Undertow Critic Reviews

It's not often that you run across a good XBLA with flair all its own, but Undertow has it in spades.

Spend your 800 Points with a smile, and dive deep.

If you liked Geometry Wars then you will probably like Undertow and I highly recommend coughing up the 800 points to play it.

Speaking of looks, this game is quite visually impressive. It looks great, especially for an arcade download. The lighting effects are spectacular and really give off a great underwater ambience.

With solid gameplay, a fun story, and a great online component, Undertow is a great addition to anyone’s Xbox Live Arcade library.

Undertow is a whole lot of fun, and it delivers a full size game in a small package. The classic arcade action makes it easy to pick up, but it manages to deliver enough depth to keep you engaged.

While the gameplay is easy, we found the level of difficulty to be perfectly balanced and the vehicle upgrades to be a welcome addition to the standard shooter.

Undertow stands tall above all other Xbox Live Arcade games as the best of the bunch and accomplishes this by being pure fun in a ten-dollar package.

Undertow is a unique and addictive game. It really embodies everything I want to see in an XBLA game.

Undertow is one of those rare surprises that at some times feels like a casual game—not because it’s easy to win, but because it’s easy to play—yet still delivers solid gameplay across its scope. And with Chair promising to support the game with new maps for players to download after its premiere, you have to expect that there’ll be reasons to dive into the Undertow ocean now and again.

Undertow is a perfect fit for the Xbox Live Arcade. It's fast, fun, attractive and can support 16 players online. The concept is distilled down to the basics, letting the idea and its execution speak for themselves.

Undertow is one of those great games where the demo and description do not do it justice. It is one of the most addictive, challenging, and deepest games Live Arcade offers.

Although the concepts may not be new, the setting and general feel of the gameplay help it to become one of the best original Live Arcade games. Why is no one is playing it.

There are a few shortcomings: although the maps are gorgeous, many of them look and feel a bit too similar. The gameplay can also get repetitive with only two game types.

All this comes wrapped in what is arguably the best audiovisual package on Live Arcade, with lighting and water effects are so smooth and nuanced that it’s easy to forget, maybe even hard to believe, that this is a downloadable game and not a fully-realized retail release.

In the audio department the sound effects and music are passable, but not really anything worth paying much attention to. They get the job done, but never really push the boundaries, with most of the sound effects feeling very generic.

All in all, Undertow is an enjoyable original XBLA title. And for the price of 800MS points ($10), this game is a steal.

It's the deceptive simplicity of Undertow that makes it compelling - that and the easy-to-learn rules and controls.

Undertow is a fun, no-brainer and is a welcome addition to Xbox Live. Make sure you convince a couple of mates to fork out for it as well and you'll have a blast.

Undertow is among the better XBLA games and one of the best originals to arrive so far.