The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human

Genre: Metroidvania / 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Indie Darling Bundle Vol. 2 along with Bleed 2 and Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut.)

The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human is a Metroidvania that has you controlling, 2-stick shooter-style, a submarine piloted by an astronaut returning to Earth after entering a time warp, only to find what’s left of mankind is in underwater ruins.

One thing this game does very well is its presentation, which pairs some pretty good pixel art of ruined cities and underwater creatures with a unique soundtrack that really accentuates the underwater atmosphere. These both really help to deliver the game’s story, told largely posthumously through logs left by humanity before things completely deteriorated. This game is not shy about the environmentalist tone it takes, and seeing the horrible results of the cataclysm the people in the logs were still arguing about is a really great commentary on… well, you know, the current political discourse regarding the environment.

There is only one major caveat I would mention on this game’s presentation – it’s often unclear when something is a background detail or a foreground element, and it’s also unclear when the sea life you encounter is just ornamental, or an actual threat.

As for the gameplay, as is fitting for a Metroidvania, you have exploration and boss battles, though there’s not much in the way of action in between the two. It’s fine, but a bit unusual for the genre.

What is not so fine, however, is the game’s challenge level, which is absurdly steep. Those boss battles will have you dying over and over and over again, largely thanks to the fact that these bosses can often completely take you out in one or two hits. What’s more, you’re slow in your movement and extremely limited in your abilities, which may help the overall feeling of helplessness the game is going for, but for me it just made for a frustrating experience.

If you’re looking for a Metroidvania with a lot of atmosphere and a high level of challenge, The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human may be an absolute delight for you. However, I think that for most, this is a game whose challenge level is only going to prevent players from enjoying its good qualities, and they’d be better off looking elsewhere.

tl;dr – The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human is a Metroidvania with 2-Stick Shooter gameplay where players command a submarine searching the ruins of humanity to see what went wrong. This game absolutely nails the atmosphere, but the challenge level on the bosses is so steep that most players will probably lost interest after dying a dozen times or so.

Grade: C+

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