Review: Hooked On – Creatures Of The Deep

Infinite dreams are no n00bs when it comes to Symbian games, they have produced award winning games like K-Rally and Sky force, so its no secret there good, but just how good are they when it comes to a N-Gage game? Can they satisfy the people of Arena? Read on…

First impressions for me looked good, but I didn’t like the fact it was a fishing game seeing as nearly fishing game for home console Failed, Badly. But I went and bought it anyways and I’m telling you I will never regret it – It’s a extremely deep game with a fantastic lasting appeal factor to it, I might as well not do the rest of the review you know you want to buy it now, but why exactly, keep reading…

When I first started the game, I was blessed with a clean, nice vivid menu which had a nice little animation happening in the background, I really liked this because it was a little too fancy for a mobile game – you would never see it on a Java game. With the main menu we have “Instant Play” which basicly sends you strait into your adventure, then we have N-Gage Arena Rankings, and the options etc overall Nice.

As we start the game, you’re the little white boat which you can control anywhere In the ocean your exploring – The detail is fantastic, Its not static everything is animated and there’s other boats around. You will notice the little blips which are all different colours – This lets you access different areas, or even lets you talk to the island folk for quests to say find a life jacket for some XP. There are loads of things you can do just at the start of the game, there’s a shop for your fishing needs with different rods and lines and even different bait, you get this the more experience you gather and all that is done by fishing. The XP system works by doing quests and fishing, the rarer the fish, and the more heavy it is the more XP you get and eventually you will level up – This is a crude comparison but its like Pokemon and there levelling up system. Trust me, as annoying as it gets sometimes – you will be hooked just like the name says.

The controls for the game are great, simple and very effective – Only uses the D-Pad but that’s all it needs anything else would ruin it and I love it.

Graphically, this game is stunning. The level of detail on this game is amazing, from the Maps to the clouds, then whilst fishing you got all the reflections in the water and even seeing fish swim about is amazing – and the 3D Animations of the fish are brilliant too, This at the moment is one of the benchmarks for the N-Gage to use – No mobile phone has seen this level of detail and ran it smoothly. There’s no slowdown, Constant smooth frame rate – You will be blown away with the wow factor of this game.

The sounds are also fantastic, from the whooshing of the water, to the splashes of the fish its just what you would hear if you were fishing in the middle of the ocean and each sound changes to the location and weather your in its just to put it simply : Utterly Amazing.

Overall – I love it, And I know you readers and just drooling and hammering at those keys to buy it (£Eight) and I don’t blame you, If your still sat there undecided go get that trial even the trial is great. The graphics, Sound, Effects everything make it a fantastic mobile game – No mobile has seen a game like this, and this is a fantastic launch game – Thumbs up to Infinite Dreams for this fantastic release.