Incredible, atmospheric experience and a work of art.

from the design standpoint Aquaria is a Metroidvania 2D game with big underwater world to explore. Those ideas aren't that special on paper, but the strange mix of climactic locations, fitting music and hand-drawn graphics makes this title not only joy to look and hear, but makes so much impact on the player that after you finish the game you will know that is one of the best indie games out there yet to be recognized by most of gaming community.

The story is simple, but it is told extremely well by the voice of the main protagonist as you play the game. It starts out interesting, but it ends up strongly heart-touching. The plot is slowly revealed through the game and the next surprise around the corner will be bigger than the former. Also, in my opinion, Naija is one of the best written female characters in video game industry up to date.

Aquaria is an open world and you must figure out most of the gameplay mechanics all by yourself. Some tactics for beating some bosses are kind of tricky, so this isn't the game for people that are not so fond of the more exploration-oriented games. The start of this game isn't as fast as you would want to, but if you will give it some time you will be hooked straight to the finish. Game is around 12-20 hours long and there are lots of non-mandatory things to find. This is not a small game by any means.

Aquaria had a bad luck that it came before the Braid's indie games boom. Don't miss this one. It's a powerful gem hidden in the sea.

A relic from an era of £15 Indie titles that your average gamer would never seek out because they were usually hidden away on the developers home page without much aplomb.

Now Steam is chock full of titles and Humble Bundle/Indie Royale throw them out two to the penny. The golden era of the Indies has arrived!

Unfortunately this title and many others like it are left in the dusty past, forgotten, unloved. Give it a go and you'll be rewarded with a charming little foray into an aquatic wonderland the likes of which haven't been seen since the clicks and whistles of Ecco the Dolphin dazzled you on the Dreamcast.

I wake up in a wonderful underwater world. It’s magical, large and full wonderful things to discover. I have no clue how I got here or why I am the only one besides the normal sea creatures. I am Naija, a beautiful mermaid-like woman, trying to discover the past and find out what happen to everyone else.

Aquaria is a 2D underwater adventure where you need to recover your past and find out what happen to everyone else. All other intelligent life seems to have been wiped out and you can’t remember anything. What discoveries and treasures will you find on your large adventure?

You will discover songs that will give you special powers to help you on your journey. You can get one that will shoot like a fire blast, another which will let you swim against strong currents, or one that will let you light up deep dark caverns. You can earn these by fighting bosses or finding them in hidden caves. You will also need to learn recipes that will help heal you and give your powers a boost. These are all found when dropped from defeated enemies or plants you can pop by certain music tones.

It’s a beautiful world of varieties of sea creatures that range from friendly to violent. Everything looks really colorful and vibrant. The world under the sea is very large and when you think you’ve discovered everything you discovered another huge area. You’ll have plenty of backtracking to find all the hidden secrets in the old-school Metroid style. Get a new power and go back to a previous area to access new areas.

There wasn’t really any problems with the game in my opinion. I do wish the final fight was a little better but it wasn’t really an issue. I also wish I was able to zoom in on the map a little more as sometimes it was hard to see where I needed to go. Those are minor issues though and never pulled me out of the experience.

Aquaria is a low priced indie game that is superb and wonderful to play. You have a good story with a twist, beautiful world to explore, fantastic music, and many hours of enjoyment. I sank 24hrs into the game and enjoyed every minute of it. There’s also some mods you can download to add more to the game if you’d like.

Bear Rating 9.5/10

This is a game I am very torn about. Its one of the most polished indie games I owned and among the most well thought out 2d metroidvania games I have played. It has a great soundtrack and overall great sounds and voice acting and a solid story. Most things about this game just feel right but yet I have a hard time loving the game. Its addictive and hard to put away but might have been its underwater setting or main character that simply didn't work for me fully. I still think its a game everyone should at least try since if this is the kind of game you'd like it might be among the better gaming experiences in its genre.

The achievements follow the design of the game and are a lot about exploring and experiencing as much of the game as possible along with the common progression stuff. The two big achievements you need to keep in mind is the achievement for exploring all areas of the game and learning all recipes of the game. I'd recommend working on both from the start since otherwise you will be on a very long hunt at the end of the game to figure out what you missed (I did this, and it took me ages to narrow down what I needed).

Time to 100%: 15-20 hours

Beautiful art style, immersive musical score, intuitive and unique gameplay, personally i fint it can be a bit slow, but it does ramp up the excitement in sections and is overall a good game. 7/10 would buy.