DESCRIPTION

AquaNox is a 3D combat sim set deep beneath the ocean surface on a distant-future Earth. Though sharing basic commonalities with more conventional flight and space combat simulations, AquaNox takes place in a strange environment best accessible through more speculative imagination. Instead of fighter jets blasting through the clouds above or starships battling in the void of deep space, AquaNox invites virtual pilots to board advanced submarines and explore a dark undersea world rife with sprawling human cities, powerful currents, ruthless pirates, and dangerously enormous creatures of mythological monstrosity.

Officially, AquaNox is a sequel to 1996's Archimedean Dynasty, which was also created by Massive Development. In a continuation of the Archimedean Dynasty story, AquaNox takes place nearly seven centuries in Earth's future, when nuclear devastation has rendered the surface of the planet uninhabitable and forced humankind to build a new civilization on the ocean floor. A thick layer of rotting organic material now covers the planet's surface, protecting the ocean depths from the ravages of the nuclear disaster above but also shielding the undersea world from any sunlight. As in the original title, AquaNox players take the role of the mercenary Emerald "Dead Eye" Flint to pilot a variety of high tech submarines through over 30 missions of volatile action and strategic political intrigue.

Technically, the game is intended to set new standards. AquaNox runs on a version of Massive Development's own krass engine, a system created to be as versatile and customizable as it is powerful. While the game is designed run on a variety of machines with a wide range of specifications, special features have been incorporated to make use of new capabilities offered by the GeForce 3 graphics chip, which became available to the public on high-end video cards a few months before the release of the game. GeForce developers nVidia used a pre-release version of AquaNox to showcase the power of the new GPU's technology. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide