Emergency Water Landing

Emergency Water Landing

We all know that dreadful feeling when boarding onto a plane “I hope its not going to crash in the middle of the ocean”. Or that one friend that has a terrible influence on you when saying “Hey, I heard an airliner crashed recently…”. Yeah, kick those people out of your life, am I right? Think about all those nightmares and feverish chills you have had those first few minutes when you see the ground part way for endless blue water below you. Now, think about that, and think to yourself. Man, won’t this be an amazing idea for a game! … Well, if that was your thought? Then think no further because burnt bag studios has done just that, and transformed those fears into a game! Bring in Emergency Water Landing, where you and up to 3 other players battle against each other for surival after your plane has crashed! WHEEE! FUN! … Yeah lets get this review started, damnit…

Because saving lives matter!
  • Nope: Yeah no, move along. Nothing to see here.
Is that flipper? Poor dolphin…
  • Yawn: Yeaaah nohoho, move along lads, move along…
Free Willy! And my sanity, please!
  • Crash Prone: Let’s first get this one out of the way. No way in heaven was I able to play this game in any decent state or form. Or it kept on crashing when trying to log in. Or it crashed mid-game. I mean, I even gave this a while, hoping it would get patched. But nothing. It often took me more than 6 tries to finally be able to log in my account. Why? Wasn’t this tested before release?! I eventually stopped trying after crash number X because my Xbox was starting to act weird. I mean… Not cool burnt bag! Not cool! Test your games before releasing them into the wild… Sheesh.
  • Boring soundtrack: I rarely get that feeling of banging my head against the wall, just to hear that high pitched squeak. But when listening to this game’s boring monotonous drone, I’d gladly trade that noise to this game’s audio. I don’t think that Burnt Bag Studios really had the idea of creating a fun and thrilling game in mind and that this just was a test phase to see if the market was ready for things like this. Unfortunately, it’s not. Or maybe, thank god it’s not?
  • Glitchy McBitchy: Another sad occurrence here, is the pretty bad optimization. For me, at least. For what I was able to play, water would clip into or over my boat, making it look like I was taking on water. Bumping into another life raft would sometimes result in me sticking to that raft for a few seconds. Overall not an amazing experience.
  • Same experience over and over: There is little to no replayability here. Sure the sea and/or land might be different. But that’s about it. You know what happens and what you need to do. Even with friends, this is just a boring chore to play, at least if you can even get it to work.

★ Score: 12%
In the trailer, it looks like some crazy and amazing fun. Unfortunately, the trailer doesn’t show the poor craftsmanship that lurks beneath these troubled waters. With gameplay that doesn’t warrant another session accompanied by glitches and crashes, I cannot recommend this game at all, not even on sale. This was probably a nice thought idea, but the finishing touches were left behind. Pity…

Developer: Burnt Bag Studios   Publisher: Burnt Bag Studios
Played on: Xbox One X Also available on: PC
Alexis spent almost 1 hour trying to rescue my sanity from drowning itself.
Achievement difficulty for 1000 Gamerscore: Unsure, couldn’t even get a decent session going.
Perfect for: Sadists? Don’t know…
Xbox Game Store link: Click here