Hydrophobia dev teases revamp

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 16 December, 2010

"We have listened."

Poor Xbox Live Arcade game Hydrophobia could be in for a revamp after its creators teased a Monday announcement.

"Dark Energy is a community of gamers, and we want those that play our game to enjoy the experience," Pete Jones, joint creative director of Dark Energy Digital said.

"We'd like to thank everybody who has taken the time to produce feedback on our game. We've poured over the data from community feedback and analysed every review, comment or blog we could find.

"Nearly 250 reviews of the game were published, either in physical media or on the net. Some of them made good reading, while others were painful to read. However, to actively listen to the community, we cannot be selective in those we listen to, and there is no point in listening unless we are prepared to act. We have the purest of motivations and we will be announcing our detailed response at 11am GMT on Monday, so we'll be sending a press release your way then."

Simon Parkin came up for air with a 4/10 in Eurogamer's Hydrophobia review.

"The systems beneath the ebb and flow of its technical accomplishment are archaic and, without exception, lack finesse," Parkin wrote. "Arguments that this is a downloadable title, and as such expectations should be suitably lowered, are irrelevant. The game fails to match its ambition, and, in its cumulative small failings, drags the player down into infuriation. By the moment you break the surface of the game's ending, much like its lead character, the abiding feeling is one of relief not enjoyment."

The Manchester-based studio defended the game to Eurogamer after launch, insisting reviewers had missed the point.

"We set out not to produce a third-person shooter," Jones said. "When you're talking about the spread of some of the reviews, some people tried to shoehorn it into the way they perceive a third-person shooter to react.

"This is not a third-person shooter. It's a survival adventure, and the player is using the environment as the prime weapon. That's what they're using to kill the enemy and to get through the game.

"We threw away the rulebook."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • INSOMANiAC #1 1 year ago

    Did they not realise this when they actually played it for themselves?

    Oh well, at leat theyre doing something.

  • beastmaster #2 1 year ago

    The game got mostly poor reviews & didn't sell. If they revamp the controls, that'll be a start.

    Will be interesting to see what they come up with.

  • kangarootoo #3 1 year ago

    "insisting reviewers had missed the point"

    I remember that well. The vein my in neck is twitching with the memory of it.

  • waynenot #4 1 year ago

    Might want to have a rummage around for that rulebook.

    If you have to listen to all the feedback from reviews to realise your game isn't that good (and attacking individual reviewers)
    perhaps you need to play more games/ do something else for a living.

  • Ninou #5 1 year ago

    "We threw away the rulebook"

    ....and the design document....?

  • sonicyoda #6 1 year ago

    It was in the rulebook.

  • Eldritch #7 1 year ago

    Can't polish a turd, mate. A physics engine is not a game.

  • Perfecto #8 1 year ago

    Lesson to learn, don't throw away the rule book when you are creating interactive media that is heavily dependant on rules and systems.

  • BuddyChrist #9 1 year ago

    "cumulative small failings"

    Chernobyl's meltdown was caused by cumulative small failings.

    No matter how "small", if it's core, your screwed.

  • StolenGlory #10 1 year ago

    "Can't polish a turd, mate. A physics engine is not a game."

    Someone tell the SW: Force Unleashed development team that.

  • FogHeart #11 1 year ago

    ..except according to the review it wasn't 'core' problems and it isn't a 'turd'. It was a bunch of little problems that could be fixed. If you go through the review, the game can be made so much better if the devs:-

    - Give the player a close-quarters melee move
    - ensure you can take cover without the gun drawn
    - run at a faster speed when the gadget is out
    - colour-code pipes so people can tell which ones to shoot
    - tweak the crimson-edge damage indicator.

    All stuff that can be patched in.

  • Eldritch #12 1 year ago

    "All stuff that can be patched in. "

    And that's it then, right? Just patch it in. Just release an unfinished and unpolished game (turd), watch it fail, blame the press and then just patch it in.

    If that's your approach to professional games development, you should seriously reconsider your career choice.

  • Hog-lumps #13 1 year ago

    I think the water physics had so much potential to make a great game with puzzles and platforming alone. Why they had to shoehorn in shooting mechanics and ropey voice acting/story is beyond me.

  • Ninou #14 1 year ago

    Dark Energy Digital and Hydrophobia? Surely that makes "DED in the water"?

    I thank you :)

  • FogHeart #15 1 year ago

    I'm not a developer! I tell people to try 'turning it off and on again' for a living!

    /embarassed

    Christ, I'm not saying games should be released in a poor condition and improved. But I'm saying that if you do release a bad game, and feedback tells you how you can fix it, isn't it a good thing to do so rather than just move on and learn nothing?

  • drhickman1983 #16 1 year ago

    "And that's it then, right? Just patch it in. Just release an unfinished and unpolished game (turd), watch it fail, blame the press and then just patch it in."

    This seems to be an approach quite a few major studios seem to take. Maybe not to the same level as Dark Energy, but quite a few major games recently seem to have been arguably unfinished and full of sometimes game breaking bugs.

  • Dogs-not-Gods #17 1 year ago

    To be honest dropping the price to 400 points would be a start. They'd get more impulse buys regardless of reviews. Fix it and still drop to 400 would be a definite positive move.

  • Eldritch #18 1 year ago

    Why should I bother coughing up the full retail price when, apparently, it's better to wait for a fully patched budget version anyway?

    And I'm all for devs learning. But I'm also all against paid betas.

  • Stoatboy #19 1 year ago

    "We've poured over the data..."

    What exactly did they pour over it, I wonder?

  • darleysam #20 1 year ago

    The problem with 'throwing out the rulebook' is that quite often, a lot of the rules exist and are established because they work and people expect them. They help the audience understand what's going on. If you're trying to subvert expectations, then by all means play around with the rules to throw off the player, but if you're just doing it to be different, then you'd be foolish not to expect confusion.

  • Lord_Gremlin #21 1 year ago

    It's not important what it is. The point is - this game is shit.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #22 1 year ago

    I'm interested to see what this announcement is. Hydrophobia had a cool concept and setting, it just had too many annoying and unresponsive gameplay mechanisms.

    If they can tighten it up somehow, in a patch, or for the second episode (or both) they could possibly turn this sinking ship around.

  • X #23 1 year ago

    I actually quite enjoyed it and played to completion but found it difficult to play another few times to get all the achievements and medals. If they update the first game owners should get it free then or some incentive for the other two parts!