechanically based while the Atlantians are helped by magical powers and sea creatures. While it’s nothing grand and not too long, the story is actually quite good and leaves room for a sequel.
The game mixes up the standard dual-analog formula. You play on a 2D plane that has been rendered on 3D graphics. As the story implies, you’ll be playing in various locations under the sea. However, you’ll still move with the left analog stick and shoot 360 degrees with the right analog stick. In addition to this, the left trigger drops depth charges and the right trigger lets you dash. You won’t be confined to the one unit in Undertow. Here, you can choose from four different units and each can be upgraded as you earn points. The units range from quick but weak to strong but slow, so it allows for some tactics to be applied.
There isn't enough happening here.
Undertow follows more of a mission structure, where you’re required to capture enemy spawn points and essentially bully them out of the game. You play as one unit out of a team of constantly spawning units. Maps will have five spawn points and the more that you have captured, the greater access you have to destroying the enemy. Points are captured simple by eliminating the enemies around them and defending it until it’s yours. There are a couple of other missions, such as ones that just require you to eliminate all present enemies and of course boss battles.
While the controls in Undertow aren’t as sharp as say, Geometry Wars, you have to remember that you are under the water and that you’ll need make good use of dashes and depth charges, as well as the numerous other pick-ups that are available. On the casual difficulty, the game can finished by just about everyone but for those who are after a real challenge, the highest difficulty will test just how hardcore you are. The design of the game itself is quite robust, as each level has secret passages and multiple ways to get around.
It's all in the detail.
While the single player is good, it is fairly short. You’ll get about 2-3 hours, unless you play through more then once. Thankfully, it’s actually a better game in co-op and there’s a multiplayer component as well. Because Undertow has you playing with a team, the second real player makes things much more conducive to co-ordination. For example, one can defend an acquired point while the other captures the next one. Multiplayer plays out just like any of the single player missions, though there are specific stages and it can be played with up to 16 players. That is, capture the spawn points and cut-off the opposition.
As far as Arcade titles go, Undertow is easily the best looking available. You’ll be stunned to see how much detail and fluidity has been packed into 50MB. Screenshots really aren’t enough to describe how good this game looks, you have to see it in motion to believe. OK, so cut scenes are a little low on the detail, but given that this is an arcade game, it’s easy to forgive. Sound wise, there is a surprising amount of voice acting and there are enough sound effects to stop the game from sounding cheap. The music is good but it often falls anonymously into the background.
If anything, Undertow is at least the best looking and one of the best sounding games on the XBLA. It does try to barge in on the crowded dual-analog shooter scene but it does so with some nice twists and well-implemented multiplayer. If you’re not going to use the multiplayer though, the experience is very short and some may not like it that the controls aren’t as sharp as some of the top competitors. Still, as far as XBLA games, Undertow is definitely among the best original titles to be released so far.
Loading...
