History VideoGame / Hydrophobia

In another response, the developers released ''Hydrophobia Prophecy'', a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the game, on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and the UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork. It took ''Hydrophobia Pure'' and improved it even further in just about every area: visuals, level design, narrative, gameplay, audio, etc. (a full list can be found [[http://www.hydrophobia-game.com/features.php here]]).

''Hydrophobia'' is an Episodic Xbox Live Arcade Exclusive title made by Dark Energy Digital. Set TwentyMinutesInTheFuture, it follows the story of Kate Wilson, a young woman who lives and works as an engineer on a massive ship called ''Queen of the World'', which acts as a floating city. During the celebration for the ship's 10-year anniversary, a group of terrorists called the Malthusians attack the ship, taking control of the ship's engines and killing the workers. The attack also has the side-effect of flooding many of the compartments in the ship.

Touted as an example of "episodic gaming" ($12 for three levels with great graphics plus the Challenge Rooms), ''Hydrophobia'' is actually an experiment in taking WreakingHavok UpToEleven. The theme is ''water''--water flowing, flooding and drowning. Your initial weapon is a "sonic pistol"--a stun gun granted surprising properties in the flooding environments of the ship's lower decks. It has infinite ammo, and will stun mooks for several seconds, knock small objects around and shatter glass. However, it also has a ChargedAttack that causes an impressive, albeit small explosion. These make headshots lethal--but fired into water, it will send loose objects--including mooks-- [[BlownAcrossTheRoom flying]]. Lethal ammo is available, but is actually unnecessary, as every environment has NoOSHACompliance and thereby things that will kill mooks if fired upon.

* StunGuns: The [=LP4=] Sonic Pistol. That said...

* ActionGirl: Kate.

* ArcWords: Save the World - Kill Yourself

* DeadpanSnarker: Scoot.
* DrowningPit: The ''entire game''.

* [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse The Hack is Coming from Inside the Ship]]

** Kate is all over the place. There appears to be Scottish, English, Irish, American Southern, and American with no accent in the space of a few minutes.
*** Funnily enough the actress playing Kate is Irish. When you realise she's Irish Mancunian Kate's accent becomes a lot clearer.

*** The original Scoot was at least genuinely British, though not Scottish. The Prophecy remake replaces Scoot's odd accent with a generic flat low-pitched American Action Guy voice.
** Theory: Every character except Mila is some flavor of [[CanadaEh Canadian.]]
* RegeneratingHealth

* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have to Be Water?]]: Kate suffers from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hydrophobia]]... except that hydrophobia is actually a symptom of rabies where people refuse to drink since swallowing hurts too much. Fear of water is called ''aquaphobia''. But then, "Hydro" is a [[RuleOfCool cooler]] prefix than "aqua".
* WrenchWench: Kate.

!!Game contains examples of the following tropes;

The story is expanded on, as is Kate's "[[MakingASplash waterbending]]'--the Malthusians attacked the Queen of the World in order to seize {{Nanomachines}} intended to purify water on a massive scale(which would produce enough resources to make their philosophy obsolete), intending to turn them into a DepopulationBomb. Kate interrupts them in the act, resulting in a FreakLabAccident that eventually allows her to manipulate water with a gesture.

* CliffHanger: In the Prophecy remake. [[spoiler: Kate has killed Mila, and (perhaps) saved the ship. But Scoot is still missing, and there's no telling what will happen to Kate now that she's given herself the nanobot antidote.]]

** SwissArmyGun: What kind of gun the [=LP4=] is depends on what ammo you load into it. Semi-automatic ammo makes it into your [[StandardFPSGuns standard]] [[{{Handguns}} FPS pistol]], rapid-fire ammo makes it a [[MoreDakka submachine gun]], explosive gel ammo makes it into a StickyBomb launcher, and energy ammo makes it a StickyBomb launcher that kills things with [[ShockAndAwe lighting.]]

** Kate is all over the place. There's Scottish, English, Irish, American Southern, and American with no accent in the space of a few minutes.

*** Theory: Every character except Mila is some flavor of [[CanadaEh Canadian.]]
*** Funnily enough the actress playing Kate is Irish.
*** When you realise she's Irish Mancunian Kate's accent becomes a lot clearer.

* ShootTheMoney: Notice how the trailer likes to show off the water physics?

* VillainHasAPoint: It is hard to argue with the core of the Malthusian ideology. Overpopulation is a serious problem, and the most effective solution is death on a massive scale.

The game was hyped massively before release, being touted as having production values of a full-priced commercially released game. The critics [[HypeBacklash (metaphorically) crucified]] it upon release. In response, the developers released a patch (known as ''Hydrophobia Pure'') that fixed most of the issues (except the voice acting, which understandably you can't simply "tweak" like gameplay issues), and dropped the price by 400 MS points.