MEGAQUARIUM Review for Mac

The developers of Big Pharma, Twice Circled, splashes Steam with an aquatic tycoon game, Megaquarium, which puts the players in charge of a highly interactive aquarium theme-park where they can grow a wild variety of fish, manage and recruit staff, build stylistic decorations, expand with revenue, and eventually build their dream aquarium. The game has a very detailed point system; based on the types of fish, equipment, and decorations that supplement the water tanks in which fish reside, the players are rewarded through the observations of aquarium visitors and this, in turn, generates money. As players collect specific rewards, they will gain access to more difficult levels, advanced technologies, glorious new fish, and a variety of decors. The rewarding in-game system combined with unique levels and different tasks within these levels ensure fluid and satisfying gameplay.

The wide range of aquatic life, from common aquarium fish to rare fish with colorful skins,  and from the cutest to the most dangerous, makes the game a must try for deep sea admirers. The depth of aquatic life provided presents the players with numerous options, and interactive scenarios where they will encounter the realities of sea life and the food chain within. Moreover, the players will have to devise strategies to accommodate certain fish groups in ways that don’t eat up a lot of space – using the given area wisely in Megaquarium is a crucial gameplay skill. These strategies include accommodating certain types of filters, pumps, heaters, and pipelines to your water tanks, placing food dispensers for employers to feed the fish, planting rocks and tunnels inside your tanks and meeting the conditions and requirements of certain fish species so that they thrive.

As players receive offers from more prominent and prestigious aquariums, they are challenged to find new ways of maximizing points and make use of new tricks towards new goals. Although a thoroughly detailed game, the carefully written descriptions and clear instructions in Megaquarium guide players in the right direction. That being said, I would advise players to free-roam as frequently as they can, even though I found the story mode to be sufficient for an interactive management game. This is because there is so much to explore and try out in Megaquarium; the players will especially notice that there are various ways of achieving the same things. The gameplay mechanics -building structures, walls, and viewpoints- are easy to master once they are learned, and are also very fun. The controls, on the other hand, could be made more convenient. The graphics are lovely for such a detailed game; every small change has a lively, observable effect on the screen. The players will be able to observe the growth of their fish as days pass by, and they can see how different fish groups interact with each other by zooming in to these tanks.

Graphics: 9

Music: 8

Story: 8

Controls: 6

Gameplay: 8

OVERALL SCORE: 7.8

Check Out the Megaquarium Trailer:

You can find Megaquarium for PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, GOG, and Humble Store.

Ongun Uzay Macar

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My particular interests are in shooters, open-world survival games, virtual reality platforms. Currently a sophomore at Columbia University pursuing a CS degree specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

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