Moby Dick: The Video Game– Make a splash with literatures favourite sea-based creature.\r
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In spite of its reputation, I dont claim to be a fan of the actual Moby Dick, a game by Not Doppler. In fact, I found reading it extremely taxing, a little tedious and found the style of writing to be awkward and unnatural in its (lack of) flow, resulting in the closing of the book and the strong desire to burn it. Though I never got as far as starting a book fire, the creators of this game also make a similar confession, clearly and candidly stating that this game is the result of the creators having never read the book from which it takes its title. Truthfully, the similarity ends at the physical, undisputable fact that the game contains a whale that swims in a discrete quantity of water and impacts upon the marine environment around him through the actions he takes. The book and the game part ways with the introduction of flash, the internet, and computers in general.\r
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In a much abridged form than the book, ‘Moby Dick: The Video Game is essentially all about feeding the titular whale with as many victims of possible including the various swarms of marine life in the water and more importantly, the overly-curious humans that gather on the surface of the water, their presence being almost inconvenient to the point of comical peskiness. In truly poetic style, the humans are particularly dangerous to our poor water-dwelling mammal because of their incessant tendency for violence and cruelty, leading them to feel obliged to send arrows and projectiles in the direction of Mr Dick, or Moby if you play the game enough to get to know him on a first-name basis.\r
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The camera position which the game is played in is a basic cross-section of a segment of ocean, allowing you to follow Mobys movements to the very bottom of the ocean floor and also to the action-packed echelons of the surface of the water, where the destructive humans tend to congregate and attack at their leisure. Moby is very easy to control, following every movement of the mouse with unfailing obedience. The movement takes a little getting used to but is certainly the most efficient method for controlling him considering the format of the game. As a result of this simplicity, the only other controller variable that you then have to worry about is clicking the left mouse button to provide a speed boost that temporarily accelerates Moby, making his movements more effective.\r
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If hunger was the only thing on our whales mind, however, then it would make for a severely limited scope of gameplay and lack of entertainment. Luckily, there are several other constraints on Mobys actions which make the game significantly more of a challenge. Firstly, you must pay close attention to his level of health, which is indicated clearly by the health-bar-red coloured meter at the top of the screen. His life force depletes steadily as arrows, nets and various other projectiles such as cannon balls make unfortunate contact with him. Your proximity to the surface of the water is directly correlated to the amount of damage you are likely to sustain; I advise making tactical appearances only when you are certain of your ability to prevail over the soon-to-be snack items above.\r
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Mobys health slowly recuperates simply by swimming around and keeping out of danger, but you are also able to collect bubbles of health that are conveniently floating through the ocean. The second factor which you must pay attention to is the level of air (indicated by the blue meter) which Moby still has in his lungs. Being a mammal, it is an inescapable fact that he must breathe air like us lowly, land-dwelling creatures; frequent trips to the waters surface are therefore necessary to ensure our hungry whale is able to keep teaching the human race a valuable lesson in the proper conduct of marine-based warfare, and it is imperative for your very survival that you ensure they fail their final examination on staying alive by ending their lives in a very permanent way.