Undertow

"The multiplayer is fun, if unoriginal, but doesn't make up for the game's other flaws."

Undertow is an underwater 2D side/vertical scrolling shooter for the Xbox 360 Arcade. Offered for free shortly after launch by Microsoft to make up for poor XBL service for several weeks, this game has been widely downloaded. (Who doesn't want free stuff?) This is a good thing because, in my opinion, this game isn't worth the money they normally charge for it.

Graphics: 6/10
The graphics are alright as, after all, it's only an arcade game. It has some pleasing effects and it looks okay all around, but there is nothing that particularly stands out about it. There are a few, small, issues with the visuals in this game. First off, and you aren't likely to notice this, but when close to surfaces such as walls and buildings there can be some clipping. Not enough to be glaring and stand out in normal gameplay unless you're looking, however it is something worth noting. Secondly, the graphical representations of damaging things such as projectiles and explosions are not actually a factual representation of the position of danger on the playing field. for instance, I can be a human and launch a slew of depth charges at a larger enemy and, despite being on the edge of the graphical blast radius, I'm not actually inside the blast radius as calculated by the engine. Thus I can be "inside" an explosion and not actually take damage. This actually can change gameplay in a frustrating way as it's sometimes annoying to have someone caught in your explosion and not take damage, though it does give a bit of dirty pleasure to swim from an enemies depth charge unharmed.

Sound: 6/10
the sounds in this game are fairly average. The gunshots and explosions sounds are typical of a simple 2D shooter game and, while the sounds of water in some areas are pleasing, the voice acting is mediocre at best and sound like they are being delivered by friends of the devs rather than voice actors. If they were delivered by voice actors, they certainly didn't put much effort into it.
The sounds also seem kind of mixed up as if the developers couldn't decide whether they wanted to have the sounds sound like they were underwater or like they were in air. Besides these flaws, the sounds suffice and even have a few very pleasing sounds, such as the sound for dashing underwater.

Singleplayer: 3/10
I'm not going to mince words here; the singleplayer mode is terrible. The AI is laughable and the cutscenes are just plain terrible. Without going too much into it for fear of spoiling a plot point, in the first cutscene you are a pirate captured and made to serve others in exchange for your life. This, despite not being an original plot construct in the least would be acceptable if it was the extent of the unoriginality. As it turns out the game relies primarily on cliche plot developments for most of the progression. The game features such lines of wit as "Waiting for my last words, Admiral, because I have a few!" Oh SNAP! The cutscenes also ignore horribly glaring points such as the fact that you are alone in a room with the admiral who is telling you that he will spare your life in exchange for your services. Both he and your character are, however, completely oblivious to the fact that your character is alone in the room with him, with no guards, and your character is holding a harpoon gun and a large knife, while the admiral has nothing but cheesy wit and superficial laughs to fight you with. Now normally you could overlook glaring plot points like this if the gameplay was good, however the game lacks this redeeming value. The singleplayer is terrible if simply because the AI apparently stands for "Artificial Impotence." The game's only way of presenting a challenge is to throw dozens and dozens of enemies at you in a rush, with no perceivable tactics other than "move towards player shooting." Subsequently they require no special tactics to beat besides "strafe out of the way of danger whilst shooting enemies." Luckily this isn't difficult because the controls do work rather naturally and you don't find yourself having trouble pushing certain buttons because your hands are occupied elsewhere on the controller.

Multiplayer: 8/10
Here is where the true value of the game shows. If you're going to play this game, play multiplayer. The game features a Battlefield-esque ticket system in which the enemy ticket count decreases based on how many control points you hold until one side has zero tickets and, therefore, loses. Like battlefield you can choose various classes and only can spawn at control points. Essentially, this game should be called Battlefield: Underwater Alien Invasion Edition. It is, however, very entertaining, particularly when you get a full 16 player game going. There are a few problems which keep the multiplayer from getting a higher rating. Primarily is the games tenancy to, after a game, dump all the players into their own lobby. I'm not sure if it's a glitch, built in, or a result of poor net-code and unintentional, however every time an online game is concluded the game seems to separate all people from the main lobby, not allowing for rematches without first re-inviting everyone back into the game. Maybe this is because I haven't played ranked matches, however it does get annoying at times. The troubling thing is that it doesn't seem to do this to all players all the time. Some people I have spoken to in game report that this isn't the case, leading me to believe it's a bug with the coding.

Replayability: 6/10
If you can manage to get through the single-player mode once, it's essentially guaranteed that you won't want to endure it a second time. The only exception would be the online co-op the game offers which might prompt you to assist a friend in his suffering. The multiplayer is a different story, however, and is quite entertaining and one could pour hours into the game simply because of that. It does get old after a few days though and you can expect to find yourself returning to the games that you know and love for multiplayer. It is only an arcade game so it is to be held to a different standard than a normal game, however it still doesn't have the replayability it needs for a better score.

Overall: 6/10
The game has many good features; however it has quite a few glaring problems which keep it from being the game it potentially could have been. If you're a collector of gamer-points, you might want to pick up this game while it's still free, but I wouldn't recommend paying for this game. It's simply not worth the points and you'll find yourself bored with it in a few days. You might want to check it out for the multiplayer, however keep in mind that it won't last too long. Oddly enough, the game has a 2D space flight sim sort of feel to it, so if you're a fan of that, you might want to check it out as you might enjoy it but. If you can get it while it's free, or during a promotion or something, go ahead, because it's worth that, but otherwise you might want to save yourself the points.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/08

Game Release: Undertow (US, 11/21/07)