Awaken: Underwater Odyssey

Top-down arcade style shooters have always had something special to them. It’s probably tied to the fact that it’s great to see hundreds of enemy ships or monsters that get blasted to little pieces by a very powerful fighter. In Awaken: Underwater Odyssey you control one of these great crafts and see your way through incoming swarms of hostile aliens.

Awaken: Underwater Odyssey requests maximum reflexes right from the start. It’s a fairly fast-paced game but the biggest part of the difficulty factor comes from the fact that there is a great deal of enemy projectiles to look out for and avoid.

Enemies open fire in your direction with everything they have and from the first minute you’ll feel like you’re in expert mode. There is a lot to shoot at, plenty more to dodge and the game tends to feel slightly overwhelming. This is both good and bad, depending on how much ambition you have on your side, nonetheless, the challenge is there, and it’s real as they get.

In Awaken: Underwater Odyssey, you get the chance to choose between 27 aesthetic configurations for your ship as well as the chance to use more than one type of attack. There are four to choose from and each one is designed to be effective against certain types of enemies or situations.

You get a lighter dose of firepower using the standard mode which is great for taking out small ships and an assault mode that works well against large vessels. You can switch between them anytime you want, there are also torpedoes to fire and two wingmen to call up when you need assistance.

Having all this firepower is wonderful for a game that’s so alive and dynamic but all the projectiles that are fired, yours and the enemies, are rather large. As a possible result, you might end up being distracted by all of them, hardly finding the right places to move to or what to actually dodge.

On a closing note, Awaken: Underwater Odyssey seems to be a completely merciless game. It’s controls are very simple and responsive but gameplay itself and the amount projectiles flying around makes it a very challenging game. It’s perfect for fans of the genre.