The vehicular combat genre was once a pretty big enterprise. Twisted Metal was generally considered king, but other franchises and one offs were released and many of these were actually pretty competent. Others were quick cash in trash. I heard a lot of bad things about one of these such games, Dead in the Water released for the original Playstation console in 1998. It was forgotten long ago and the only exposition it received post launch is because it was re-released on Sony’s digital service. The genre has long died off but I’m still thirsty for more so I decided to give Dead in the Water a shot despite the negative buzz surrounding it. I found that it’s not as bad as the critics say, but it’s not exactly fantastic either.
Dead in the Water’s scenario centers around a battle tournament in the Bermuda Triangle. Contestants are some of the craziest you’ll find with souped up boats turned into killing machines. The last man standing gets any request they wish for granted. It’s a pretty generic set-up, but hey, it works. Dead in the Water is very similar to Twisted Metal, but instead of cars the line-up consists solely of aquatic vessels. Honestly this doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of difference except the vehicles are much more difficult to control. Instead of holding down a gas button you instead control the level of the speed by pressing the up or down buttons and the vessel moves continuously. When you hit something your boat comes to a screeching halt which is a little inconsistent especially when it looks like you should be able to slide over the obstacle. The mechanics are a little off with the controls, but Dead in the Water is still perfectly playable.
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| The lighting effects are pretty impressive by 32-bit standards. |
The roster of characters is highly generic, and due to the whole ‘edgy’ style it goes for has aged quite badly. You have the typical ex police officer, secret agent, ex-army member, redneck, etc. We’ve seen it all in just about every other vehicular combat title and there’s really no standouts here. Each character does have their own in-game bio but these are all ridiculous. Dead in the Water doesn’t take itself seriously and neither should you. Either way, each has their own ratings in fields such as acceleration, armor, speed and weapons. Aside from aesthetics these are the only thing that separates them from each other. What I don’t understand is why half of the vehicles are boats and the other half are amphibious cars. Why go with a nautical theme if you’re just going to use cars?
The only thing that sets Dead in the Water apart from the pack is that it offers both the typical vehicular ‘destroy all enemies’ mode as well as a racing tournament. The first of these is your basic car combat game wherein you drive around a course picking up weapons and fighting a group of foes in a general free for all. Once you drain the life bar of an opponent they’re out. Racing is pretty typical but I found it interesting that there aren’t separate tracks for both modes. What’s interesting is the fact that you’ll still pick up weapons and can blow your foes up during a race. Unfortunately this makes things unbalanced. It’s tough to simply race when your foes are constantly hitting you from behind and you’re helpless against them. The game rewards the players behind far too much, and if you’re blown up you automatically lose. Racing really should have been reworked because as it is it’s just not a whole lot of fun.
There’s even an upgrade system in place and you can save any upgrades you’ve given to your vehicle to use in other modes. These include areas like the weaponry, speed, armor, etc. It’s a decent system but hardly a standout feature. There’s a fully featured multiplayer mode which allows you to play any mode with a friend via split screen or even system link. You can both load your car upgrades which is pretty much the only interesting use of any of the aforementioned features in this game. These features are all well and good but the game just generally isn’t a whole lot of fun. A friend at least makes things tolerable, but even then it fails to make up for the weird stage designs, the boring and generic weaponry, and the wonky driving mechanics I spoke of earlier. Multiplayer at least makes the game mildly enjoyable at least.
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| Here’s your obligatory ice stage. |
Dead in the Water isn’t exactly a looker. The first thing you’ll notice is that it suffers from the weird Playstation ‘tude’ of the late 90s. Every character is basically a flamboyant caricature of some kind of villain or hero from movies. This point is further hit home by the fact that the pictures in the biographies are cartoons and feature gigantic heads. With that said the game looks pretty darn good in still shots. The vehicles are nicely detailed, and the environments are quite colorful. In motion it’s still not terrible, but I do have issue with just how pixelated everything is. The water effects are pretty decent for the aged hardware but the waves can look pretty angular sometimes. It’s a mixed bag visually, but not half bad given the platform. The soundtrack fares better with a nice mix of hard rock and grunge music. It’s not something I would listen to on my own, but the soundtrack fits the action pretty well.
While I’ve been pretty negative it’s not all bad here. Dead in the Water is mildly enjoyable, and it’s pretty consistent throughout. The battle mode is the meat and potatoes here and is obviously what the developers designed first. It’s really all you need to be honest. Racing just doesn’t work here because the combat aspects just muddy the water. It’s bad all around, but having the option is nice I guess. There are a lot of different methods of play here but it doesn’t really help when the experience is so mediocre. Dead in the Water is only for the more hardcore fans of the genre who miss this long dead style of play.
