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The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human – An Indie Game Review

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, game screenshot 1
The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human – An Indie Game Review
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Platforms: Windows PC, Mac, Linux, Steam

Game Name: The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human

Publisher: YCJY

Developer: YCJY

Genre: Action, Adventure

Release Date: January 19th, 2016

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human – What We Think:

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human delivers exactly what it promises in its title: Its story follows a human sent out to explore space, when he gets caught up in a wormhole that sends him hurtling back to Earth into the distant future. He finds humanity to be long dead, submerged under an ocean that has risen considerably over the centuries.

Last One In…

The eponymous adventure involves exploring the depths in the last human’s conveniently aquatic spaceship. Whilst exploring, you’ll encounter various threats and the occasional hint about what might have befallen the human race. As you dive deeper, you’ll find various relics of humanity’s final attempts to survive, along with the many dangers that have emerged in a world free from the human race’s influence.

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, game screenshot 1

The adventure is relatively open-ended, allowing you to choose where you wish to go. Many paths are blocked, and you’ll find yourself backtracking to seek out items that will allow you to proceed.

The Deep End

You can also upgrade your submarine’s combat capabilities, which will help when facing the many bosses dotted around the vast caverns you’ll be exploring. Some of these bosses are superb, and the atmospheres of their varying lairs set the scene for epic encounters. You’ll also get bestiary entries for defeated bosses, which can make for some enjoyable light reading.

Exploring the world of The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human can be ponderous at times; the threats dotted throughout the many underwater caverns are not particularly tricky to avoid, and this results in a strong contrast when you meet one of the many challenging bosses. Once you become used to this system, however, the pacing of the game begins to make sense. Atmosphere and ambiance are as important here as the gameplay itself.

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, game screenshot 2

The design of The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human is excellent; beautiful backgrounds serve to create incredible settings ranging from vast undersea seaweed forests to deserted human cities claimed by the ocean centuries ago. The enormous scale of the underwater setting is hammered home as your tiny submarine drifts by what you realize was once an old gas station – now a tiny feature at the bottom of a huge cavern. The music is similarly powerful, creating a melancholic sense of loss that permeates the environment.

Cannonball!

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human is a bold and well designed adventure game that presents a forlorn but beautiful world filled with mysteries and untold stories that sit at the edges of its submerged environment. The action tends to flit between somber, meandering exploration and intense, challenging bosses, but this isn’t too much of an issue if you don’t mind the sudden change. There is also a lot of backtracking, which may put some people off, but for others it will simply provide more opportunities to absorb the atmosphere of an ocean that has consumed the last vestiges of a dead society.

If you enjoy getting lost – sometimes literally – in an unusual and sprawling 2D adventure, then you could do far worse than spending some time exploring this sizable undersea world.

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human is available via Steam.

[xrr rating=”4/5″]

Watch the trailer for The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human below: