Just finished up Sub Rebellion, one of the games I picked up during the $5 Circuit City sale, and boy did I get my money's worth.
The premise of Sub Rebellion is that the world has undergone a massive climate change that has raised the sea level to the point that there's very little land left. Because of this, submarines have become the dominant military weapon. You control a prototype submarine belonging to the Allies, which is a group of nations struggling against the Empire, as per standard plot #5.
While taking on missions against the Empire, you also search for relics of an ancient powerful civilization that the Allied scientists research to make better weapons for you.
The sub you control can turn in all directions, move forward or back, and dive or ascend. You have a standard needle gun weapon which has a short range, torpedoes which lock on and track at longer ranges but require some time to reload the tubes, and a special weapon with a limited number of uses. You also have a machine gun and missiles for combat while surfaced. Underwater you dogfight with enemy submarines of various sizes and types as well as deal with mines and fixed batteries. On the surface you face helicopters and land based cannons and machine gun nests.
The most interesting feature of your sub is the sonar. Visibility underwater is naturally not too great in a lot of places, so pressing the sonar button will ping your surroundings. The result is shown as a wireframe of the area superimposed over what you see. Enemies, objectives, mines, and hidden relics are drawn too, in various colors for easy identification. Also, while the sonar image of the terrain fades quickly, the other objects persist for a little bit, which helps a lot with tracking. Sonar is also penetrating, so you can see enemies and areas behind reefs or walls. With your torpedoes' tracking ability, this can be useful for getting a lock-on and popping some shots around a blind corner.
Using the sonar to find hidden relics is important, since they're needed to unlock more weapons and equipment in the shop. The differences in equipment are non-trivial -- one engine will have a higher top speed but won't allow you to turn as fast or dive as quickly as another will, different shields will protect better against underwater attacks, surface attacks, or damage from deep diving, and super fast torpedoes work great at long range in open spaces while explosive proximity torpedoes are better up close in confined areas. You can tailor your setup to each mission for maximum effectiveness.
The missions vary in scope like simple search and destroy missions, relic hunts where you have to beat the Imperial forces to the goods, time limited missions where you're running out of air or an enemy target is escaping, base defense, escort, and so on. At the end of most missions, a boss of some sort will show up, and some of them are massive. After each mission, you earn cash for the kills you rack up and the rating you get, which is based on your time, destruction percentage, relic excavation percentage, and remaining shield. Getting better ratings also unlocks paint jobs for your sub. You can replay missions as many times as you like to find more relics and get better ratings.
The game reminds me very strongly of Warhawk for the PSX, only underwater and a bit slower paced. I love the design that went into most of the levels, what with the sunken cities and ancient ruins. Combat can get pretty hairy when a dozen enemies are all shooting torpedoes and explosive shells at once. (and so does the slowdown) There were some neat visual touches I really liked, like the way the water would distort the view when an explosion occurred nearby, or when I was diving beneath a safe depth. The sound effects are good robust underwater fare with sonar pings and hollow booming explosions. The music is a sort of techno/new wave thing which sounds very last gen, but is still remarkably catchy.
Anyone looking for a 3D shooter in a similar vein as Warhawk, check out Sub Rebellion.
The premise of Sub Rebellion is that the world has undergone a massive climate change that has raised the sea level to the point that there's very little land left. Because of this, submarines have become the dominant military weapon. You control a prototype submarine belonging to the Allies, which is a group of nations struggling against the Empire, as per standard plot #5.
While taking on missions against the Empire, you also search for relics of an ancient powerful civilization that the Allied scientists research to make better weapons for you.The sub you control can turn in all directions, move forward or back, and dive or ascend. You have a standard needle gun weapon which has a short range, torpedoes which lock on and track at longer ranges but require some time to reload the tubes, and a special weapon with a limited number of uses. You also have a machine gun and missiles for combat while surfaced. Underwater you dogfight with enemy submarines of various sizes and types as well as deal with mines and fixed batteries. On the surface you face helicopters and land based cannons and machine gun nests.
The most interesting feature of your sub is the sonar. Visibility underwater is naturally not too great in a lot of places, so pressing the sonar button will ping your surroundings. The result is shown as a wireframe of the area superimposed over what you see. Enemies, objectives, mines, and hidden relics are drawn too, in various colors for easy identification. Also, while the sonar image of the terrain fades quickly, the other objects persist for a little bit, which helps a lot with tracking. Sonar is also penetrating, so you can see enemies and areas behind reefs or walls. With your torpedoes' tracking ability, this can be useful for getting a lock-on and popping some shots around a blind corner.
Using the sonar to find hidden relics is important, since they're needed to unlock more weapons and equipment in the shop. The differences in equipment are non-trivial -- one engine will have a higher top speed but won't allow you to turn as fast or dive as quickly as another will, different shields will protect better against underwater attacks, surface attacks, or damage from deep diving, and super fast torpedoes work great at long range in open spaces while explosive proximity torpedoes are better up close in confined areas. You can tailor your setup to each mission for maximum effectiveness.
The missions vary in scope like simple search and destroy missions, relic hunts where you have to beat the Imperial forces to the goods, time limited missions where you're running out of air or an enemy target is escaping, base defense, escort, and so on. At the end of most missions, a boss of some sort will show up, and some of them are massive. After each mission, you earn cash for the kills you rack up and the rating you get, which is based on your time, destruction percentage, relic excavation percentage, and remaining shield. Getting better ratings also unlocks paint jobs for your sub. You can replay missions as many times as you like to find more relics and get better ratings.
The game reminds me very strongly of Warhawk for the PSX, only underwater and a bit slower paced. I love the design that went into most of the levels, what with the sunken cities and ancient ruins. Combat can get pretty hairy when a dozen enemies are all shooting torpedoes and explosive shells at once. (and so does the slowdown
) There were some neat visual touches I really liked, like the way the water would distort the view when an explosion occurred nearby, or when I was diving beneath a safe depth. The sound effects are good robust underwater fare with sonar pings and hollow booming explosions. The music is a sort of techno/new wave thing which sounds very last gen, but is still remarkably catchy.Anyone looking for a 3D shooter in a similar vein as Warhawk, check out Sub Rebellion.
