Developer
VisionScape Interactive

Released: November 19, 2002
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

7
6
7
6
6.9

Supported Features:

The 24th century story is almost prophetic as it tells the tale of global warming that has melted much of the polar icecaps and left most of the world submerged. While land isn’t as scarce as it was in Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, there is a lot more water than you may be used to in a traditional flight-combat game, thus the added ability for your craft to function as a sub as well as a fighter.

Natural disasters bring out the worst in everyone and the line was conveniently drawn along the planet’s equator. The southern residents enjoy a peaceful existence while the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere are ruled by three warlords; you know the type, partly insane and totally bent on dominating the south.

You are part of the defense initiative with access to a variety of SeaBlades; cool fighters of various size that fly just as well in the air as they do underwater. Each craft has a number much like the old Thunderbirds series, and just like that series each craft has a unique size, shape, and function. And much like your typical game, all of the coolest ships are locked down tight, requiring you to earn lots of points to unlock them.

As much as I liked the underwater portions of this game I found the mix of air and sea was heavily tilted toward air combat. Most of the time you never even had to get your wings wet unless you needed an extra power-up or were looking for a safer route leading to your next waypoint. There were a few puzzles that required a trip below sea level, but these were few and far between. Underwater travel played a bigger part in the strategy of the multiplayer games if nothing else.

In the air, your ship maneuvers in a realistic fashion (at least as realistic as can be for a craft that doesn’t exist). Each of the variations of the SeaBlade responds differently based on its weight and handling properties and when you take these ships into the water everything becomes a bit more sluggish as you would expect. The realistic movement of your ship however, is severely hampered by a less-than-intuitive control scheme.

Imagine if you will, using the left stick to control your LOOK while the D-pad controls movement along the vertical axis and left/right strafing. The right stick controls your throttle while the right trigger fires weapons. Certainly not the most intuitive control scheme and the fact that you cannot really customize these settings to anything better gives this game a huge and unnecessary learning curve. Ultimately, you will probably forego the use of the D-pad since it only interferes with an otherwise smooth gameplay experience. Having to release the left stick and switch to the D-pad to strafe or change altitude just doesn’t seem right.

There is a lot of combat in SeaBlade and your HUD has a directional arrow that indicates the nearest attacking SeaBlade. Normally, this would be fine except that your most dangerous enemy in this game is not other SeaBlades but ground fire from very deadly turrets. Not only does your arrow not point to these turrets, you cannot even get a target lock on them until you are so close you are already taking fire and halfway dead. Turrets alone will have you replaying many of the missions over and over until you memorize their locations and can then zip in and take them out. It’s just one added level of frustration on an already difficult game.

After coming dangerously close to smashing a few controllers by mission 5, I decided to try out the multiplayer modes in SeaBlade. Admittedly, these are more fun than the single player game if for no other reason than it’s a one-on-one (or more up to four players) experience. Even so, the Deathmatch, Tag, and Moving Target modes are nothing new. You play on the same levels as the main game and fly the same ships. A co-op single-player story mode would have rocked the house. This game is so bleeding hard that a wingman would have been a welcome addition to the solo experience.

The ships all look cool with articulated parts that move as you steer, accelerate, and brake. The levels are often interesting if for no other reason than the fact that most of the levels are partly submerged, and you can explore buildings and landscapes both above and below the waterline. Water has real-time reflections of the landscape and buildings but your ship’s reflection is strangely absent. Underwater, you get those tiny streams of bubbles that do a convincing job of making you feel like you are zipping around in a mini-sub.

Considering this is an Xbox exclusive, I would have hoped for a more intense visual experience. As it is, this game could easily be ported to any of the other system or even the PC. Perhaps that is where SeaBlade is destined to go in the future.

The opening movie is really good but the between-mission cutscenes are all static images done in a comic book style despite the fact that the characters were clearly modeled in 3D. In an effort to appeal to the male audience or perhaps alienate the females who enjoy video games, every single female character in this game comes complete with her own set of “personal flotation devices” that are large enough to support her and the ship she is flying. Even the nerdy female scientist is stacked to look like an advertisement for breast implants, or perhaps breast reduction.

The menus are all animated and you zoom around to different sections of the SeaBlade complex when you choose certain options. Start a mission and you zoom into the control room. When it’s time you choose your ship you pan down a ladder to the docking area and then you can pan around the 3D dock to cycle the available ships.

Sound effects are equally as well done with sub-woofer shaking explosions and the mechanical whine of your ship’s cannon as it sends out a trail of destructive lead. Ships all have a distinct engine whine and all of these sounds are realistically muted and hollow when you dive underwater. To compliment the underwater experience you even hear the occasional whale song. I guess we can thank the crew of the Enterprise for that sound effect. (obscure Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home reference)

The voice acting won’t be winning any awards, but the style and quality suit the visuals and overall theme of the game. It can get pretty lame at times but never so much that it detracts from the game or the experience.

The multiplayer modes are mildly entertaining, but with the control issues and steep learning curve, this isn’t a pick-up and play game. You can’t expect your friends to offer any serious competition unless they have played this game at least as much as you and know how to fly these ships.

SeaBlade might not be the prettiest or the best-handling shooter on the Xbox, but there is just enough cool stuff about it to make it worth a rental, and if you can find it in the bargain bin someday you may just want to add this title to your permanent collection.