Hunt it down, you will.
Exact Rating: 8.6
Story: Set in the near future, a drastic rise in sea levels has forced man to live (and battle) mainly in the sea. Unfortunately, a band of warlords, called the Imperials, have risen from the depths and are beginning to conquer the world. The rest of the earth have banded together to force them back. You play as a mercenary for hire battling against the evil.
Gameplay/Overall: Sub Rebellion follows a road less traveled when it comes to PS2 games (and Subsims). Rather than follow the tradition and have you torpedo surface ships with heavy calculations and realism, this focuses on a more arcade style of combat that takes place almost entirely underwater. Fuel and torpedoes are infinite and your small sub, and the enemy subs, move very fast, giving a tense but gracefull moving feel to close quarters combat. There is still fortunately some emphasis on strategy, before each mission you can purchase equipment for your sub (torpedo types, engine upgrades, decoys, paint schemes etcetera). Throughout the game you can hunt down and collect artifacts, each with its own description, rarity value and cash bonus, since the enviroments are well done and the artifacts original, at times the hunt is more intriguing then actually pulling off your mission! This raises the replay value, which is good because a 2 player mode is much missed. Another pain is how your sub is unrealistically and annoyingly thrown to the side whenever you are hit by a torpedo. Some hits are cheap, and health is hard to come by, but this adds to the challenge.
Controls: The controls are mapped quite well, forward/reverse/up/down are controlled via the shoulder buttons, left stick controls the subs nose while the right controls the camera, tapping SQUARE fires your "submachine gun", holding SQAURE floods the tubes and locks on to enemy targets, X is sonar. A single press of the sonar button pings the enviroment into a wireframe, highlighting enemies, artifacts and updates the radar.
Graphics: While in no way as visually exciting as computer Subsims or later PS2 titles, it hits the spot. The environment, whether you're surfacing near iceburgs or cruising near ancient crumbled undersea buildings, is rendered to the detail. However, visual effects such as explosions are just below average. The enemy units (with exception of the bosses) too, are a little on the bland side.
Sound/Music: The sound is nothing special, but it is nice how they added enemy radio traffic. It is clean and crisp even on surround sound. The music however captures the feel nicely, with a different track for almost every mission. The music is mainly of mystical sort composed of electronic synths and sub sounds, interesting but sadly a bit cheesy.
End note: Sub Rebellion is an intriguing game that, if not taken seriously, will definitely become the guilty pleasure of Subsim and overall submarine lovers, it certainly reeled me in.
Dive, flood tubes, lock on, open fire!!!