Aquanox 1 and 2 are direct descendants of MS-DOS Archimedean Dinasty. So you have a background story, a universe, a bit of lore behind this games. When it was launched (2001), Aquanox 1 was one of the best looking games on the market. If not THE best. It required a monster-PC to run smoothly with all video options enabled. And, beyond the technology, graphics were beautiful. So the games look nice even in today's standards. Controls are good in both variants I tested - Keyboard+mouse and Joystick. It supports throttle, but not twist on joysticks. The ship has inertia, but you can also "feel" the water around you. So you will not feel you drive a plane on some waterish texture, you do feel like controlling a one-man-sub... underwater. BUT, don't get scared: the first sub you get is a lumbering one - work hard and you will get better and better subs and weapon systems. So there is a nice feeling of progression too. Bottom line, you don't have on the market better sub-sims than those two.

The Aquanox Pack includes two good games, which - even if not being brand new hits - are still very playable and remain quite unique. The subject is very unpopular as far as computer games go, because you will be piloting undersea vessels. The graphics and overall gameplay represent the underwater enviroment really well, and so does the way your vessel moves. With decent storyline, the first game - Aquanox will put your forces agains mercenaries in vicious and brutal underwater combat. You surely have flown countless aircraft and piloted spaceships many times, but I can bet there were not many opportunities of piloting a submarine fighter vessel. The second game makes the game even better and looks better. This time you have a new character to control and a new storyline to play through, so these two games can provide many hours of unique gaming.