Xbox 360 Critic Reviews

Overall, I really enjoyed Aqua: Naval Warfare. Its gameplay is challenging and a blast at the same time. The mixture of a top-down shooter and tactical gameplay make Aqua an enjoyable adventure that I intend to return to.

If you like frenetically blowing stuff up with old-school flair, you'll dig Aqua -- if you're looking for a gaming experience that stays with you long after the disc leaves the drive, you're gonna need to spend more than 800 Microsoft points.

This is a very simple game that's a lot of fun, but it's very short, and there are some technical problems that hurt the gameplay.

With a rewarding upgrade structure and lightweight strategic elements allowing Game Distillery to distance itself from its obvious influences, Aqua develops a personality of its own which, while not exactly breaking much new ground, shapes the shooter landscape in an appealing manner.

Games Distillery should be applauded for creating a well balanced, slickly presented shooter that, while it may do little to break down genre barriers, is occasionally inspired, always solid and consistently entertaining.

Aqua's combat and controls are quite good, and yet it feels a bit sleepy, even if the campaign does grow more interesting as you progress. [Aug 2010, p.81]

Credit to Games Distillery. AQUA - Naval Warfare is an enjoyable dual-stick shooter while it lasts, especially considering this is their freshman effort.

Overall, Aqua has a solid single player campaign which will last a couple of hours with great visual and audio, but unfortunately, the lack of online multiplayer and very few modes for local games means that you might not be too tempted to play the game again after finishing the campaign.

Perfectly technically sound. [Issue#61, p.104]

It's not like Aqua is a broken game -- it's just not that entertaining. The abundance of tricky escort missions, lack of checkpoints and little story context make it even less appetizing.