''Atlantis Underwater Tycoon'' is an
underwater city-building simulation game in which the player acts as a
tycoon
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
to simulate the
real-time
Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
design and management of an
underwater civilization. It was developed by American studio
Anarchy Enterprises
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopte ...
and published by
Activision Value, and released on March 21, 2003 for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
.
''Atlantis Underwater Tycoon'' was the first building sim to be set underwater.
Gameplay
In ''Atlantis Underwater Tycoon'', the player can choose to play in missions or in a sandbox-environment map to start building their underwater colony. The player chooses a tycoon character to play as who comes with their own positive and negative traits, such as providing bonus starting money, or having a disreputable attitude towards
sea life
Sea Life is a chain of commercial sea life-themed aquarium attractions. there are 53 Sea Life attractions (including standalone Sea Life centres, mini Sea Life features within resort theme parks, and Legoland submarine rides) around the world ...
.
The player starts on the
ocean floor
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
with a home base and a set amount of money. The player then expands the
underwater colony by constructing various residential, utility, commercial, industrial, tourist, and military buildings that extend outward from the home base in a design conducive to the ocean floor, linking them with air tubes, and
terraforming
Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make ...
the seabed if needed.
The player is able to collect and store items produced by commercial and industrial buildings in warehouses and sell them off in a market. The player can also breed new wildlife to live in the city's waters, such as
dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s or
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
s, as well as create
underwater vehicles
An underwater vehicle is any member of the class of vehicles (machines that transports people or cargo) that is intended to operate in the underwater environment
The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, ...
to roam around the city.
As the city grows, a wider range of buildings and residents become available. Such buildings include
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
sanctuaries,
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...
aquariums, shopping malls,
oil drills, and prison facilities.
New and better buildings bring in more citizens and tourists, generating more income for the city. Over time, buildings nearing their life expectancies can be demolished to make room for new buildings.
In the late stages of the game, the player can unlock the ability to build Atlantean structures.
In addition to having to manage the economic aspects of the game, the player must also contend with attacks from enemy
pirates
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
and from enemy Atlanteans, as well as deal with underwater
natural disaster
A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econ ...
s. Military vessels and friendly Atlantean defenders can be recruited to defend against such attacks.
Military defenses, such as
sonic cannons and
missile turret {{unreferenced, date=March 2016
A missile turret is a device used to aim missiles towards their targets before launch. Similarly to gun turrets they have been used on warships and vehicles on the ground. In most roles articulated missile launch ...
s, can be controlled by the player to shoot projectiles at hostile vessels and destructive debris to destroy them.
On the whole, the player prevents the city from falling into harm by keeping a watchful eye out for enemy invaders and natural disasters, while managing the city's businesses so that population happiness, tourism, and sea life can prosper, all the while avoiding the city plunging into financial trouble.
Reception
''Atlantis Underwater Tycoon'' has been praised for its well-done visuals and its snappy underwater music track.
The ability to see into buildings and view the people within nightclubs and movie theaters is also a nice plus.
The visual depiction of night and day from the rays of light shining down on the city also provides for a nice ambiance effect.
The top moments in the game can be attributed to the times when a player's prospering city "
omes
The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix ''-omics'', such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collective ...
under attack from enemy subs, and the player reacts to mount a counter-attack to avoid all the player's hard work from being obliterated."
One reviewer says that the game's biggest weakness lay in its lack of variety in building models and resources.
See also
*
Deep Sea Tycoon
References
External links
*
{{portal bar, Video games
2003 video games
Activision games
Business simulation games
City-building games
Construction and management simulation games
Single-player video games
Top-down video games
Video games set in Atlantis
Windows games
Windows-only games
Video games developed in the United States
Anarchy Enterprises games