Sub Rebellion

"Clunky execution leaves this one running on novelty alone."

The story here starts in the early days of the PlayStation, with an unusual shmup called In the Hunt. Featuring a submarine defending the world from anarchists, it played well but garnered little acclaim and faded away. And then, inexplicably, it got a sequel. One that came long after the original had vanished from public memory, a whole generation of hardware later and in a different genre. The same thing happened to Philosoma; perhaps there's some kind of curse at work here.

In Sub Rebellion, the near future sees Earth beset by traumatic geological activity that sinks whole continents as the plates themselves split. Melting ice caps might have been more believable, but at any rate modern society doesn't do so hot in the wake of this tectonic apocalypse. A decade later, there is only an Empire ruling the globe with sea power, and rebel forces fighting its iron grip. All the moving and shaking has also uncovered long-hidden ruins of the advanced Promethean civilization. Their relics are prized military assets, as the enduring legacy of Promethea is not astronomy or mathematics, but three hundred-foot tall stone automatons and thermonuclear missiles. Which probably explains why they're all dead.

Your place in all this is at the helm of the rebellion's trump card: the Chronos, a cutting-edge submarine made to cripple Imperial forces with tactical strikes. Three-dimensional movement is often disorienting, but the sub's maneuverability and simple controls make it easy to get your bearings and pilot like a natural. Also important is the advanced X-Sonar system, giving you clear sight in the murkiest waters by displaying all objects and surfaces in sonar range as wireframes. Its long range and ability to see through walls are invaluable, though you'll have to remember to "ping" to keep tabs on your surroundings. If need be you can also take to the surface, but this is not always possible and tends to be a liability since your mobility and offense are both reduced.

The Chronos features a rapid-fire needlegun and an array of specialized torpedoes, replaced by machine guns and missiles when surfaced. There's infinite ammo for everything but special weapons, which are powerful but limited in use. Torpedoes and missiles fire in rail shooter fashion, by holding the enemy in a targeting reticle for lock-ons. Though you need to stay pointed at enemies for this, once finished the locks hold for several seconds even if the target strays offscreen. An interesting quirk is that by changing your direction while firing, you can angle torpedoes to go around obstacles as they home in. Other traits, however, are not so beneficial.

First off, the range of your missiles and torpedoes is less than half the distance you can see targets from. Distance also makes each lock take longer, from instantaneous at point-blank to several seconds at maximum range. That small timeframe is all enemy subs need to detect you and start moving - and because target selection is based on what you're pointed at, if either you or your target moves any locks in progress may be lost. Ideally, you could compromise with one or two locks and close in with guns blazing. Single torpedoes won't hit anything that isn't bolted to the ocean floor though, since their homing accuracy is based on how many locks you have at once. Even with full locks, your torpedoes take such wide turns that it's easy for enemies to evade them all in close-range fighting.

The end result is that all of this makes combat unavoidably slow. While not game-breaking, these issues contribute nothing but "dead air" to the gameplay. You can't exploit the rules either, as enemies aren't subject to them. With barely any lock delay or reload time, enemies can afford to just fire blindly. And when almost everything can match your speed, even ships with four times your mass can follow you and spam attacks. The plus side of these dumb tactics is that Imperial forces also tend to drive in circles for no reason, or fire torpedoes into a wall because you're somewhere on the other side. Still, this just shows how the game's idea of challenge is more bad guys firing more shots; the hollowness of this approach becomes impossible to ignore when later missions run at halved framerate because of all the ships and explosions. Bosses aren't much better - Imperial capital ships fall to a concentrated offense, and the titanic Promethean Guardians boil down to gimmicky cycles of hitting targets to expose their weak points. The only interesting foe is the Hammerhead, the Empire's own advanced sub whose duels with you are the game's high points.

With the frustrations of combat, you'll want bigger and better weapons. For that, you'll need to hunt for Promethean artifacts, hidden from sight but visible on sonar. Unearthing them not only earns you money, but helps develop new equipment for your sub. You don't get any clear explanation for this system, though; at certain points new parts just show up in the store. There's no way to know what you can get or how you earn it until it happens, and since derailing missions for archaeological trips can double the time it takes to clear a stage this can be more work than it's worth. There's not much explanation for the parts themselves either, as there are rarely any solid numbers to show how much speed or power you gain. First hand testing will show most improvements to be marginal; the fastest engine type adds a mere four knots to speed. There's more variety in weapons, although the torpedo types differ more in how they hit their target than in how much damage is done. Surface weapons never progress much, with only one upgrade each, and special weapons have so few shots they're barely needed.

Further carrying the theme of general blandness and underdevelopment are the game's environments. For a setting as seemingly rich as drowned ruins of the modern world, there's little more than generic seascapes to be found. Details are just scattered around, making areas seem hurriedly cobbled together for a game instead of feeling genuine or using the setting creatively. Even submerged cities amount to nothing more than the same boring terrain with building-textured blocks jutting out of the seabed in no logical order. My hopes for battle in a sunken car park, dashed! Though some levels are centered around unique landmarks like shallow lakes or a deep-sea trench, environments within each stage don't offer much variety despite having generally large regions to explore. By far, the best stages are the suitably archaic-feeling Promethean ruins. Their narrow urban canyons and wide-open concourses provide the game's most diverse combat environments, with plenty of opportunities to use the layout for evasion and ambushes.

The soundtrack, with its odd blend of techno and elevator music, is passable and even catchy, but like the sparse sound effects the music is more background noise than anything to enhance the theme. Every once in a while, though, the game will kick out a surprisingly fitting tune. The haunting music as you chase after a plane taking off over the arctic seems almost lifted from an Ecco the Dolphin game, and your arch nemesis always shows up accompanied by an appropriately rocking theme song.

Sub Rebellion's biggest flaw is that it doesn't really live up to its own potential, with the flow of the game constantly hampered by pointless design. Your own powers are limited despite the extensive, time-consuming research and upgrade system. Combat drags out as you fight wave after wave of morons whose only challenge is their number of hit points. There's wasted time as you're left waiting in the middle of fights, and there's even more wasted as you drift through long, empty sections of the large stages. There's also an escort mission, full of miniboss-caliber enemies and with friendly fire on.

The game does have a unique theme going for it. Submarine combat is ground rarely tread on by game designers, and this is one of few recent console entries in the genre. There's just a big difference between being the best there is and being the only game in town, and Sub Rebellion doesn't do enough to rise above its own novelty.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/06