DoctorSpuds Reviews Things - Seaquest (Activision)

RSS Bot · January 30, 2019

I like me some Seaquest, it’s just one of those games that is so simple in premise but absolutely masterful in its execution. The premise is simple, collect stranded treasure seeking divers while blasting away sharks and enemy subs who are pursuing them. As the game progresses the enemies come in larger numbers and are more aggressive while divers are fewer and farther between. You also have an oxygen meter that will deplete far too quickly for your liking, you can resurface to fill your meter but as a trade-off you will lose one diver in your possession. Watch out! When you’re surfaced you momentarily lose control allowing for enemy patrol subs to dart from the right of the screen and take one of your precious lives so it is recommended you resurface right as they go past. In my opinion at least, Seaquest may just be Activision’s best title for the 2600, or at the very least in the top five, the amount of polish and replayability on display is incredible, it just nails that one more time mentality. The game doesn’t have any variations apart from a turn-based two player mode, and rapid fire by fiddling with the difficulty switches, and honestly I don’t think it needed any since the game will present a challenge to players of any skill level. Even if the game is too easy for your liking it is still entertaining until the challenge finally ramps up. Seaquest is also the first Activision game where I’m eligible for a patch with a hard won high score of 104290; unfortunately they haven’t done that for 30 years but it still feels good knowing that I could’ve gotten one. If my singing its praise isn’t obvious enough Seaquest is spared the Collector’s Zone, the game is fairly cheap ranging from 6-16 dollars on Ebay and with boxed copies going from 35-62 dollars (ouch). Due to its commonality though, you’re pretty likely to already own a copy or be able to find one in the wild.

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