I’ve arrived here from the future to tell you that even if the icecaps do melt and drown us all, video games will still be considered pretty great. The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human caught my eye for grim-looking pixel art, giant bosses and the fact you wander around in a submarine. Thousands of years after the extinction of humanity, you return through a wormhole to discover what went wrong after global warming moved us all undersea.
We’ve already begun the hunt for the best games of 2016.
Based on this trailer, the massive sea creatures devoured, consumed, ate or otherwise killed us all in an orgy of violence.
Having not played it, it’s this and accompanying screenshots that got me interested in the game. It’s wonderfully dark and greatly mysterious, the mix of obvious impossibilities, recognisable elements and out-dated, failing technology. I’ve gotten really into bosses just getting bigger and bigger over the years, these are exactly the kind of thing I want to see when modern artists and techniques are applied to game design concepts that originated in the 80s. We can do it better now, and we should.
There’s also something a little, dare I say it, Soulsian about the whole affair. The open nature, the central mystery – perhaps it’s a lack of familiarity with the game, especially compared to the news blasts about every feature we receive on anything triple-A these days, but it manages to retain a sense of wonder.
The watery nitty-gritty of it all is that you collect weapons, upgrade your ship and travel around looking for answers, while trying to stay out of the jaws of giant sharks, blood leviathans and something called ‘The Worm’ which I can only imagine has your best interests at heart. And is a fantastic dancer.
It only came out this week, so it’s still on launch discount on SteamandGOG, plus also available onHumbleif you prefer. For an extra laugh, check the user reviews on GOG. They’re, uh, a little off-topic.