There is something to be said for voice acting and characterisation. A game can be transformed from compelling to physically painful on the strength of a voice actor and the lines they deliver (The Lost Crown provides a good counterpoint to Hostile Waters). The same can be said of the musical score - the right music in the right place can elevate a level, a scene or simply a moment from a point between start and end to an experience remembered long after the fact.
Hostile Waters focuses on a future Earth which has given up war and united under one government, a government that has elimated war, poverty and inequality thanks to nano-technology. However, all this is threatened by a group of warmongers, called the Cabal who are power-brokers, weapons merchants and deposed tyrants whose intent is to bring down the new world.
Their intent was to attack the world with missiles and to create an alien species under their control to frighten and intimidate the world into accepting their leadership. Naturally, everything falls apart and they lose control of their creations and it is up to the player to sort it out.
After the first missiles fall, the government reactivates an old weapon program, called the Antaeus program. The Antaeus warships, "Adaptive Cruisers", are autonomous warships equipped with creation engines, huge nano-factories capable of manufacturing tanks, helicopters and planes using stored energy and materials in seconds. By using the minds of dead soldiers stored on chips called Soulchips, they can be piloted and commanded, but also directly controlled by the cruisers' captain.
Hostile Waters' gameplay is mission-based, with each mission involving the player's cruiser off the coast of a Cabal island. From there, the player will create vehicles to carry (or fly) to the island and do battle, completing objectives and salvaging scrap from buildings and enemy wreckage. You build vehicles and give them Soulchips (not necessary, but you can't give them orders without one) then unleash them on the enemy. At any time, you can jump into a vehicle and watch the action from its point of view. If you want, you can even take direct control at any time, using its weapons and abilities in the same manner its Soulchip controller would.
Before I review the game proper, its important to take a moment to admire the work of the voice actors, which to me, made the game so much more than a somewhat unique strategy.
It may come as no surprise that a game narrated by Tom Baker, the voice of Doctor Who, manages to create not only a creative and well-designed game, but one that manages to enthrall the player with narrative and exposition of uncommon quality.
With the two other main supporting characters, Church and Walker (voiced by Glynis Barber and Paul Darrow, both of Blake's 7 fame) providing their own quality performances, making the briefings and mid-mission events worth listening to. Tom Baker lends his voice to the pre-mission cutscenes, where aspects of the game history, technology and events in the wider game world are expounded with wonderful gravitas.
Its also worth pointing out that every one of the Soulchip soldiers you possess have their own personalities and voice. Listening to their combat chatter can be tiresome from time to time, but it was also a unique feature that they would "chat" to each other - if Ransom killed an enemy, Madsen would comment along the lines of "You're worthy" to which the decidedly anti-social Ransom would say "Save it for someone who gives fuck!". Or perhaps Borden would gush over Patten, saying "You're incredible!" to which Patten would respond "It's all down to experience!" and Borden would finish with "You won't get big-headed now, will you?".
It was a nice touch, along with the fact they get irate and snarky if you put them in vehicles that are not to their taste - Try putting Ransom, a crack aviator, into a scout buggy or a scavenging tank(or even a tank)! As I said this can get tiresome - listening to Ransom rebuke Madsen for the dozenth time during a heated firefight can temper one's appreciation for the spectacle.
The vehicle building is also important - Each vehicle has its own strengths and weaknesses and every weapon is distinct enough to warrant use even in the late stages - no weapon becomes useless. The Scalpel machine gun, for example is relatively accurate, has no recharge so can be fired non-stop and does decent damage. Plus, its cheap. Perfect for killing vehicles, even late in the game.
Coupled with this, every vehicle has slots for addons - these addons range from armour addons to cloaking devices to shields and weapon boosters. Every addon increases the cost of the vehicle, increasing its power and durability. Some vehicle types even have their own special abilities - Scarab is the only vehicle in the game until the last few missions capable of scavenging scrap on land (by virtue of having a slot large enough to fit the recycler), making it one of the most important vehicles in your arsenal. The Puma is also impervious to radar, the only vehicle that is. This makes it the only vehicle in the game truly capable of scouting enemy positions undetected if it is equipped with a cloak. This helps ensure that every vehicle has a role - there are no superfluous vehicles and with few exceptions, every vehicle can be useful from the moment it becomes available right up until the endgame.
While each island has its own mission objectives, they often fall into the same routine, broken up every once in a while with a mission that tries something different. Even with these, the player will quickly learn the best way to deal with the enemy forces and that is by exploiting their economy and their AI.
First, there are no buildings in Hostile Waters, at least none available to the player. All structures in the game are on the islands from the start and are either neutral or hostile. So Hostile Waters is not a base-builder by any stretch of the imagination. The enemy have factories churning out units, powered by derricks and kept supplied by silos. As long as the derricks are intact, the enemy has unlimited resources (although, thanks to scavenging, so do you!). If the derricks are destroyed, the enemy will use up any supplies left in their silos, at which point their resources dry up and they become unable to produce new units.
This was a major flaw, in my opinion - as a result of this mechanic, virtually every mission is a grind to push units into the island to find the enemy derricks and destroy them, then sit back and let them enemy drain their energy before mopping up. This is thwarted somewhat by the enemy having dangerous static emplacements, such as AA cannons. A lot of the missions involved sledgehammering your way through waves of unrelenting enemies, gradually carving yourself niches of space from which to strike at targets.
Secondly, the AI, while impressive on its face, factored into the economy's faults. The enemy have radar emplacements which scan for radar signatures (i.e. every one of your units except the stealth buggy) and if they detect one, even if cloaked, a squad of enemies will be dispatched to where your unit was last detected. If they find nothing, they will return to base. If they find your unit, they will engage and call in reinforcements.
It is at this point that the whole thing tends to fall apart. Once combat has begun, if you do not kill the enemy and retreat out of visual and radar range quickly enough, you will be tracked right back to your carrier, at which point the enemy commences unrelenting waves of attacks. This means the initial stages of the level, while nail-biting as you sneak around, picking off choice targets such as radar towers and derricks with sniper-laser equipped cloaked stealth buggies, give way to the endless grind against the unstoppable war machine of the Cabal. It was one of the few games that gave me the impression of trench warfare, fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of ground gained.
Its also worth noting the game has no multiplayer and no skirmish. The campaign, while very long, is all the game has to offer, and with no difficulty levels to choose from.
However, all these faults set aside, it is important to note that these faults, in my opinion, do not overshadow the great story and voice acting and the otherwise well-developed gameplay. Mission objectives are suitably varied to set each mission apart from the last and tie in very well with the story.
To sum up, if you crave a strategy that stands out from the crowd, that backs up solid gameplay with outstanding narrative and voice acting and a very challenging difficulty, then I would recommend you find this gem. Last I heard, it was available on GOG.com, so go grab it!
Hostile Waters focuses on a future Earth which has given up war and united under one government, a government that has elimated war, poverty and inequality thanks to nano-technology. However, all this is threatened by a group of warmongers, called the Cabal who are power-brokers, weapons merchants and deposed tyrants whose intent is to bring down the new world.
Their intent was to attack the world with missiles and to create an alien species under their control to frighten and intimidate the world into accepting their leadership. Naturally, everything falls apart and they lose control of their creations and it is up to the player to sort it out.
After the first missiles fall, the government reactivates an old weapon program, called the Antaeus program. The Antaeus warships, "Adaptive Cruisers", are autonomous warships equipped with creation engines, huge nano-factories capable of manufacturing tanks, helicopters and planes using stored energy and materials in seconds. By using the minds of dead soldiers stored on chips called Soulchips, they can be piloted and commanded, but also directly controlled by the cruisers' captain.
Hostile Waters' gameplay is mission-based, with each mission involving the player's cruiser off the coast of a Cabal island. From there, the player will create vehicles to carry (or fly) to the island and do battle, completing objectives and salvaging scrap from buildings and enemy wreckage. You build vehicles and give them Soulchips (not necessary, but you can't give them orders without one) then unleash them on the enemy. At any time, you can jump into a vehicle and watch the action from its point of view. If you want, you can even take direct control at any time, using its weapons and abilities in the same manner its Soulchip controller would.
Before I review the game proper, its important to take a moment to admire the work of the voice actors, which to me, made the game so much more than a somewhat unique strategy.
It may come as no surprise that a game narrated by Tom Baker, the voice of Doctor Who, manages to create not only a creative and well-designed game, but one that manages to enthrall the player with narrative and exposition of uncommon quality.
With the two other main supporting characters, Church and Walker (voiced by Glynis Barber and Paul Darrow, both of Blake's 7 fame) providing their own quality performances, making the briefings and mid-mission events worth listening to. Tom Baker lends his voice to the pre-mission cutscenes, where aspects of the game history, technology and events in the wider game world are expounded with wonderful gravitas.
Its also worth pointing out that every one of the Soulchip soldiers you possess have their own personalities and voice. Listening to their combat chatter can be tiresome from time to time, but it was also a unique feature that they would "chat" to each other - if Ransom killed an enemy, Madsen would comment along the lines of "You're worthy" to which the decidedly anti-social Ransom would say "Save it for someone who gives fuck!". Or perhaps Borden would gush over Patten, saying "You're incredible!" to which Patten would respond "It's all down to experience!" and Borden would finish with "You won't get big-headed now, will you?".
It was a nice touch, along with the fact they get irate and snarky if you put them in vehicles that are not to their taste - Try putting Ransom, a crack aviator, into a scout buggy or a scavenging tank(or even a tank)! As I said this can get tiresome - listening to Ransom rebuke Madsen for the dozenth time during a heated firefight can temper one's appreciation for the spectacle.
The vehicle building is also important - Each vehicle has its own strengths and weaknesses and every weapon is distinct enough to warrant use even in the late stages - no weapon becomes useless. The Scalpel machine gun, for example is relatively accurate, has no recharge so can be fired non-stop and does decent damage. Plus, its cheap. Perfect for killing vehicles, even late in the game.
Coupled with this, every vehicle has slots for addons - these addons range from armour addons to cloaking devices to shields and weapon boosters. Every addon increases the cost of the vehicle, increasing its power and durability. Some vehicle types even have their own special abilities - Scarab is the only vehicle in the game until the last few missions capable of scavenging scrap on land (by virtue of having a slot large enough to fit the recycler), making it one of the most important vehicles in your arsenal. The Puma is also impervious to radar, the only vehicle that is. This makes it the only vehicle in the game truly capable of scouting enemy positions undetected if it is equipped with a cloak. This helps ensure that every vehicle has a role - there are no superfluous vehicles and with few exceptions, every vehicle can be useful from the moment it becomes available right up until the endgame.
While each island has its own mission objectives, they often fall into the same routine, broken up every once in a while with a mission that tries something different. Even with these, the player will quickly learn the best way to deal with the enemy forces and that is by exploiting their economy and their AI.
First, there are no buildings in Hostile Waters, at least none available to the player. All structures in the game are on the islands from the start and are either neutral or hostile. So Hostile Waters is not a base-builder by any stretch of the imagination. The enemy have factories churning out units, powered by derricks and kept supplied by silos. As long as the derricks are intact, the enemy has unlimited resources (although, thanks to scavenging, so do you!). If the derricks are destroyed, the enemy will use up any supplies left in their silos, at which point their resources dry up and they become unable to produce new units.
This was a major flaw, in my opinion - as a result of this mechanic, virtually every mission is a grind to push units into the island to find the enemy derricks and destroy them, then sit back and let them enemy drain their energy before mopping up. This is thwarted somewhat by the enemy having dangerous static emplacements, such as AA cannons. A lot of the missions involved sledgehammering your way through waves of unrelenting enemies, gradually carving yourself niches of space from which to strike at targets.
Secondly, the AI, while impressive on its face, factored into the economy's faults. The enemy have radar emplacements which scan for radar signatures (i.e. every one of your units except the stealth buggy) and if they detect one, even if cloaked, a squad of enemies will be dispatched to where your unit was last detected. If they find nothing, they will return to base. If they find your unit, they will engage and call in reinforcements.
It is at this point that the whole thing tends to fall apart. Once combat has begun, if you do not kill the enemy and retreat out of visual and radar range quickly enough, you will be tracked right back to your carrier, at which point the enemy commences unrelenting waves of attacks. This means the initial stages of the level, while nail-biting as you sneak around, picking off choice targets such as radar towers and derricks with sniper-laser equipped cloaked stealth buggies, give way to the endless grind against the unstoppable war machine of the Cabal. It was one of the few games that gave me the impression of trench warfare, fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of ground gained.
Its also worth noting the game has no multiplayer and no skirmish. The campaign, while very long, is all the game has to offer, and with no difficulty levels to choose from.
However, all these faults set aside, it is important to note that these faults, in my opinion, do not overshadow the great story and voice acting and the otherwise well-developed gameplay. Mission objectives are suitably varied to set each mission apart from the last and tie in very well with the story.
To sum up, if you crave a strategy that stands out from the crowd, that backs up solid gameplay with outstanding narrative and voice acting and a very challenging difficulty, then I would recommend you find this gem. Last I heard, it was available on GOG.com, so go grab it!