In AquaNox 2, on the other hand, you're told that your mother's been killed, you dad has ditched without a reason, and your grandmother raised you while maintaining the family business. A few other games (such as Max Payne and Mafia) also had good stories, and the reason is that you were allowed to live them instead of being told about them. Remember that scene in Final Fantasy VII where Aries dies? It was touching and sad, and it made you really despise the main antagonist, Sephiroth. Mix in some convoluted dialogue and a drag-the-game-to-a-halt 'hotspot' click-fest between missions, and you've got the idea. Although you get ship and weapons upgrades as you progress, control remains sluggish and battles get boring.

Except for a select few areas, everything is too dark and murky.

The obvious difference is the underwater setting, which is also the major drawback. We're guessing Massive Development is a long-time fan of space sims, because AquaNox 2 plays a lot like Wing Commander, Freespace, Starlancer, and most other games of that ilk. Its sequel, AquaNox 2: Revelation, fixes a few of those gameplay problems, but it's still just about the same game with a different storyline. It was one of the first games to truly take advantage of all the card's newfangled abilities, but unfortunately, it was more of a technical demonstration than a fun game. If you remember the release of the first GeForce3 card, then you'll probably remember the original AquaNox.

Though not the most imposing craft, the Salty Dog can hold its own in a fight if the captain is clever. Drake owns a fast and highly maneuverable submarine, the Salty Dog. Then a distress call from a mysterious ship changes everything, and Drake finds himself enmeshed in a search for a cursed treasure trove. However, this bores him, and he longs to be a mercenary, a Ronin, a hired-gun. Young William Drake, heir to a ramshackle merchant dynasty, transports goods from Galapagos to the northern stretches of the Tornado Zone. AquaNox 2: Revelation returns players to the undersea AquaNox universe.

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