Aquarist Review

I am old enough to remember when we used to win goldfish in country fairs. Those poor fish would be given to you as a prize for knocking over some skittles, taken home in their plastic vessels. Within a day or two they would die and you’d have a funeral, probably involving the toilet. I’d hate to think that this still happens.

But at the other end of the fish market are the home aquariums – lovely lighting, decorations, and exotic fish. A world that my little goldfish would have dreamed about. Now, with the release of Aquarist on Xbox, we can go building our own aquariums, pimping them to our heart’s content. Let’s dive in. Not literally – we’d get stuck or, at the very least, the glass would smash.  

The setup of Aquarist is as follows. You are a 16-year-old kid, your birthday has arrived and your dad has brought you a basic aquarium for you to enjoy. That’s the plot in a nutshell really, because after that you will just be sent on mission after mission, working through an aquatic checklist of things you need to do. The tanks get bigger and bigger, and the tasks get trickier and trickier. 

You start in your bedroom with a checklist of things to get started with. Sometimes I feel like a broken record when talking about games that port from the PC to the console, and how they miss a mouse and keyboard. In this game, things do feel tricky at times, especially in selection of items. It’s certainly not as intuitive as I would have liked. But saying all that, it works and after a while, you do get used to it. 

So you have a checklist of things to do. To start with your tasks mostly revolve around filling your tank with water and then going into the shop and spending some money. You start with the soil and decorations, like rocks or toy castles. Then you have to get a filter system to keep the tank clean and unclogged. Then it’s all about the temperature regulators before you can go wild and buy some fish. From there you’ll spend time feeding them, clicking on them to see if they are happy and what their needs are. You know the drill.

Soon you will be found building bigger and more expansive tanks for all your fish dreams. Then your next progression is to run your own shop with a myriad of different exotic fish you can buy and sell. Whatever size though, cleaning is a boring job (unless you like that sort of thing), and some bits of the game – like every sim game – can get a bit dull. But what Aquarist does well is that it keeps you in the loop about the aquatic fish-keeping business. For newcomers like me, it was eye-opening, but I guess for enthusiasts this game could be like living in heaven. There is also the option outside of the story mode to design your aquarium without any restrictions on cash, freestyling your way to fishy dreams. 

I think sim fans will have a good time with this, especially those with an interest in fish-keeping. When you get to run a shop and deal with balancing multiple plates, focusing on tasks and stopping your fish from dying, that’s when the game kicks into gear. 

I think the visuals look good. There is nothing better than seeing all your fish swimming about and enjoying all the decorations and additions you’ve placed in your glass cage. The menus for the shop are clear and simple to use, but there are problems with the strange control system at times. The sound is okay, but this is a ‘sim’ – you’ll forget all about the audio the second you switch off.  

Should you be intrigued by the fish-keeping occupation or hobby, then Aquarist is a decent enough sim. There is a weird satisfaction found in collecting and buying different types of fish; trying not to kill them. The story progression, from basically building a small tank in your bedroom to running an aquatic shop, is well delivered too. There are some issues with the controls, but if you can keep with it, those become easier to handle.

It’s just a shame my little goldfish in a plastic bag never got to experience such times as those in Aquarist.