| Games: Sub Culture |
- Platform: IBM PC Compatible
- Release Date: 1997
- Genre: Action
- Style: Action Adventure
- Similar Games: Treasures of the Deep (PlayStation), Aquanaut's Holiday (PlayStation)
Game Description
One day when you were out exploring the seas in your little submarine, an unknown organization dropped a bomb on your aquatic home city. It completely destroyed your home and its inhabitants. You vowed one day to find out who did this to your peaceful home and set sail in your submarine as a drifting sea-merchant.Sub Culture is a non-linear aquatic game in which you explore the ocean in your little sub. As you explore, you'll come across other aquatic cities. In these cities, you will have to trade items to upgrade your ship and buy supplies, such as fuel and nets, accept missions in order to earn money and fame, and ultimately learn clues as to who destroyed your home city.
You'll also encounter vicious sea pirates ready to loot your little submarine, various marine life species, and rare artifacts that are yours for the taking. By blending trading elements, action, and a vast world to explore, Sub Culture is an experience like no other. So what are you waiting for? Take to the seas and be prepared for a restless quest of revenge, profit, and exploration!
~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
Sub Culture appears as if it was largely inspired by the two Sony Playstation games Treasures of the Deep and Aquanaut's Holiday. In each of those games, you get to explore a vast aquatic world, just like in Sub Culture. This game also seems to draw inspiration from other trading games, such as High Seas Trader.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
Sub Culture has a great premise: you're a sea-merchant and go around collecting valuable items to trade with various cities in a vast, non-linear underwater world. Your overall goal is to find out who destroyed your home city. To do this, you must travel between the various underwater cities and interact with their inhabitants. They'll give you missions in which you must search out and pick up certain valuable resources, such as scrap metal or stop a certain pirate from anymore wrong doing. The missions that are provided for you are all very diverse and different so the game never seems repetitive. By carrying out these tasks, you'll build up money and fame. You'll also get to trade and sell items in the cities. If you happen to find some rare artifacts or something that the city really needs, you can cash it in for various supplies, such as fuel for your submarine or more powerful weapons, such as homing missiles and depth charges. So this is basically what you do throughout the whole game and you get to do it in a vast underwater world, which makes Sub Culture the great game it is.The ocean world you're provided is massive. It's filled with over twenty different kinds of marine life, pirates, coral reefs, dark caves and rare, and wacky, artifacts. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, featuring highly detailed textures, realistic light sourcing and water effects and great animation. In fact, you'll probably just go out exploring from time to time to marvel at how beautiful the world of Sub Culture is. And because the game is completely non-linear, you will get to do this without penalty. Controlling your sub is also very fun, thanks to the great controls. It can be played with a keyboard, mouse or joystick and is basically flawless with each device. There's also different camera views to choose from, such as a first person view and an external view.
The only real problem with Sub Culture is that it's a bit short. Though the game offers non-linear gameplay, you just aren't offered that many missions throughout the course of the game and it's a bit on the easy side. And though there are three different storylines you can follow, the missions are all basically the same for each.
Still, Sub Culture is just a blast to play. It's got gorgeous visuals (especially with a 3DFX card), a vast aquatic world that you can explore for hours, fun and diverse missions with just the right amount of action. This is truly a breath of fresh air and is highly recommended to anyone looking for a game to immerse themselves with for hours and hours.
~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
This game is a blast to play. You can roam around the vast aquatic world for hours doing nothing but exploring, or you can complete missions, trade items with cities and fight off vicious sea pirates. It's all very diverse and interesting.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
Sub Culture is a beautiful looking game thanks to highly detailed underwater textures and fabulous lighting effects.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
The sound effects are pretty good, though there really isn't that many and the music is okay.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
Though their are 3 different storylines, there really isn't that much of a reason to play through the game again after completion. Sure, it's fun to just explore the world, but going through the game twice would be pointless.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
The instruction manual does a good job in explaining how to play the game and shows you what the various items you can obtain do.~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Game Design: Marcus Lynn, Steve McCree, Luc Van den Borre, Mike Williamson; Lead Programmer: Marcus Lynn; Graphics: Jo Robbins, Mike Williamson; Producer: Jamie Macdonald
~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
