Hydrophobia: Prophecy – Wet wet wet

In Hydrophobia: Prophecy, the world as we know it is just a shadow of what once was. In this futuristic dystopian tale of blasting end-of-days cultists, you will be jumping, swimming and diving in ice-cold seawater all day long. Hydrophobia: Prophecy‘s water physics is very impressive, and still not surpassed to this day, thirteen years later. However, physics alone does not make a game, so let’s find out if this semi-forgotten title is worth playing in 2024.

Technical issues
First, let’s get over some technical problems. You must limit the game to 60 FPS, otherwise the jumping physics will bug out on you. On the Nvidia control panel, under manage 3D settings, just pick the game in the menu and set the Max frame rate to 60. I don’t use ATI, but I assume there is something similar there. Otherwise, activating v-sync in the game launcher might just work as well.

The other problem, I have unfortunately no real solution for, which is a major annoyance. On my system (Win 11) the game crashes at random, with no indication on what can be causing it. Luckily, the game auto-saves often enough, but it sure puts a hamper on the enjoyment. When I was nearing the end, the frequencies of the crashes increased, making it almost unplayable. I decided then to turn on v-sync, which seems to have remedied the crashing problems at that point. I don’t want to say it’s a fix, as it could as well just be pure luck, but if you have any issues – try activating v-sync. That is all about the technical stuff, otherwise, the game ran flawlessly.

Wet world
In the dystopian future setting of Hydrophobia: Prophecy, everything is a bit iffy, and underwater. The seas have been flooding the world, leaving little space for humanity to live and grow food. In other words: things are pretty apocalyptic in the year of 2051. However, a few remaining people still live on in a way as we know it, on a gigantic ship called The Queen of the World. It’s mostly rich people, so don’t get your hopes up of being one of them. But all is not lost. Research in nanotechnology is about to make a breakthrough, turning seawater into usable water on an enormous scale – something that is surely needed. This causes resentment with the rest of the world, well, namely the so-called Malthusians that want humanity to die out, or be scaled back leaving a few billions dead. This prompts them to attack, right when this new humanity-saving tech was supposed to be presented to the world. In this chaos, you play as system engineer Kate, who is forced into saving the ship (and the world) with her hacker side-kick friend Scoot, that will always be close by in the coms with helpful tips.

For being a relatively short low-budget game, there is a surprising amount of care that went into the background lore for the setting. There are tons of stuff to find and read, that even further expands on it. Being a sci-fi nerd myself that likes dystopian tales, this is right up my alley. The story, by itself, is much more straightforward. You get dragged into this disaster not exactly by choice, and have to force your way out by any means. At first, it’s just pure survival, but soon, you take the fight to the terrorists, especially when Kate realizes that the local security forces are getting demolished. Who’s to battle the suicide-cult if not Kate herself and her pal Scoot when everyone else is dead?

The story progression isn’t super spectacular, but it has some serious pacing, as everything happens at a breakneck speed. Not entirely unrealistic for a ship under siege, and about to be sunk to the bottom of the black depths. I enjoyed it nonetheless, with Kate and her pal coming off as pretty authentic and likable. Also, all Kate’s skills, like climbing, are explained if you take the time in the beginning to check out her apartment. She also has a fear of water, which is not a good thing considering the theme of the game. This does not affect much, but it adds another layer of stress beyond the music to the whole drowning thing when you have to make long and nasty dives. In these situations, Kate will hear sounds and voices from her past trauma when she goes without air for long. I’m not exactly sure what happened to her, but I assume she was close to drowning when little. All in all, it’s an enjoyable plot, in which the pleasant protagonist and the cool background lore adds to.

Water everywhere
At its heart, Hydrophobia: Prophecy is a third-person shooter and 3D platformer, which is a dime and a dozen nowadays. What makes Hydrophobia: Prophecy stand out, is the water physics that plays into everything you will do, from combat and puzzles, to just navigating the interior of the ship. On its own, it’s very impressive, since it’s entirely dynamic. Rooms will fill up with water, and grenades will cause waves that you can feel, as it slows down any kind of movement. It just feels very real, and scary at times, especially when you have to dive through long corridors with no place to surface for air. It has a very oppressive nature to it throughout the game, even when you are not under any time-pressure. It just feels like the walls can and will collapse at any moment around you, and fill whatever location you are in with an overwhelming amount of icy, deadly water. It’s very cool, particularly in combination with the hectic pacing of the game. It has the sense of a ship under critical duress down to a t.

When you are not navigating the claustrophobic environments, you will be shooting bad guys with a diverse set of ammunition. At first, you only have sonic ammo, which is a tool for stunning people and breaking glasses. While this kind of ammo is not the best for taking out cultists directly, it’s a great way to blast barrels of explosive doom and flood rooms with water by breaking glass barriers holding water back. It’s fun to set up traps for the terrorists, by either drowning them, blowing them up or electrifying them by sabotaging power boxes. I just have to point out that this ship got an alarming amount of explosive barrels, seeing as it’s the one and only ship of its kind. Explosives and sea-based vehicles: not a good combination, in my book at least. The further you get into Hydrophobia: Prophecy, the more weird ammunition you unlock, with my favorite being the sticky gel. It’s a tiny grenade that explodes after 10 seconds that sticks to any surface. You can also manually set it off with G. Great for taking out dudes clumping up, and just a fun tool overall. If you enjoy seeing men flying across rooms before dying a horrible wet death. 

About navigating, you will be climbing, running and swimming, with the water at every turn trying to hold you back in one way or another. The controls feel fine in all regards, but when chaos enters the scene, it can get a bit difficult to orientate yourself. You see, some bad guys can swim and dive, too. So, it can get a bit messy navigating the corridors under pressure and under fire. However, I think it fits with the overall setting of a ship under attack, and well, partially underwater. The long-dives are terrifying by themselves. I wouldn’t say they are hard, as the game for the most part is linear, making it easy to find your way, even during the mayhem. And if you ever lose your way, you can always bring up your little engineer computer that will show you where to go. If you dislike any kind of underwater segments in games, Hydrophobia: Prophecy will probably not be for you, though!

Looking wet
On the visual front, Hydrophobia: Prophecy looks pretty damn good for a 3D budget game from 2011. It has great lighting, and the graphical effects are excellent, especially everything involving the water. The only thing that drags it down somewhat is the overuse of bloom, which was a very common thing in that era of gaming. The only other game that has a similar oppressive feeling of water, slowly but surely crushing the life out of the station you are in, is BioShock. With the main difference that the water is scripted in that game, compared to the dynamic nature of it in Hydrophobia: Prophecy. Which is much cooler and much more impressive, both tech-wise, and out of an immersion standpoint.

The sound, music, and voice acting is not bad either. The ambiance alone is great, as you can hear the ship creak and bend from the pressure of the water. I enjoyed the voice acting of Kate and Scoop, as they made the characters sound very natural through the voice work. Their relationship to each other, and their reaction to things comes off as believable and charming, seeing as neither of these characters are the classic hero types with badass one-liners at the ready.

Conclusion
Hydrophobia: Prophecy is a short game that feels like it ends on a cliffhanger of some sorts. You do get to defeat the head honcho, and end that chapter of the story. However, it appears that there is more to this tale, since it ends on a rather mysterious note. I could of course be wrong, but it involves something I don’t want to spoil. Yet, what happens to you, happens to you suspiciously late for being just a thing you get to experience for a few moments. Either way, it does not matter much, seeing as the studio is no more, with the “franchise” dead in the water probably forever. Don’t let that stop you, though. If you want to experience something unique in the way of a third-person adventure game with awesome water physics never seen again (so far), this is the game for you. It’s also cheap on Steam. I recommend Hydrophobia: Prophecy, but thanks to being short, and crash-prone, I can’t rate it higher than 3 skellies.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas